A total of 25 criteria were rated on a scale from 0 to 3, according to this scale, in order to create 75 total points. The totals were then multiplied by 1 1/3 to create 100 total points

0: The criterion is addressed not at all or in an unsatisfactory manner

1: The criterion is met spottily or inconsistently

2: The criterion is often or usually met

3: The criterion is met almost always or always, and in a perceptive and thoughtful manner

The following shows each of the criteria, followed by Kansas's score.

A. Purpose, expectations, and audience

1. The standards document expects students to become scientifically literate, at depths appropriate to their grade levels. Kansas = 0

2. The document can serve as the basis for clear and reliable statewide assessments of student learning and skills acquisition, both theoretical and practical. Kansas = 0

3. The document is clear, complete, and comprehensible to all interested audiences: educators, subject experts, policy makers, and the general public. Kansas = 0

4. The document expects student written work to be presented clearly in Standard English and, where called for, in acceptable mathematical language. It expects student oral presentations to be clear, well organized, logical, and to the point. Kansas = 0

B. Organization

1. The standards are presented grade-by-grade or in clusters of no more than three to four grade levels. Kansas = 3

2. They are grouped in categories reflecting the fundamental theoretical structures underlying the various sciences. Kansas = 0

3. They pay proper attention to the elementary skills of simple observation and data gathering, the interpretation of systematic observations, and the design of experiments on the basis of a theoretical framework. Kansas = 0

C. Coverage and Content

1. The standards address the experimental and observational basis of the sciences, and provide for substantial laboratory and/or field experience in the sciences. Replication of important classical experiments is encouraged. The primacy of evidence over preconception is made clear. Kansas = 0

2. The standards stress the importance of clear, unambiguous terminology and rigorous definition. Such terms as energy, mass, valence, pH, genotype, natural selection, cell, metabolism, continental drift, magnetic reversal, and cosmic background radiation are defined as rigorously as possible at the grade level concerned. Kansas = 0

3. The standards address such issues as data analysis, experimental error, reliability of data, and the procedures used to optimize the quality of raw information. The stringent criteria for acceptance of data are made clear. Kansas = 0

4. The standards expect students to master the techniques of presentation and interpretation of tabular and graphical data at increasingly sophisticated levels. Kansas = 1

5. The standards address the need for systematic, critical interpretation of experimental/observational data within the framework of accepted theory. The continual interplay between data and theory, and the rejection or remeasurement of data and modification of theory where necessary, are stressed at all grade levels, commensurate with the students' degrees of maturity. The nature and role of scientific revolutions, and how or when they occur (or do not occur), are part of the curriculum for students sufficiently advanced to appreciate the issues involved. Kansas = 0

6. The basic underlying principles of all the sciences are stressed. Examples include Newton's laws, conservation laws, and the microscopic/macroscopic connection in physics; the evolution of the universe and the structure of its parts (including the solar system) in astronomy; plate tectonics in geology; the roles of mass and energy conservation and the nature of the chemical bond in chemistry; and evolution and the molecular basis of life in biology. At the elementary levels, these principles may be exemplified by such observations as buoyancy, plant tropisms, and the gross structure of cells. Kansas = 0

7. The increasing ability of students to grasp abstractions and generalizations is taken into account. The broad, less structured knowledge base laid in the early grades is consistently and methodically built up on the basis of progressively more sophisticated theoretical treatment as the students mature. Kansas = 0

8. The standards emphasize the need to set forth the general methodologies of the sciences, but do not oversimplify this need into an artificial package called "the scientific method." The underlying commonalities of the sciences, as well as the distinctions among them, are made clear. Kansas = 0

9. The standards consider the two-way relationships between science and technology, and between science and broader worldviews, and the way thatscience has helped to shape society. The standards stress the fact that science is intellectually satisfying as well as socially useful. A common interest in science can act as a strong unifying force among people who differ widely in other ways. Kansas = 1

D. Quality

1. The standards are unambiguous and appropriate; that is, their meaning is straightforward and to the point. Kansas = 1

2. They are specific but flexible; that is, they are neither so broad as to be vague nor so narrow as to be trivial. Kansas = 0

3. They comprehensively cover basic knowledge, the importance of which is generally agreed upon by the scientific community; they are not, however, encyclopedic. Kansas = 0

4. Standards are demanding:

a. They expect increasing intellectual sophistication and higher levels of abstraction, as well as the skills required to deal with increasingly complex arrays of information, at successively higher educational levels. In light of the tight logical structure of the sciences, it is especially important that the standards also expect the knowledge gained by students to be cumulative, each level building on what has been mastered earlier. Kansas = 0

b. Their overall contents are sufficiently specific and comprehensive to underlie a common core of understanding of science for all students in all the schools of the state. They are sufficiently demanding to ensure that this common core comprises understanding of the basic principles of all the sciences, and of their methodologies. Kansas = 0

E. Negatives

1. The standards must not accept as scientific, or encourage, pseudoscientific or scientifically discredited constructs such as quack medical doctrines (e.g., homeopathy, foot reflexology), vaguely defined "energy fields" or "auras," creationism and other nonscientific cosmologies, UFO visits, astrology, or mysterious "life forces." Kansas = 0

2. The standards must not imply that scientific principles are race-, ethnic-, or gender-specific, or distort the history of science to promote racial-, ethnic-, or gender-based positions. Kansas = 0

3. The standards must not confuse science with technology. Kansas = 1

4. The standards must not encourage an antiscientific or antitechnological world-view. Kansas = 0