Page 71 - Standards for K-12 Engineering Education

Standards for K-12 Engineering Education?

56 STANDARDS FOR K–12 ENGINEERING EDUCATION?

8 July 2009
Washington, DC

STANDARDS FOR K–12 ENGINEERING EDUCATION: OPPORTUNITIES AND
BARRIERS

Rodger W. Bybee

Introduction

Does the nation need standards for K–12 engineering education? The answer to this
question is paradoxically both simple and complex. It requires an examination of a rationale for
such standards as well as of opportunities and barriers to developing and implementing them.

The Idea of Standards

A contemporary agreement among 46 states to join forces and create common academic
standards in math and English language arts makes it clear that the idea of standards has an
overwhelming appeal to policy makers. National standards also have an unimaginable
complexity for the educators responsible for “implementing” them (Bybee and Ferrini-Mundy,
1997; DeBoer, 2006; NRC, 2002). The current understanding of standards derives from the
original meaning of a standard as “a rallying point for an army” which evolved to an “exemplar
of measure or weight” to a statement of “correctness or perfection” and finally to a “level of
excellence.”
The primary functions of an educational standard are to rally support, increase coherence,
and measure attainment. All of these functions require political persuasion, psychometric
precision, and practical applications. In the end, setting standards, such as those being
considered for K–12 engineering education, will require securing the allegiance of a broad
constituency, addressing programmatic concerns beyond policy (e.g., school programs and
teaching practices), and implementing an assessment system that is manageable and
understandable to educators and the public.
Standards for education are statements about purposes, priorities, and goals (Hiebert,
1999). In engineering education, standards would be value judgments about what our students
should know and be able to do. Education standards should be developed through a complex
process informed by societal expectations, past practices, research information, and visions of
professionals in associated fields (e.g., engineering and education).
Before we go further, several terms should be clarified. In general, discussions of
academic standards and current considerations of engineering education standards refer to
CONTENT STANDARDS—learning outcomes described as knowledge and abilities in a subject
area. For example, students should learn concepts, such as systems, optimization, and feedback;

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