Chapter 3: Bridging Across the Mile-Wide and Mile-Deep Chasm: Living and Coping with Standards-Based Reform in Science Education

Nearly ten years ago, the phrase “a mile wide and an inch deep” entered the public and academic discourse on science education in the U.S. It was the stinging indictment from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) of the expansive, unfocused, and purportedly less rigorous science and mathematics curriculum in the U.S. as compared to that of other nations (Schmidt, McKnight, & Raizen, 1997). The TIMSS report, titled, “A Splintered Vision,” was wedged between the publications of several important educational policy documents, including the Professional Standards for Mathematics Education (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards, 1991), Benchmarks for Science Literacy (American Association for the Advancement of Science [AAAS], 1990, 1993), and National Science Education Standards [NSES] (National Research Council [NRC], 1996). Jointly, these documents ushered in the latest era of standards-based educational reform across U.S. Over-quoted and under-debated, the letter and the spirit of these documents engendered countless versions of copycat standards, how-to guides, and political decrees in the areas of science and mathematics, at state, district, even school and grade levels.