The National Science Education Standards were released by the National Research Council* in December 1995. The Standards define the skills and science content that all students should know and be able to do, and they provide guidelines for assessing student learning. The Standards also detail the teaching strategies, professional development, and support necessary to deliver high-quality education to all students. The Standards describe policies needed to bring coordination, consistency, and coherence to science education programs. 

• Understanding science offers personal fulfillment and excitement.

• Citizens need scientific information and scientific ways of thinking in order to make informed decisions.

• Business and industry need entry-level workers with the ability to learn, reason, think creatively, make decisions, and solve problems.

• A strong science and mathematics education can help our nation and individual citizens improve and maintain their economic productivity.

• Science is for all students.

• Learning science is an active process.

• School science reflects traditions of contemporary science.

• Improving science is part of system-wide educational reform.

• Unifying concepts and processes

• Science as inquiry

• Physical science

• Life science

• Earth and space science

• Science and technology

• Science in personal and social perspectives

• History and nature of science

* The National Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.