Course Lockdown for Earth/Environmental Science

Pursuant to North Carolina State Board of Education policy GCS-N-004, NC students are required to pass three science credits, one of which must be “an earth/environmental science course.”

In order to promote consistency in course content and student learning, beginning with the 2013-14 school year the courses that will fulfill this graduation requirement will be limited to the three following courses:

1) Earth/Environmental Science 2) AP Environmental Science 3) IB Environmental Systems and Societies (SL)

Other courses that have previously fulfilled this requirement will be science elective credits only, beginning with the 2013-14 school year.

Six key points belie the reasoning behind the lockdown:

1) These are the only courses that have standardized curricula. The 2009 North Carolina Science Essential Standards Earth/Environmental Science Course, the College Board (AP), and the International Baccalaureate Organization (IB) provide these curricula. 2) Limiting the course titles that fulfill the graduation requirement allows for accurate use of common exams for Measures of Student Learning (MSLs). 3) The current system has too much opportunity for confusion with so many different course possibilities and “conditional” statuses. This will allow for consistency across schools and LEAs for student fulfillment of the graduation requirement. 4) No other science requirements (Biology or “a physical science course”) have exceptions for fulfillment. The “a physical science course” requirement is currently fulfilled by one of five delineated courses: Physical Science, Chemistry, Physics, Principles of Technology I, or Principles of Technology II. 5) The 2009 North Carolina Science Essential Standards are the de facto Standard Course of Study. Inasmuch, they are the minimum to be taught and can be supplemented, not supplanted. Legislation requires the teaching of the Standard Course of Study in NC schools. 6) In order to fulfill the graduation requirement in the past, the tacit understanding is that whatever course title was used required teaching the Earth/Environmental Science Standard Course of Study. This lockdown, then, is a change to standardize the course number and name for the curriculum being taught.