City-wide Science Curriculum

The city has announced its core science curriculum for grades K-8. It's a spiral format with a little bit of every area of science each year. Schools are given the option of a textbook-based approach or a kit-based approach. The vendors have been chosen - for middle school grades, Delta's FOSS, and LabAids' SALI are the kit options while Glenco is the textbook option. There are also other semi-approved programs for which schools can request a waiver (someone should write a book about "waivers" and their role in NYC DOE policies) and it's also possible to use some combination of books and kits.

For accelerated 8th graders taking regents LE, the only option is Holt New York Biology: The Living Environment. I requested an examination copy, didn't get a good read on it at the showcase. It is considerably slimmer than the national version of the book, I suspect they simply chopped out some chapters and I will be EXTREMELY surprised if they actually re-wrote any of the chapters that were left in.

Otherwise high school are left untouched, and will perhaps remain so. The state exams petty much dictate the curriculum, and short of approving textbooks, I can't see the city doing much more in that area.