By Amanda Chiatovich Cloutier, Pete A’Hearn, and Katie Wilsker

Magic can happen when CASE members answer the call to make their voices heard!

At its May meeting, the State Board of Education (SBE) took up several topics critical to the future of science education in California, and the CASE Advocacy committee put out a call for help. The SBE meeting coincided with the Cal-MSCS state Community of Practice (CoP) meeting, where this year’s participants were gathered around Snoopy‘s hometown of Santa Rosa, California, and many conference attendees answered the call to action, becoming first-time public commenters before the State Board. 

The CASE Advocacy committee and CASE Executive Director, Katie Wilsker, rallied the troops for public commentary on board items related to Science Education through a CASE-created easy-to-use public comment tutorial with recommended talking points and a chat thread to keep participants up to speed on when to call in. Topics for educator comments included Science in the revision of Differentiated Assistance (DA),  integration of a full state indicator status for Science, and including Environmental Literacy in the California Portrait of a Learner. By the end of the day, the chat not only kept everyone informed but also helped form new connections as the changemakers left their positive and influential mark on science equity in our California education system. 

The tenacity and passion of the educators willing to take the time to make their voices heard were clearly felt by the Board. Throughout the day, group text thread updates were filled with encouragement, positive moments, and support for one another. Collectively, we cheered every time a Board member spoke positively about science, happy danced in the CoP halls, and came together as a community to support what we love - science education.

In the end, the board responded to our public comments with strong support for the importance of science as a core subject, as well as adding environmental sustainability to the Profile of a Learner.  The strength of this small but mighty band of educators who took a single minute to share their story with the Board in support of science under CASE’s expert guidance paid off; we were able to leave our mark on education policy. So the next time you get a chance to join a group chat, do it; it just might end up being more than you can imagine. 

The statements from the State Board members will strongly influence the action items at the July State Board Meeting, which is when decisions will be made. We need CASE members to join us then to push the Board to finalize the inclusion of science as a core subject area!

To keep up-to-date on information about Science Education legislation in our state, please watch out for CASE social media posts, emails, and reach out to our CASE Advocacy Committee at info@cascience.org. 

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