Science Proficiency: A Goal for All Americans

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) founded Project 2061 to help all Americans become literate in science, mathematics, and technology. The groundbreaking reports of the project received Corporation support beginning in 1985. The framers of Project 2061, founded by noted scientist F. James Rutherford and named for the year Halley's comet returns, recognized that the science taught in the nation's schools does not adequately prepare future citizens for life in a science-based, high-technology world. The project is an ambitious effort to recast pre-collegiate education in science, mathematics, and technology from kindergarten through the twelfth grade. With its 1989 landmark publication Science for All Americans, Project 2061 set out recommendations for what all students should know and be able to do in science, mathematics, and technology by the time they graduate from high school. Science for All Americans laid the groundwork for the nationwide science standards movement of the 1990s. Benchmarks for Science Literacy, published in 1993, translated the science literacy goals in Science for All Americans into learning goals or benchmarks for grades K–12. Many of today's state and national standards documents have drawn their content from Benchmarks. With recent publications like Atlas of Science Literacy and Designs for Science Literacy, Project 2061 continues to influence the direction of science education reform.