Indiana Board of Education Approves Indiana’s New Science & Middle School Civics Standards

The Indiana State Board of Education (SBOE) yesterday approved new K-12 Indiana Academic Standards in science and computer science, as well as academic standards for a new middle school civics course.

Indiana’s new science standards reflect similar content areas as Indiana’s previous 2016 standards, with an increased focus on supporting active student engagement in science learning. This includes updates to Indiana’s science standards that:

• Reflect science as it is practiced and experienced in the real world;
• Build logically from kindergarten through grade 12;
• Focus on deeper understanding as well as application of content; and
• Integrate practices, crosscutting concepts and core ideas.

Indiana’s civics standards will support a new civics class that students will take during the second semester of sixth grade, building upon citizenship standards in earlier grades. The new standards focus on instructing students on the foundations of government, functions of government and the role of citizens. To support these new sixth grade standards, some existing social studies standards have been rearranged to be taught in either seventh or eighth grade.

Indiana Academic Standards provide a guide of knowledge and skills that students should build across all grade levels and provide a basis for schools’ locally established curriculum. Each standard is reviewed once every six years through a process that includes input from parents, educators and other stakeholders. Drafted standards are then available for public comment before being finalized and approved by the SBOE.

In addition to this review and public comment process, Indiana’s middle school civics standards were reviewed by the newly-created Indiana Civics Education Commission and the Civics Standards Committee, established in 2021 by House Enrolled Act 1384.

The Indiana Department of Education will make resources and guidance available to schools to support implementation of these standards. Indiana’s new science and civics standards will be fully effective in Indiana schools by the 2023-2024 school year.