Science & Social Studies in BUSD elementary schools
Please tell me more about science and social studies in BUSD particularly in elementary grades. Our experience this year has been underwhelming. Now, we are in a pandemic, and I figured this year reading and math will be favored, and we are also grateful that the amount of work has been kept manageable. But, wondering ahead, how much are science and social studies covered in a regular year? Would love to hear your anecdotes and grade level. I know the state standards, just want to know what actually happens.
Feb 17, 2021
Parent Replies
Not much science or history at all. It gets better in middle and high school when they have dedicated classes. In elementary, the focus was always on reading and math. There was more history in 4th and 5th grades, which is California history and then US history. But science? One hour a week at the most.
Unfortunately our pre-COVID experience at Sylvia Mendez has been pretty weak, especially with regard to Social Studies. It gets a bit better in 4th and 5th grade. It may be in part because of the two-way immersion program eating up more instructional hours on reading and writing (students are to become bilingual and biliterate by the end of 5th grade). Our now 6th grader did get some California history in 4th grade including an end of year trip to Sierra Outdoor School. Sadly, that trip has been cancelled (before COVID) with no replacement at 4th or 5th grade. Our current 4th grader has had absolutely NO CA history this year.
Science is a little different. During the 2018-2019 school year, the elementary schools hired dedicated science teachers for grades 1-5. (Before that, as far as I can tell, grades 1-3 got zero science, but 4th and 5th had a dedicated science teacher.) The younger kids get ~45 minutes of science a week, and 4th and 5th get 1.5 hours. Not great, but better than nothing. They are now getting 45 minutes via distance learning. Hopefully as the science teachers get some experience teaching the science curriculum, it will get better.
Based on my experience at Oxford, science and social studies K-5 are not strong. I'm especially bummed about science as it's clear that there is no organized effort/curriculum. It was slightly better pre-pandemic but this year it feels that science is not even considered as a subject (it's an elective, 45 minutes a week). Social studies in K-3 was mostly combined with reading. In 4th and 5th grades there is focus on CA history but in distance learning there is very little time dedicated to social studies so I haven't seen much happening this year.