Curriculum Reform and Professional Development in San Diego City Schools

In the spring of 2001, the San Diego City Schools (SDCS) initiated a science reform program that involved several significant changes. The first was to resequence the science courses to have students take physics first (in ninth grade), followed by chemistry, then biology. Second was a change in the students' high school graduation requirement to specifically name physics, chemistry, and biology as being required. Physics is now required for all freshmen in 18 SDCS high schools. These new regulations align with the University of California's recommendation of three years of laboratory science for freshman admission. To accommodate the dramatic increase in physics enrollment that resulted from these changes, SDCS needed to augment its existing physics faculty. The only option was to ask approximately 40 “out-of-discipline” (credentialed in science but not in physics) teachers from the district to teach ninth-grade physics.