Back around 2013 when the Next Generation Science Standards came out, I was amazed to learn that among a number of faults, there was no discussion of electric circuits as a specific study item. The term “electric circuits” was only mentioned once in relation to a fourth-grade standard that reads as follows:

 4-PS3-4. Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.*

[Clarification Statement: Examples of devices could include electric circuits that convert electrical energy into motion energy of a vehicle, light, or sound; and, a passive solar heater that converts light into heat. Examples of constraints could include the materials, cost, or time to design the device.] [Assessment Boundary: Devices should be limited to those that convert motion energy to electric energy or use stored energy to cause motion or produce light or sound.]

Nothing here requires specific study of features of electric circuits such as the requirement for a closed circuit before energy can flow and what might happen as devices like switches and multiple light bulbs or motors are added in different configurations.

In addition, more sophisticated analyses of electric circuits in higher grades were totally omitted. The term only appears in this single, grade four standard.

The NGSS omission was particularly puzzling because a released sample question from the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress Grade 4 Science Assessment (see one sample diagram from the question below) made it clear that educators creating that assessment expected fourth graders to have at least some familiarity with electric circuits.

Of course, Kentucky was quick to fall all over the NGSS, adopting them shortly after their release (or maybe even earlier, but that’s another story).

So, for about a decade, it has been anyone’s guess if students in Kentucky have been learning anything about electric circuits. That’s really problematic in this day and age when we are surrounded by electric circuits, and a lack of understanding of how they work can not only limit employment opportunities, but in some cases, such as understanding things like why that third connection in many common electric plugs is important, can be downright dangerous, as well.

So, that was the situation a decade ago.

For several years, the Kentucky Department of Education has struggled to revise the science standards. Surely, I thought, this 2013 omission would be fixed.

But, with the release of the new standards, it turns out that such clearly needed improvement was not to be. The only 2013 NGSS standard that mentions electric circuits is maintained pretty much intact in Kentucky’s 2022 revision, and you will search in vain to find any other mentions of the term.

This got me wondering: does even Mississippi, you know, that “Thank goodness for Mississippi,” cover electric circuits in its current standards? It turns out two Mississippi high school physics standards do a pretty good job.

PHY.5.4 Develop and use models (e.g., circuit drawing and mathematical representation) to explain how electric circuits work by tracing the path of electrons, including concepts of energy transformation, transfer, conservation of energy, electric charge, and resistance using online simulations, probe systems, and/or laboratory experiences.

and

PHY.5.6 Use schematic diagrams to analyze the current flow in series and parallel electric circuits, given the component resistances and the imposed electric potential.

You can forget looking for terms like “series” or “parallel” electric circuits in Kentucky’s revised standards. Ditto for the important concept of “resistance.” But, even kids in Mississippi might see them.

Why is Kentucky ducking electric circuits? I am reminded of a major error in a question on Kentucky’s first reform assessments, the Kentucky Instructional Results Information System, or KIRIS, that came into use two years after passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990. Here’s the KIRIS question that first alerted me there might be serious problems with Kentucky’s K to 12 education system.

At the time this question came out, we were told Kentucky teachers created the KIRIS questions. Well, whoever created this one didn’t know how to hook up a voltmeter correctly. They probably thought answer B was correct, but it isn’t right for a voltmeter. It is right for an ammeter, but that is a different instrument.

Could it be that Kentucky is ducking coverage of electric circuits because it’s short of teachers who can teach this subject? Regardless, thanks to a continuing standards deficiency, Kentucky’s students are likely to be shortchanged about an important area of science. And in this day and age, that lack of knowledge could even be dangerous.