In 1976 several NSF funded studies revealed the current state of science education in the United States. In 1978, a synthesis of the more than 2,000 pages of information from those three NSF reports and the NAEP data was begun by twenty-three science educators throughout the U.S. The synthesis researchers worked independently in small teams, each focusing on one aspect of science education: elementary science, biology, physical science, science/technology/society, or inquiry. A critical part of the synthesis analysis was developing a description of an ideal or desired state for a focus area and then comparing the actual to the desired state. Goals arising from the synthesis desired state for each of the five focus areas were used as criteria for defining excellence in a school science program
