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Results of a high school teacher survey with participation via the Internet of 571 high school teachers from all 50 states are discussed. The results show agreement among 93.0% of teachers that 18 specific topics are considered appropriate for a general high school chemistry course. However, teachers are not actually covering as many topics as they feel are appropriate for the course. Labs and demonstrations are included frequently by teachers, with an average of 13.7 student labs per semester and 11.9 teacher demonstrations per semester. Of the participants, 55.5% are including inquiry labs in their course. Application of chemistry to the real world and plausibility of answers are stressed by more than 90.0% of the teachers, while writing skills and connections between macro and micro are not. Interesting students in science in their world was the main priority of the course for 55.0% of the participants.
Differences were found among subpopulations of participants. Rural, suburban, and urban teachers cover a different number of topics in their courses. Rural teachers were the only subpopulation with more than half the teachers reporting college preparation as their main course goal. Teachers that also teach the Chemistry in the Community course stress scientific process skills more in their general chemistry course than those who do not teach the ChemCom course. Teachers on a block schedule include more labs in their courses, as do teachers whose course is required for student graduation. The teachers that cited college preparation as their main course goal thought more topics were appropriate for the course and covered more topics as compared to those who were interested in showing their students real-world science as their main goal.
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