Astronomy is an integral part of many high-school science programs. Project STAR and the Science Assessment and Research Project at the University of Minnesota have recently recognized this. In addition, astronomy is a part of most elementary and middle-school science programs. In the Platteville, Wisconsin, school system, the solar system is a unit of study for all third grade students and a study of the stars is a part of the eighth grade science program. This is also true for other school systems in this area, in the Chicago area, and I would suspect, across the nation.

However, most elementary school teachers have had little science course work and none in astronomy. Middle-school and high-school teachers have better backgrounds for teaching science but little or no astronomy course work. Some of those who teach astronomy are active in local astronomy groups and read Astronomy or Sky and Telescope magazines, but this is the exception rather than the rule.