You are correct. The challenge of sustainability is not teaching to the test, but using the science instruction (content and process) as a strong driver to help create a "spill-over" effect which will also influence reading, writing and mathematics. There are several references to this spill-over effect in the literature...Guthrie, Palinscar and several others. We have experienced a very positive (and well documented) "spill-over" effect where high impact science instruction has not only resulted in an increase in science achievement, but is also lined to reading achievement. Student science notebooks used in a very focused way have led to not only increased student understanding of science, but have been instrumental in improving writing. The mathematics used in the science taught in grades 4-8 has provided students with their own "real-world" experiences for the mathematics and we have seen improvement in relations, functions and statistics; measurement; geometry; using data, making, reading and intrepreting graphs. The challenge is to engineer this alignment.