Next Generation Science Standards
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) development involved several rounds of review with multiple stakeholder groups and experts, including a review by the National Research Council, confirming their alignment to the Research Council’s 2011 report, A Framework for K-12 Science Education:...
A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas
In A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas, the National Research Council articulates a new approach to K-12 science education and outlines a broad set of rigorous expectations intended to support all students in achieving scientific literacy. It...
Science Assessments: Innovations in the Next Generation of State Assessments
The Alliance for Excellent Education and the K-12 Center at ETS collaborated to present this webinar discussing options for science assessment aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The webinar provided an overview of the NGSS, and panelists discussed activities in states that...
How Can Simulations Be Components of Balanced State Science Assessment Systems?
This policy brief offers guidance and recommendations on how simulation-based science assessments can be included in the next generation of state science assessment systems. The authors report on research conducted on the simulation-based science assessment module SimScientists. The reported...
Supporting the Implementation of NGSS through Research: Engineering
This resource is a brief that brings to light the challenges and opportunities that K–12 teachers, school leaders, policymakers, and teacher educators have in ensuring that the NGSS for the representation of engineering is considered by understanding the entire document.
Council of State Science Supervisors: Large-Scale Assessment Discussions
The Council of State Science Supervisors (CSSS) is a professional organization made up of science education specialists from states and territories of the United States. The organization provides science education resources, including resources related to assessment and, more specifically,...
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Interactive Computer Tasks (ICTs)
In 2009, NAEP administered two types of innovative science assessments: Hands-on Tasks (HOTs) and Interactive Computer Tasks (ICTs). The released tasks include samples of innovative item types and innovative evidence types to demonstrate how hard-to-measure constructs, similar to what are called...
Proficiency in Science: Assessment Challenges and Opportunities
As part of a Science magazine special issue on grand challenges in science education, the author provides an overview of the promise for the future of science learning with the release of the NGSS, and of the challenges associated with achieving the full vision of the NGSS. The paper focuses on the...