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1. For States, by States: State Policymakers' Efforts to Reform Elementary Science Education

   Lyle, Angela M.; Spillane, James P.; Haverly, Christa (January 2022, Annual meeting program American Educational Research Association)

   Developing as a national policy movement, the “for states, by states” approach to the development and implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) intends to give states formidable discretion in whether and how to pursue science education reform. This article explores how state education agencies (SEAs) engaged with these national efforts and worked to incentivize and support school districts in building educational infrastructures to promote the instructional vision advanced by the NGSS. Based on our analysis of interview data and documents from 18 SEAs, we document the critical challenges SEAs face in reforming elementary science education and detail how SEAs sought to school districts in bridging from standards, assessments, and accountability to the teaching, learning, and organization of instruction inside classrooms. Given our analysis, we argue that the school subject is a critical explanatory variable in understanding SEA efforts to support the implementation of ambitious learning standards and advance a reframing of the relationship between state/federal government policy and local school districts as educational system-building. This study contributes to the growing research base on the role of state policy in supporting the implementation of ambitious learning standards. 

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2. State-Level Efforts to Reform Elementary Science Education

   https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048231163787  

   Lyle, Angela_M; Spillane, James_P; Haverly, Christa (March 2023, Educational Policy)

   This comparative case study explores how 18 state education agencies (SEAs) support school districts in advancing standards-based elementary science reform. We identify how SEAs understand their work in advancing elementary science reform and describe how SEAs sought to engage districts in bridging from standards to classroom practice. Based on our analysis, we argue that the school subject is a critical explanatory variable in understanding SEA efforts to support standards implementation and SEAs lean on a resource-based approach for instructional policy implementation. This study contributes to the growing research base on the role of state policy in supporting standards implementation. 

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3. English language proficiency standards aligned with content standards: How the Next Generation Science Standards and WIDA 2020 reflect each other

   https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21843  

   Lee, Okhee; Grapin, Scott (November 2023, Science Education)

   Abstract The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) provide a vision for contemporary science education with all students, including the fast‐growing population of multilingual learners in the United States K‐12 context. The shifts heralded by the NGSS have resulted in significant changes to English language proficiency (ELP) or English language development (ELD) standards so they better align with content standards and support all students, including multilingual learners, to engage in language‐rich disciplinary practices (e.g., arguing from evidence). The purpose of this article is to describe ELP/ELD standards aligned with content standards. Specifically, we describe how the policy initiatives of the NGSS as science standards and WIDA 2020 as ELP/ELD standards reflect each other in terms of conceptual foundations and architecture of the standards guiding classroom practices. By becoming more explicitly aware of how science standards and language standards present “mirror images” of each other, science educators will be better positioned to collaborate with their language education colleagues. As this article is intended to engage science educators who are generally familiar with the NGSS but likely new to ELP/ELD standards, we describe WIDA 2020 in detail and in ways accessible to a broad audience. In doing so, we aim to ensure the science education and language education communities are coordinated in their efforts to promote equitable science learning for all students, including multilingual learners. We close with implications for research, policy, and practice through collaboration between science education (as well as other content areas) and language education. 

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4. Leading instructional improvement in elementary science: State science coordinators' sense‐making about the Next Generation Science Standards

   https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21767  

   Haverly, Christa; Lyle, Angela; Spillane, James P.; Davis, Elizabeth A.; Peurach, Donald J. (February 2022, Journal of Research in Science Teaching)

   The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), a reform effort “for states, by states,” advances ambitious ideals for elementary science teaching, but the fate of these ideals will depend in part on the engagement of state science coordinators (SSCs). This article explores the responses of SSCs to NGSS in a purposeful sample of 18 US states. Based on analysis of 19 interviews with 22 SSCs, we develop two arguments. First, SSCs' ideas about improving elementary science education converged around three themes: the introduction of three-dimensional science teaching and learning, the integration of engineering with science teaching, and the integration of science with ELA and mathematics. Second, SSCs' sense-making about reforming elementary science education was situated in and shaped by (a) their knowledge of how elementary science instruction has been and continues to be de-prioritized, as well as their experiences (b) facilitating work groups in developing science standards using the Framework for K-12 Science Education, and (c) participating in professional networks. 

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5. Implementing NGSS-designed Curriculum Materials: Promising Results from an Efficacy Study

   Feng, Mingyu; Murphy, Robert; Harris, Christopher J.; Rutstein, Daisy; Loper, Suzanna (April 2022, Paper presented at 2022 AERA Annual Meeting)

   The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) reflect an ambitious vision for science education where students investigate phenomena or solve problems through using and applying disciplinary core ideas in concert with science and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts. Because the NGSS are so different from prior standards, the need for high-quality curriculum materials is especially great. As new curricula go to scale, it will be important to conduct evidence-based research on their efficacy. We conducted a randomized experiment to examine the efficacy of a widely available NGSS-designed middle school curriculum for improving seventh grade students’ learning in physical science. A hierarchical linear modeling approach was applied to analyze student learning outcomes as measured by an NGSS-aligned assessment. Initial findings demonstrate evidence of promise of the curriculum materials for supporting three-dimensional teaching and learning. The findings provide support for further research on NGSS-designed materials at other grade levels and within other science domains. 

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