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1. Exploring Middle School Science Teachers’ Curriculum Sensemaking

   https://doi.org/10.1080/1046560X.2025.2497188  

   Wright, Gary; Zangori, Laura; Otto, Suzanne; Snyder, Rebekah; Cole, Laura (May 2025, Journal of Science Teacher Education)

   Borowczak, A; Dare, E; Tofel-Grehl, C (Ed.)

   A teacher’s working context is an important factor in how they make sense of and enact curriculum. Understanding how external factors (e.g. state and/or district policies, school cultural norms) interplay with teachers’ personal resources (e.g. self-understanding, rules of thumb for decision-making) can help identify supports for implementation of increasingly available standard aligned curriculum materials. However, in science education, limited research has explored how curriculum enactments are influenced by this complex interplay. In this qualitative embedded case study, we investigated how four middle school science teachers within the same school district used their internal resources to make sense of external factors when enacting new NGSS-aligned place-based curriculum materials. Data collection occurred over multiple years and included semi-structured individual and focus group interviews, lesson plans, weekly surveys, observations, and memos. Using thematic analysis, we found that a new district-level policy implementing a 6-week science assessment caused differential enactments of the unit, depending on which internal resources teachers drew on to make sense of the curriculum materials. Our findings contribute to further understanding how internal personal resources and external factors support and impede science teachers’ use of curriculum materials in ways that align, or do not align, with recent reform-based learning outlined in the NGSS. 

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2. 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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3. 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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4. 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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5. Comparison of CS Middle-School Instruction during Pre-Pandemic, Early-Pandemic and Mid-Pandemic School Years

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3501385.3543974  

   Gonzalez-Maldonado, David; Tsan, Jennifer; Eatinger, Donna; Weintrop, David; Franklin, Diana (August 2022, ICER 2022)

   In 2020, the world confronted an unprecedented event affecting education globally: COVID-19. Events that disrupt education are not new; Homelessness or trauma negatively impact education at an individual level, whereas war stops education completely. This event is unique in that it caused the cessation of in-person instruction for all but with a rapid transition to remote instruction. In this study, we explore how the COVID-19 pandemic affected instruction of Scratch Encore Curriculum, a Scratch curriculum typ- ically used in middle grades with students between 10-14 years old. We analyzed a variety of data sources, including partner classroom- level data as well as anonymous download data. We found that instruction halted abruptly in the United States at the beginning of the March lockdown, with no further instruction that spring. With the introduction of online instructional materials, instruction resumed to normal levels during the 2020-21 school year (which was remote instruction for much of the year). In addition, students completed projects with similar accuracy and completeness during remote instruction as compared with in-person instruction prior to the pandemic. 

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