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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. 

In this paper, we report on our study of the implementation of an NGSS-designed middle school curriculum and how it fits into the larger context of a district system, including how it may be impacted by other system components (e.g., district support or teacher PL), and how these, in turn, may impact NGSS instruction in the classroom. This study was part of a larger randomized controlled trial that was conducted across four school districts with seventh grade science teachers and their students. We examined the nature of curriculum use and NGSS instruction in treatment and control conditions via instructional logs and surveys.