scholarly journals An Examination of the #NGSSchat Storify Database

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conrad Borchers ◽  
Joshua Rosenberg ◽  
Christian Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Science Teachers ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
The United States ◽  
Next Generation Science Standards ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Science Standards ◽  
Educational Stakeholders ◽  
Synchronous Chat ◽  
Selection Of

Teachers frequently use Twitter to engage in professional learning activities. A prominent example of teachers’ use of Twitter for such purposes is evident within the #NGSSchat community, which encouraged synchronous (at the same time) conversations between teachers and other educational stakeholders regarding the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) curriculum reform in the United States. Notably, #NGSSchat moderators archived the chats via the Storify platform, which has subsequently been used by researchers to understand science teachers’ professional learning activities on Twitter. However, what has not been established is the representativeness of this archive of #NGSSchat tweets. In other words, whether those who archived #NGSSchat content selected only a (potentially biased) selection of tweets is as yet unknown. Thus, in this study, we examined the Storify #NGSSchat database and compared it with raw data requests using the Twitter API. We found that the synchronous chats most data was adequately achieved. Contrarily (but as anticipated given what distinguishes the #NGSSchat community-synchronous conversations), the Storify #NGSSchat database did not capture most data outside these synchronous chat sessions. Importantly, we did not find an indication of systematic content- or user-driven tweet exclusion within the synchronous NGSS chat sessions on Storify, suggesting that the #NGSSchat archive via Storify (and potentially others like it) may be used by researchers for most research-related purposes.

THE NEW CURRICULUM STANDARDS FOR ASTRONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES

2015 ◽  
pp. 131-151
Author(s):  
Sharon P. Schleigh ◽  
Stephanie J. Slater ◽  
Timothy F. Slater ◽  
Debra J. Stork
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Next Generation Science Standards ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Curriculum Standards ◽  
Science Standards ◽  
New Curriculum

Há um grande interesse em restringir a ampla gama e vasto domínio dos possíveis temas que poderiam ser ensinados sobre astronomia em uma estrutura gerenciável. Embora não haja nenhum currículo nacional obrigatório nos Estados Unidos, uma análise dos três esforços nacionais recentes para criar uma sequência apropriada de conceitos de astronomia por idade para serem ensinados nas escolas primárias e secundárias revela uma considerável falta de consenso a respeito de quais conceitos são mais apropriados para cada idade e quais tópicos devem ser cobertos. O esquema de padronização mais recente para a educação científica dos EUA, o Next Generation Science Standards (Padrões em Ciência: Nova Geração), sugere que a maioria dos conceitos de astronomia devem ser ensinados apenas nos últimos anos de educação do aluno; e no entanto  foi recebido com críticas consideráveis. Uma comparação dos esquemas de aprendizagem da astronomia nos Estados Unidos e uma breve discussão das críticas levantadas podem proporcionar aos educadores de astronomia internacionais dados de comparação na formulação de recomendações em suas próprias regiões.

scholarly journals Identifying Levers Related to Student Performance on High-Stakes Science Exams: Examining School, Teaching, Teacher, and Professional Development Characteristics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Fischer ◽  
Brandon Foster ◽  
Ayana McCoy ◽  
Frances Lawrenz ◽  
Christopher Dede ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Student Achievement ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Level ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Reform Implementation ◽  
School Teaching

Background: Many students enter into postsecondary education without the college readiness skills that allow them to face the demands of postsecondary education. Increasingly, policymakers and educational researchers are responding to calls for reforming secondary education to provide more opportunity for all students to receive high quality education and to become career and college ready. Purpose: This study attempts to identify levers to increase student performance in secondary education. In particular, it examines relationships of school, teaching, teacher, and teacher professional development characteristics with student scores on high-stakes Advanced Placement (AP) examinations in the sciences.Setting: This study is situated in the context of the large-scale, top-down, nationwide AP curriculum and examination reform in the sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics) in the United States. This is an unprecedented opportunity to analyze changing educational landscapes in the United States with large-scale national student-, teacher-, school-, and district-level data sets across multiple science disciplines and different stages of the curriculum reform implementation connected to a standardized and high-stakes student outcome measure.Population: This study analyzes nationwide data samples of the AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP Physics population during the first, second, and third year of the curriculum reform implementation. Across disciplines and years, the analytical samples include a total of 113,603 students and 6,046 teachers. Research design: This empirical quantitative study uses data from web-based surveys sent to all AP science teachers. Additionally, College Board provided student- and school-level data for all students taking AP examinations. Data preparation methods included exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Associations towards student achievement were analyzed through multi-level ordered logistic regression analysis separately by science discipline and year of the curriculum reform implementation. Afterwards, the results were aggregated through a meta-analysis. Findings: Student performance is not pre-determined by students’ background, leaving roughly 60% of the AP score variance potentially malleable for teacher and school-level factors. In particular, teachers’ perceived administrative support, self-efficacy, teaching experience, and elements of classroom instruction were related to student performance. Notably, teachers’ professional development participation has a small, mixed impact on student achievement. Conclusion: The identified levers for improving student achievement provide a strong rationale for the continued efforts of policy makers to improve school environments and to support science teachers to ultimately both increase student learning and help all students graduate prepared for college and ready for their future careers.

scholarly journals Questioning The Fidelity Of The Next Generation Science Standards For Astronomy And Space Sciences Education

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Stephanie J. Slater ◽  
Timothy F. Slater
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
The United States ◽  
Next Generation Science Standards ◽  
National Standards ◽  
Unexpected Finding ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Science Standards ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Space Sciences

<p class="AbstractSummary">Although the <em>Next Generation Science Standards</em> (<em>NGSS</em>) are not federally mandated national standards or performance expectations for K-12 schools in the United States, they stand poised to become a de facto national science and education policy, as state governments, publishers of curriculum materials, and assessment providers across the country consider adopting them. In order to facilitate national buy-in and adoptions, <em>Achieve, Inc</em>., the non-profit corporation awarded the contract for writing the <em>NGSS</em>, has repeatedly asserted the development of the Standards to be a state-driven and transparent process, in which the scientific content is taken "verbatim", from the 2011 NRC report, <em>Frameworks for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas</em>. This paper reports on an independently conducted fidelity check within the content domain of astronomy and the space sciences, conducted to determine the extent to which the <em>NGSS </em>science content is guided by the <em>Frameworks</em>, and the extent to which any changes have altered the scientific intent of that document. The side-by-side, two-document comparative analysis indicates that the science of the <em>NGSS</em> is significantly different from the <em>Frameworks</em>. Further, the alterations in the science represent a lack of fidelity, in that they have altered the parameters of the science and the instructional exposure (e.g., timing and emphasis). As a result the <em>NGSS</em> are now poised to interfere with widely desired science education reform and improvement. This unexpected finding affords scientists, educators, and professional societies with an opportunity, if not a professional obligation, to engage in positively impacting the quality of science education by conducting independent fidelity checks across other disciplines. This could provide a much needed formal support and guidance to schools, teachers, curriculum developers, and assessment providers.</p>

scholarly journals Identifying Levers Related to Student Performance on High-Stakes Science Exams: Examining School, Teaching, Teacher, and Professional Development Characteristics

2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-64
Author(s):  
Christian Fischer ◽  
Brandon Foster ◽  
Ayana Mccoy ◽  
Frances Lawrenz ◽  
Chris Dede ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Student Achievement ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Reform Implementation ◽  
School Teaching

Background Many students enter into postsecondary education without the preparation to face the demands of postsecondary coursework in science. Increasingly, policymakers and educational researchers are responding to calls for reforming secondary education to provide more opportunity for all students to receive high-quality education and to become career and college ready. Purpose This study attempts to identify levers to increase student learning in secondary education. In particular, it examines relationships between school, teaching, teacher, and teacher professional development characteristics and student scores on high-stakes Advanced Placement (AP) examinations in the sciences. Setting This study is situated in the context of the large-scale, top-down, nationwide AP curriculum and examination reform in the sciences (biology, chemistry, physics) in the United States. This is an unprecedented opportunity to analyze changing educational landscapes in the United States with large-scale national student-, teacher-, school-, and district-level datasets across multiple science disciplines and different stages of the curriculum reform implementation connected to a standardized and high-stakes student outcome measure. Population This study analyzes nationwide data samples of the AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP Physics population during the first, second, and third year of the curriculum reform implementation. Across disciplines and years, the analytical samples include a total of 113,603 students and 6,046 teachers. Research Design This empirical quantitative study uses data from web-based surveys sent to all AP science teachers. Additionally, the College Board provided student- and school-level data for all students taking AP examinations. Data preparation methods included exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Associations with student achievement were analyzed through a multilevel ordered logistic regression analysis, separately by science discipline and year of the curriculum reform implementation. Afterwards, results were aggregated through a meta-analysis. Findings Even after controlling for student background variables, roughly 60% of the AP score variance could be explained at the teacher and school levels. In particular, teachers’ perceived administrative support, self-efficacy, teaching experience, and elements of classroom instruction were related to student performance. Notably, teachers’ professional development participation—which has been a major focus of interventions—has a small, mixed impact on student achievement. Conclusion The identified levers for improving student achievement provide a strong rationale for the continued efforts of policymakers to improve school environments and to support science teachers, with the ultimate goal of improving student learning to help all students to be prepared for college and ready for their future careers.

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