This project examines how high school science teachers develop practices of classroom assessment in order to make instructional decisions that optimize student learning in light of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). In implementing the NGSS, teachers are faced with performance expectations that integrate cross-cutting concepts, practices and disciplinary core ideas in ways that depart from more traditional content-focused goals. The practices entail a range of science literacies including question generation, data representation, explanatory modeling, and communication among scientists and with the general public. To be successful, teachers must align these multi-dimensional student performance expectations with instruction that supports these and assessments that demonstrate students' progress. This project engages high school science teachers to develop assessments that cover the multiple dimensions of the performance expectations. Developing these assessments occurs as teachers focus on the nature of the evidence in student work that would indicate progress toward proficiency. Teachers work in learning communities so they can draw on each others' content and pedagogical expertise as they iteratively refine their assessment designs.
The project builds upon hypothetical learning trajectories for teachers, comprising five dimensions of teacher knowledge and practice: Assessment literacy and practices; views of student roles in assessment practices; participation within collaborative design teams; assessment design practices aligned with NGSS; and NGSS-aligned instructional practices. These dimensions organize a three-year professional development sequence for teachers from six different urban public high schools of a large and diverse school district. The location of this work also enables consideration of how teachers progressively address factors such as language learning, student economic backgrounds, and the needs of special education students. Throughout the sequence, teachers work within professional learning communities focused on iterative cycles of assessment design, implementation, reflection, and revision. The project applies mixed-methods to a variety of data sources, including teacher surveys, documentation of assessment design cycles, student work products, and observations of instructional practices. Analyses aim to further develop the hypothetical learning trajectories, obtain additional insights into teacher collaborative practices, and examine the relationship between changes in teacher assessment practices, their instructional methods, and student learning. Furthermore, engaging teachers in not only the collaborative design of assessments but also in the co-design of the professional development sequence reinforces this project's capacity to afford and foster local innovations that mitigate or resolve tensions extant in science education. This project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field.
