There is a growing interest in the country for reform in the area of elementary science education. While most science educators recognize the need for hands-on science education, those currently engaged in reform efforts recognize that one of the crucial failings of the previous curriculum work in this area was the inability or unwillingness of developers to devise new forms of student assessment to meet the needs of material based science programs. This proposal is for an invitational conference to address the need for curriculum independent tests and assessment tools for classroom teachers to use in conjunction with instruction. New ideas about elementary science assessment can come from other curriculum areas (reading and writing), recently developed indicators of science achievement such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress assessment, new NSF-supported curriculum developments, and research on children's conceptions of science. The conference, based on a series of commissioned papers, will address how these developments can form the basis for new instruments and methods. The result will be a monograph for wide dissemination and suggestions for future developmental work in elementary science assessment.
