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Summary
Pages 1-10

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From page 1...
... It is also aimed at making instruction reflect research on learning that demonstrates the importance of building coherent understandings over time. The framework structures science learning around three dimensions: the practices through which scientists and engineers do their work; the key crosscutting concepts that link the science disciplines; and the core ideas of the disciplines of life sciences, physical sciences, earth and space sciences, and engineering and technology.
From page 2...
... In this context, the following charge was given to the Committee on Developing Assessments of Science Proficiency in K-12: The committee will make recommendations for strategies for developing assessments that validly measure student proficiency in science as laid out in the new K-12 science educa tion framework. The committee will review recent and current, ongoing work in science assessment to determine which aspects of the necessary assessment system for the frame work's vision can be assessed with available techniques and what additional research and development is required to create an overall assessment system for science education in K-12.
From page 3...
... Specifically, the tasks designed to assess the performance expectations in the NGSS will need to have the following characteristics (Conclusion 4-1) : • include multiple components that reflect the connected use of different scien tific practices in the context of interconnected disciplinary ideas and cross cutting concepts; • address the progressive nature of learning by providing information about where students fall on a continuum between expected beginning and ending points in a given unit or grade; and • include an interpretive system for evaluating a range of student products that are specific enough to be useful for helping teachers understand the range of student responses and provide tools for helping teachers decide on next steps in instruction.
From page 4...
... . More broadly, a system of assessments will be needed to measure the NGSS performance expectations and provide students, teachers, administrators, policy makers, and the public with the information each needs about student learning (Conclusion 6-1)
From page 5...
... Assessment tasks that have been designed to be integral to classroom instruction -- in which the kinds of activities that are part of high-quality instruction are deployed in particular ways to yield assessment information -- are beginning to be developed. They demonstrate that it is possible to design tasks that elicit students' thinking about disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts by engaging them in scientific practices and that students can respond to them successfully (Conclusion 4-3)
From page 6...
... But assessments used for monitoring pose additional chal lenges: they need to be designed so that they can be given to large numbers of stu dents, to be sufficiently standardized to support the intended monitoring purpose, to cover an appropriate breadth of the NGSS, and to be feasible and cost-effective for states. The multicomponent tasks needed to effectively evaluate the NGSS performance expectations will include a variety of response formats, including performance-based questions, those that require students to construct or supply an answer, produce a product, or perform an activity.
From page 7...
... . In particular, state and local policy makers should design the external assessment component of their systems so that they incorporate the use of matrix-sampling designs whenever appropriate (rather than requiring that every student take every item)
From page 8...
... IMPLEMENTATION The assessment system that the committee recommends differs markedly from current practice and will thus take time to implement, just as it will take time to adopt the instructional programs needed for students to learn science in the way envisioned in the framework and the NGSS. States should develop and imple ment new assessment systems gradually and establish carefully considered priori ties.
From page 9...
... Nevertheless, the approach to science assessment that the committee recommends will still require modifications to current systems. States will need to carefully lay out their priorities and adopt a thoughtful, reflective, and gradual process for making the transition to an assessment system that supports the vision of the framework and the NGSS.


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