ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTING NGSS IN K-12 EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE CLASSROOMS

Several science education researchers have led assessment efforts that provide strategies particularly useful for evaluating the three-dimensional learning that is central to NGSS (DeBarger, A. H., Penuel, W. R., Harris, C. J., Kennedy, C. K., 2016; Knight, A. M. & McNeill, K. L., 2015; McNeill, K. L., Katsh-Singer, R. & Pelletier, P., 2015; McNeill K.L., et.al., 2015; McNeill, K.L., & Krajcik, J.S., 2011; Penuel, W., 2016). One of the basic premises of these researchers is that, “Assessment is a practice of argument from evidence based on what students say, do, and write” and that “the classroom is the richest place to gather evidence of what students know (Penuel, W., 2016). The implementation of the NGSS in Earth System Science provides a unique opportunity for geoscience education researchers to study student learning and contribute to the development of this research as well as for geoscience educators to apply these approaches and strategies in their own work with K-12 inservice and preservice educators.

DeBarger, A. H., Penuel, W. R., Harris, C. J., Kennedy, C. K. (2016). Building an Assessment Argument to Design and Use Next Generation Science Assessments in Efficacy Studies of Curriculum Interventions. American Journal of Evaluation 37(2) 174-192.

Knight, A. M. & McNeill, K. L. (2015). Comparing students’ individual written and collaborative oral socioscientific arguments. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education.10(5), 623-647.

McNeill, K. L., Katsh-Singer, R. & Pelletier, P. (2015). Assessing science practices–Moving your class along a continuum. Science Scope.

McNeill, K.L., & Krajcik, J.S. (2011). Supporting Grade 5-8 Students in Constructing Explanations in Science: The Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning Framework for Talk and Writing. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.

Penuel, W. (2016). Classroom Assessment Strategies for NGSS Earth and Space Sciences. Implementing the NGSS Webinar Series, February 11, 2016.