Cached In: Leadership Needed for the NGSS

Let’s take a moment to think about leadership. Not only should we focus on leadership in general, let’s focus on the leadership that is currently needed at a time of mystery with regards to science education in the state of Kentucky and within the nation.

We are odd a very odd place in America when it comes to science education within our nation’s public schools. Whenever I taught high school Physics from 2011-2015, I must be honest in stating that I was allowed to teach whatever I wanted to teach except for my Advanced Placement Physics courses; the only standards required to be taught at the high school level for science, in the state of Kentucky, are the ACT Quality Core Standards for the Biology End of Course Assessment. Educators at the high school level who teach Integrated Science, Chemistry, Physics, Environmental Science, Marine Biology, Botany, Microbiology, Experimental Science, Applied Science, and other specialized science courses are given free reign to teach whatever they want to teach to their students. At the Elementary School level, since science is not assessed in any form, science is rarely taught in a form that is conducive to learning about the scientific process through the act of learning new scientific skills; elementary school teachers are left teaching science content through literacy lessons since English and Mathematics are the primary academic disciplines that students are assessed in grades K-5. Middle school science, sadly, is also placed in a box when it comes to science education due to the testing requirements established by the Kentucky Department of Education. While I know that science is being taught at the high school level, I have seen enough first hand evidence to know that it is not being taught in a manner that is in agreement with the expectations outlined by the Next Generation Science Standards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6eoRnrwL-A#action=share

The Next Generation Science Standards have been adopted by the state of Kentucky, and they have recently become part of Kentucky’s academic standards; since an official assessment has not been developed, the adopting of the standards does not mean that the standards will be taught. At this moment, many science teachers are unaware of the expectations of the Next Generation Science Standards (why worry about standards that are not yet even tested?), which will make the implementation process even harder when they officially are enforced to be taught. Based on my experiences teaching pre-service teachers who plan on becoming elementary school teachers, it is evident that there will be many struggles and many growing pains whenever it comes to implementing the Next Generation Science Standards in the classroom. As it stands, individuals who have never seen the Next Generation Science Standards are overwhelmed by the layout of the document, cannot extract what is to be taught to the students, and cannot think of how to incorporate the new skills and knowledge sets into their own classrooms to teach science in a way that is unfamiliar to them.

Essentially, the Next Generation Science Standards are not straight forward, and they are not entirely that easy to read, comprehend, and immediately implement in the classroom. See the example standard below:

Yeah…that is ONE standard…for middle school students. The above diagrams depicts a large amount of information needed just to teach that ONE standards in the classroom.

In order to provide a smooth transition from the current science education to that required by the Next Generation Science Standards, I recommend that each school create two leadership positions who will learn the intricacies of the Next Generation Science Standards, how to deconstruct the Next Generation Science Standards, and how to communicate this process with the school’s teachers in order for the transition to take place.

I recommend that two science educators (or a curriculum specialist) from each school, who are respected, have a vested interest in the school, and who to remain at the school for several years in the future (teachers who are tenured) to be chosen as the school leaders to educate the relevant science teachers about the Next Generation Science Standards.

·         The chosen individuals should be required to attend science leadership meetings (offered by the Kentucky Department of Education, third parties such as University led workshops, or informal meetings with other science educators). These meetings should serve the purpose of:

o   Learning how to read the Next Generation Science Standards

o   Learning the specifics of the different domains of the Next Generation Science Standards

o   See examples of how the standards are already being implemented in classrooms that have already completed adopted the standards

·         The team of educators will need to sit down together and create a learning progression sequence map of when each standard will be taught in the context of the school under consideration. For example, a team from an elementary school will specifically map out each standard and connect it to a specific grade level from Kindergarten to 5^th Grade. A high school team will need to map out the standards for what is to be taught in 9^th grade, 10^th grade, and 11^th grade (and some high schools may require a senior level science course) and in which classes the standards will be taught. (This should take place over the course of an entire academic school year at least two years before the standards have been implemented)

·         The team of educators, after mapping specific standards to grade levels, should then organize the standards (organized by grade) into a learning sequence that displays the order that the standards are to be taught. For example, the team will need to determine which content and skills standards will be taught in each month of the academic school year. This will give the team a logical sequence in which the standards could be taught. (This should take place over the course of an entire academic school year at least two years before the standards have been implemented)

·         For EACH standard, the team of individuals will need to deconstruct the standard by reviewing the Performance Expectation, Disciplinary Core Ideas, Science and Engineering Practices, and Cross Cutting Concepts, to specifically determine which specific content and skills will be taught in a given science unit in a given grade level. (This should take place over the course of an entire academic school year at least two years before the standards have been implemented)

o   This deconstruction process should be based on the criteria established by the Kentucky Department of Education

o   http://education.ky.gov/curriculum/leadnet/Pages/Deconstructing-Standards.aspx

·         The team will then develop student learning objectives for each deconstructed standard that have already been divided into instructional units by grade level. (This should take place over the course of an entire academic school year at least two years before the standards have been implemented)

·         The team will then be responsible to present the Next Generation Science Standards to all of the science teachers within the school. At this point, the team’s task will be to educate the teachers how to read the standards, what the different domains of the standards are, and provide background on the rationale of the intent of the standards in the context of the students to be taught. (This should take place over the course of an entire academic school year before the standards have been implemented and/or over the summer months prior to the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards)

·         The team will then be responsible to present their deconstructions of all standards per grade level to all of the science educators at the school. The deconstructed standards will specifically tell the science educators exactly what to teach and how the content and skills should be presented in order for students to effectively learn from the standards.  (This should take place over the course of an entire academic school year before the standards have been implemented and/or over the summer months prior to the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards)

·         At this point, the team of educators will need to assist the grade level specific educators (or content specific educators in the case with high school teachers) in developing high quality assessments that align with the deconstructed standards under consideration. These assessments should also align with the student learning objectives that the team developed as a result of the deconstruction process. (This should take place over the course of an entire academic school year before the standards have been implemented and/or over the summer months prior to the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards)

·         The team will then need to provide assistance to the grade level specific (content specific) educators on crafting specific lessons, activities, laboratory investigations, and experiments that can be implemented in the classroom to ensure that the deconstructed standards are met with success. (This should take place over the course of an entire academic school year before the standards have been implemented and/or over the summer months prior to the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards)

·         The team, at this point, will serve as Next Generation Science Standards experts throughout the implementation process in order to provide assistance and answer questions from individuals within the school building as they arise.

After the standards have been deconstructed and the assessments have been developed, it is important that these deconstructions and assessments be shared with other teachers around the country who have also completed the same process as outlined in this blog post. By sharing the deconstructed standards and the developed assessments, comparisons can be made of the deconstructed standards to ensure that the standards have all been interpreted in the same manner, and that all educators around the nation are on the same page when it comes to understanding the intent that the standards have for the children who are exposed to their expectations. By sharing assessments, a nation-wide data based can be developed that contains a large repertoire of assessments that can be used by all teachers. Of course, I realize that we, as teachers, can be selfish, we do not like to share our home-made content, and that my sermon is more than likely a large pie in the sky.

It is important to state that these science standards gurus should still be classroom teachers, and should still fulfill their responsibilities as an educator in the state of Kentucky. By starting this process several years in advance, there would be no need to spend hours and hours each night preparing for the new standards; these teachers could fulfill these requirements during their already required professional develop hours that they must obtain each academic school year. Exceptions and exemptions must be made for these educators to skip “general education” meetings and skip “catch-all” district meetings that are meant as a “one size fits all” professional development opportunity for teachers regardless of content specialty. As the Next Generation Science Standards are implemented, it is very possible to provide these teachers with an extra planning period to deal with the demands and requests from other teachers within the building who struggle with implementing the new standards.

While the process outlined is a lot of work for teachers who remain in classroom, I emphasize the fact that these important roles be leadership positions that are not taken lightly. While a school can try to hire a full time employee who does nothing but work with the Next Generation Science Standards, these positions usually end up paying above the salary of a classroom teacher, but does not have the benefit of directly educating students. If a school can afford a Next Generation Science Standards Specialist position, then kudos to the school for being able to do so. However, if funds are short, the above strategy may be the best option available.

Regardless of how a school specifically tackles the issue of implementing the Next Generation Science Standards, it is critical that the implementation process begins now, and it is critical that teachers become prepared in advanced to the implementation of the standards rather than during the implementation process itself.

We just need school leaders willing to go above and beyond to ensure the success of their individual schools.

And with that, I am caching out!