With California test scores revealing that less than a third of students met the Next Generation Science Standards, districts need resources and PD to support inquiry-driven education.
GUEST COLUMN | by Maja Åström
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This academic year marks a major milestone for science education in California. For the first time, the California Science Test (CAST) results have been made available to the general public. On one hand, this visibility offers greater accountability. On the other hand, it presents new challenges, especially for teachers who are being asked to align their instruction to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) without the professional development, content support, or instructional materials they need to do it well. The first round of public CAST results suggests that NGSS implementation is proving more complex than many predicted: Only 30.7% of students met or exceeded the science standard. Based on my conversations with science teachers across the state (and the country), here’s a look at some of the challenges they’re facing and how digital resources can help schools deliver on the promise of standards-driven science education.
‘Based on my conversations with science teachers across the state (and the country), here’s a look at some of the challenges they’re facing and how digital resources can help schools deliver on the promise of standards-driven science education.’
New Pedagogy Requires New Resources and PD
Since the new standards were launched 12 years ago, I’ve spoken to many teachers in California who have adopted NGSS. They’ve spent a great deal of time changing their pedagogy to become more inquiry-based so that their way of teaching would be in line with how students are being assessed. In districts that are really struggling with academic performance in all subjects, though, science may not be the highest priority, so I know a lot of science teachers who are having a hard time getting science resources from their districts. This leaves them with the challenge of spending their nights and weekends building out their own resources.
In my conversations with TOSAS and district administrators across the US, I’ve heard that a major challenge for them is equity. Their mission is to provide equitable science teaching in every classroom of every school, and if teachers themselves are creating their own materials, equity is much more elusive. Digital resources not only provide a common curriculum, but also help districts gather the data they need to understand if their equity efforts are succeeding.
At the most basic level, district leaders can see if teachers are logging in or using platforms. From there, they can advance to tracking how student usage and skills are developing in classrooms across the district.
Another common challenge among the teachers I’ve spoken with is a lack of support or PD they need to make the transition to the more inquiry-based, phenomena-led teaching that comes with NGSS. Teachers need someone at the district level who sees the need for PD and prioritizes it. It’s hard for a teacher to leave the classroom for PD, but I’ve seen a difference when district leadership has strong science knowledge and an understanding of what teachers actually need to make this change happen. It all starts with rigorous, accessible resources.
How Digital Curriculum Accelerates NGSS Adoption
Teachers around the country are exploring what it means to be digital-first, not just in learning but in assessment. Digital curriculum can be more cost-effective than traditional textbooks and far more adaptable. Standards and methodologies evolve. With digital resources, teachers who have been in the classroom for a number of years are never stuck with the choice between teaching outdated content or creating their own materials. They’re empowered with living resources that change with the times. Over the years, I’ve heard many teachers express their relief at not having to build new lessons when pedagogy shifts or new standards are introduced. With digital resources, they can focus on being awesome teachers. A digital curriculum also gathers student data and helps teachers see patterns based not just on the content students are working on at any given moment, but on how their skills are developing over time.
‘A digital curriculum also gathers student data and helps teachers see patterns based not just on the content students are working on at any given moment, but on how their skills are developing over time.’
At a time when students may spend 20% of their instructional time with substitute teachers, digital resources provide a much-needed source of continuity—not to mention background knowledge for those substitutes who may not have a science background. They offer in-depth support on how to deliver an engaging classroom experience that is in line with what the teacher had planned for that lesson, even allowing the absent teacher to assign work for the class to do. Just as substitute teachers benefit from having a plan to follow, all teachers benefit from rigorous and ongoing professional development.
In-Person, Recurring PD
In my experience, the most effective PD is done in person, and is best done not as a one-off workshop that takes two hours sometime in August before school starts, or on a Friday afternoon after an intense day in school. The best PD is recurring, so teachers have the chance to learn something, apply it in their classroom, and then evaluate it together with their peers.
I’ve seen impressive PD sessions where teachers play the part of students in a lesson so they experience what it’s like to be a student in an inquiry-based classroom. They learn that NGSS can be challenging for students because, instead of coming prepared with factual answers, they have to make conjectures and look for answers. It’s really powerful for teachers to see how the NGSS pedagogy works in action.
The Elephant in the Room: AI
I’ve been in edtech for more than a decade, so I’ve seen new technologies come and go. Based on what I’ve seen, I believe that AI can revolutionize what’s feasible in education. It holds incredible potential to support differentiated instruction and offer real-time feedback, but it needs to be implemented with guardrails—as I like to say, AI needs to be tamed. The big challenge with AI is to make certain that it is creating high-quality output that teachers and students can depend on. This is not something that’s easily solved. I believe that edtech companies can do it, but we need to proceed with caution.
‘The big challenge with AI is to make certain that it is creating high-quality output that teachers and students can depend on. This is not something that’s easily solved. I believe that edtech companies can do it, but we need to proceed with caution.’
In my conversations with educators, I still sometimes encounter the misconception that students using digital resources just sit in front of laptops and only interact with their screens. Kognity’s mission is not to inspire interaction between students and screens, but between students, their peers, and their teacher.
Digital resources free up teachers to do what they do best: inspire, guide, and connect. When thoughtfully implemented, digital curriculum empowers teachers to adapt content for every learner, keep up with evolving standards, and create the kind of collaborative, hands-on science classrooms that will help students meet the challenge of NGSS.
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Maja Åström is the VP of product management and design at Kognity. She can be reached at maja.astrom@kognity.com
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Original Article Published at Edtech Digest
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