Many months ago, I attended The National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine April 27 2022: Taking Stock of Science Standards Implementation: A Summit. Since then, I continue to follow their efforts toward implementing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). I will most likely write another post in the future of their work in the Pre-Kindergarten to grade 4 space.

NASEM and taking stock of NGSS progress

NAS originally intended the taking stock effort to be a one-day meeting. The pandemic interfered, and that one-day meeting turned into multiple meetings, and papers, all virtual until the April event. I came to this late in the game, having only found out about NAS efforts on K-12 science education in March 2022. They welcomed me to the summit and seemed genuinely interested in what little contribution I could make.

NASEM covered so many topics at the summit that I could take a month to write about it. Therefore, I will cover what I thought were the high points for my personal understanding. If you want to know more, check out their website, or send me an email and I can connect you to a few of the people I met.

Coherence and equity

The opening talk highlighted two themes: coherence, and moving to equity.

Coherence can mean a lot of things, so I will explain what I understand it to be. Coherence is the alignment of all factors affecting student learning (such as pre-service teacher training, teacher professional learning, adoption of standards and curriculum, etc.). Together, these factors optimize student learning for all students. That last part—for all students—gets to the heart of the equity concerns and efforts.

My takeaways from the summit

So what were my take aways from the summit? First, most likely every science teacher at least knows about the framework and the NGSS. Too many teachers face barriers that prevent them, despite sincere and sustained effort, from fully incorporating the framework and/or standards in their classrooms.

Second, there are a lot of very committed professionals working toward overcoming those barriers. I met a few of them in person this week. Many more attended the virtual portion of this hybrid meeting. Kudos to the NASEM for pulling off the hybrid aspects so well.

Third, part of the reasons these barriers exist is that education decisions are made locally. Local decisions take longer to implement over the whole country than if they could be implemented at the state or national level. What I heard this week supported local decision-making. Education should be part and parcel with local context. What matters to someone in a rural setting, for example, may overlap with what matters in an urban setting, but they are not the same.

Next steps

Taken together, this means a long, difficult effort to overcome the barriers to implementing the framework/standards. Encouragingly, summit attendees developed and pitched specific actions. The five areas of action include : Leadership, Teacher Workforce, Policy, Partnerships and Alliances, and Curriculum and Instruction. 

The five working groups within the summit proposed many good ideas. Some were more specifically actionable than others, but all can be used to direct the work of those who want to make these changes.

I look forward to following these efforts, and hope my own can support and augment them.