1. How well do you know the new science standards?
What does the acronym NGSS represent?
What is the official name for the new Arkansas science standards?
What are the three dimensions of NGSS?
What year will the grades in your building implement the new standards?

2. Next Generation Science Standards
Arkansas K-12 Science Standards
Disciplinary Core Ideas, Crosscutting Concepts, Science & Engineering Practices K

3. An Overview of the New Science Standards
Quality science education is based on standards that are rich in content and practice, with aligned curricula, pedagogy, assessment, and teacher preparation and development. It has been nearly 15 years since the National Research Council and the American Association for Advancement in Science produced the seminal documents on which most state standards are based. Since that time, major advances in science and our understanding of how students learn science have taken place and need to be reflected in state standards. The time is right to advance toward Next Generation Science Standards. 

4. Arkansas’ involvement in development of the NGSS?
HOW was ARKANSAS INVOLVED?
In 2011, Arkansas became one of 26 states to lead the development of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). AR was one of 26 lead state partners composed of a:
Broad Geographic Representation that Account for 58% of the nation’s public school students
Through our various writing teams and stakeholder groups there was representation from every state in the nation as well as from Puerto Rico, from a diverse community of elementary, middle, and high school teachers (from both rural and urban communities), administrators, state science directors and other key curriculum and assessment developers at the state level, as well as experts in career tech and the scientific fields of cognition, life science, earth science, physical science, and engineering.
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Arkansas had two members on the writing team
The writing team is truly led by the education community– most specifically K-12 educators and administrators that are in the classroom every day. The utility of the document is paramount and if the resulting standards aren’t useful in application, we would consider them a failed initiative.
Members of the writing team represented elementary, middle, and high school educators in both urban and rural communities. This prestigious group includes State Teachers of the Year, Einstein Fellows, Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching winners and individuals who hold offices in their respective professional organizations.
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Arkansas had a review team of 29 members from across the state representing CTE, ASTA, STEM Centers, Service cooperatives, K-12 science, literacy and math teachers, Business leaders, Higher education professionals, ADE assessment, curriculum & professional development representatives.
Writing Team Only
Lead State Partner Only
Lead State Partner and Writing Team

5. Transitions in Science Education
This is an overview diagram of the phase 1:NRC Framework, Phase 2: NGSS, and Phase 3 state implementation.
The National Academies is a non-governmental nonprofit institution of various organizations of science: National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council (NRC), National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine. Formed by President Lincoln to inform government on matters of science.
NRC wrote the first set of national science standards in 1996.
The NRC (National Research Council) Framework is from the scientific community. The guiding principles of the Framework are how students learn science, core scientific ideas accepted by the scientific community, the development of understanding over time, the connection between knowledge and practice, student interest and experiences, and the promotion of equity among all learners.
A Framework for K-12 Science Ed is from the scientific community. Its principles focus on how students learn science, core scientific ideas accepted by the scientific community, the development of understanding over time, the connection between knowledge and practice, student interest and experiences, and the promotion of equity.
With the release of the new Framework we are focusing specifically on deepening understanding of core concepts.
The National Academies have the horsepower and wherewithal to provide the framework for clearer, fewer, and better standards.
By focusing on one framework and one set of standards, the scientific and education communities can provide the guidance and expertise to get these right.
The Framework informed the NGSS. The NGSS will inform the development of the AR K-12 Science Standards
Standards inform Assessment. Curricula, Instruction and Professional development
Standards tell students/teachers what to do
Curriculum is how to teach the Standards
Instruction is what pedagogy is used to teach the Standards
Assessment is how to clarify that students have reached proficiency
The science content of Next Gen. Science Standards is taken directly from the Framework.
NGSS development process is now at the public comment phase. First public release was at the end of April Look for another opportunity to comment on these standards in the Fall of 2012.
Transitions in Science Education

6. On April 10, 2014, the Arkansas State Board of Education unanimously voted to endorse the NGSS as a basis for the development of new K-12 science standards. The endorsement authorized the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) to develop the NGSS into standards that fit Arkansas's curriculum mandates. When completed, Arkansas’s new science standards will reflect the conceptual shifts and represent what students should know and be able to achieve.


Since the State Board endorsement, work has been underway to help prepare districts to implement the new Arkansas K-12 Science Standards in their classrooms. ADE leadership has developed a timeline and a statewide implementation plan for the new standards.

7. NGSS is Different Standards expressed as Performance Expectations.
Combine core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts into a single statement of what is to be assessed.
Performance Expectations are not instructional strategies or objectives for a lesson.
The NGSS, science standards are characterized differently than in most current state science standards and the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996). The NGSS are written as performance expectations that blend disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts to define what is to be assessed. The NGSS performance expectations do not represent instructional strategies or objectives for individual lessons.
Stress that Arkansas’s New Science Standards will have to be very close to the NGSS in order to meet our law that requires they be based on the latest research in science education – the Framework

8. Science and Engineering Practices
Crosscutting Concepts
Disciplinary Core Ideas
The three foundation boxes represent the three dimensions of the standards. The wording is directly from A Framework for K-12 Science Education.

9. NGSS Architecture: Performance Expectations
What a student should be able to do by the end of the grade
Not meant to be taught in a particular sequence and are not curriculum activities
Keep in mind – end of grade – there will be many steps needed to scaffold students to get to this expectation

10. Three-Dimensional Learning
MS-LS2-1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem
Science and Engineering Practices
Crosscutting Concepts
Disciplinary Core Ideas
(3 Dimensional Learning). This is a middle school performance expectation. Ask partners to see if they can identify the 3 dimensions: SEP, DCI, CCC. Allow time for them to discuss.

11. NGSS Architecture: Connections
Connections to:
Other content/grade-bands within the NGSS
Common Core State Standards for ELA/Literacy and Mathematics
But one of the most powerful things about the NGSS is that they were written with the CCSS in mind. At the bottom of every page of standards, connections to CCSS ELA and math are outlined – so that as teachers ask students to read, write, speak, model with mathematics, apply a mathematical concept, etc… they know exactly where students are with those skills and concepts.

12. Graphic is a link to arkansased
Graphic is a link to arkansased.org Home page Show how to get to the standards page.