Teachers have long struggled with the tension between ensuring a rigorous education for all their students and the reality that students arrive at the start of a school year with vastly different skills and conceptual understandings. The tension can be even more acute in math, which relies heavily on students mastering foundational concepts in…

Oceans play an important role in weather and climate through transfers of heat and moisture to the atmosphere, and by moving heat and climate-relevant molecules like carbon dioxide around the globe. Energy also transfers from the atmosphere to the surface of the ocean, traveling down through the water column creating ocean currents that transport…

What's in Our Waters Jr. (WOW Jr.) is an environmental outreach program designed to teach fourth grade elementary students about watershed protection. This program is unique because of the partnership that brings together students, teachers, scientists, and water resource professionals to promote science education and environmental stewardship in…

This Study Snapshot highlights key findings from a study that examined how attaining English proficiency and being reclassified as fluent English proficient affected achievement in English language arts and math in the first year after student reclassification in grades 3-8 in New Mexico. New Mexico established a state-level policy that requires…

During a time when students are accessing instruction virtually because of COVID-19, reflecting on the sixth of the Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMP 6) is a vital step for educators to take. Although the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (NGA Center and CCSSO 2010) identifies SMP 6 as Attend to precision, associated expertise…

As every elementary teacher knows, an elementary classroom is a busy place. While literacy and mathematics command the majority of hours of the school day, many schools are left with an inadequate amount of time to devote to science. In an urban district, students in grades K-5 receive a mere 30 minutes a day for science and social studies. There…

Recent trends highlight the connection between engagement in physical activity and cognitive function. This is a key point to consider when designing physical education curricula and the activities that are included. By exposing students to material in a variety of ways students' interest can be sparked, yielding greater learning and understanding…

Science teaching continues to move away from teaching science as merely a body of facts and figures to be memorized to a process of exploring and drawing conclusions. The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) emphasize eight science and engineering practices that ask students to apply scientific and engineering reasoning and explanation. This…

Everyone has problems, from the smallest ant competing for a food source to the largest elephant needing to cool down. Fortunately, organisms have structures that function to help them solve these problems. So when a group of fourth-grade students look for solutions to their problems, who do they turn to? A biological champion, of course! Plants…

National standards for student achievement have been developed in the arts in a process that paralleled the standards discussions being held in mathematics, language arts, science, history, and other areas. The standards process, while demanding, has generated important discussion and debate about which art forms, what kind of knowledge, and what…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) measures student science achievement nationally, state by state, and, most recently, across selected urban school districts. Periodically, the framework underlying the science assessment is revised or updated. This document, "Science Framework for the 2019 National Assessment of…

Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) Science for use with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) assessments are available for the 2016-17 school year. These new assessments measure student growth toward understanding of the multidimensional NGSS performance expectations. This report presents MAP Science for use with NGSS by presenting and…

What does "rigor," a word that frequently pops up in conversations about education, really mean? More specifically, what does it mean for "literacy" instruction, and how does it relate to challenging standards-based assessments? In this informative and practical guide, literacy expert Nancy Boyles uses the framework from Webb's…

Many teachers experience the tension between using published curriculum materials and teaching in ways that are responsive to children. Teachers are often expected to use a particular mathematics curriculum series, but they still want to be able to build on and connect to children's multiple mathematical knowledge bases (MMKB).…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides federal funds to improve elementary and secondary education in the nation's schools. ESSA requires states and Local Educational Agencies (i.e., school districts and charter schools) to take a variety of actions to ensure that all children, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, gender, disability…