It is no secret that in today's complex world, students face unparalleled demands as they prepare for college, careers, and active citizenship. However, those demands will not be met without a fundamental shift from traditional, teacher-centered instruction toward innovative, student-centered teaching and learning. For schools ready to make such a…

High school students' prevalence as food-service industry employees and their lack of food safety knowledge make them prime candidates for food safety education. The researchers developed a food-safety-focused curriculum for high school students aligned with Indiana Academic Standards for Agriculture, Advanced Life Science: Food. The curriculum…

If a "curriculum" -- a set of instructional materials intended as a comprehensive course of study for a particular subject and grade level -- is well-aligned with state standards, it can help teachers deliver instruction that leads to students' mastery of those standards. However, most research suggests that curricula, in themselves, are…

We examined the degree to which content of states' writing standards and assessments (using measures of content range, frequency, balance, and cognitive complexity) and their alignment were related to student writing achievement on the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), while controlling for student, school, and state…

This report describes the core standards process for Utah Public Schools. During fiscal year 2017-2018, the Utah State Board of Education (Board) continued revisions to core standards for Health Education, K-5 and 9-12 Science, and Early Childhood Education. The Health Education Core is currently out for 90 days of public review which closes…

Teachers' ability to effectively enact the ambitious vision of the NGSS depends on their understanding of the conceptual and instructional shifts required, and their interpretation of how to implement these shifts in their classrooms. Thus, understanding teachers' practical knowledge regarding the shifts is an important step in supporting them to…

With increased focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and STEAM, educators are looking for ways to integrate disciplines. Planning content around a common theme is an avenue for an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning in the middle grades. Middle grade educators must find ways to relate content to their…

Quality assurance processes have been applied to many aspects of higher education, including teaching, learning and assessment. At least in the latter domain, quality assurance needs its fundamental tenets critically scrutinised. A common but inadequate approach has been to identify and promote learning environment changes "likely to…

Science educators in the United States are adapting to a new vision of how students learn science. Children are natural explorers and their observations and intuitions about the world around them are the foundation for science learning. Unfortunately, the way science has been taught in the United States has not always taken advantage of those…

Instructional materials are an important resource in US classrooms. They represent the intersection of standards, subject matter knowledge and practice, and pedagogy. In light of the Framework for K-12 Science Education (National Research Council, 2012) and the subsequently released Next Generation Science Standards (Next Generation Science…

The current study, a uniquely challenging failed partnership, describes via an exploratory case study design the endeavors of a single middle school science teacher as he translated the reform messages of the Next Generation Science Standards into actual classroom practice. Data collected from both within and outside of the classroom revealed the…

Ensuring that all students achieve successful post-school outcomes has been a goal of U.S. education policy for many years. Clear statements and policy priorities emerged in the late 2000s about a goal for all students to leave high school ready for success in postsecondary education or employment (often referred to as college and career…

This report explores District of Columbia Public Schools' innovative approach to supporting teaching instruction, called Learning Together to Advance our Practice, or LEAP. LEAP is based on research that has found the most effective professional learning is school-based and content-specific, grounded in the instructional materials and strategies…

This article describes a professional development (PD) model, the CT-Integration Cycle, that supports teachers in learning to integrate computational thinking (CT) and computer science principles into their middle school science and STEM instruction. The PD model outlined here includes collaborative design (codesign; Voogt et al., 2015) of…

"Authentic Project-Based Learning in Grades 9-12" provides a clear guide to design, develop, and implement real-world challenges for any high school subject. The author lays out five clear, standards-based stages of assessment to help you and your learners process the what, how, and why of authentic project-based experiences. You'll…