STEM Learning and Learning Environments  

Partnership for Building Capacity for Improvement in State Science Education

Effective Years: 2016-2020

The ECR (Education and Human Resources Core Research) program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that will generate foundational knowledge in the field. As such, the incoherence of state and local science systems is well-documented in the research literature, as are the ways that incoherence makes system-level improvements difficult to attain. This project will investigate the steps state level science educators and policymakers might take to help build coherent systems of science education around a common vision where curriculum, instruction, and assessment align. It will address the problem of incoherence by testing strategies to better understand the conditions under which state systems of science education afford all students with opportunities to meet the challenging new vision for science education presented in A Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2012). A network of state teams and researchers will work together to bring a unique blend of expertise to collaborative co-design processes and to conducting rigorous implementation research using formative assessment as the vehicle for promoting advancement in educational leadership practice. The project will examine two main forms of coherence important in systems relevant to state leaders' roles in their respective systems: (1) vertical coherence, which looks at the degree to which there is a shared understanding of the goals for science learning and consensus about the purposes and uses of assessment: and (2) horizontal coherence, which focuses on the alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment policies and practices with the new vision for science education. The project will employ design-based implementation research (DBIR) using a mixed methods approach to build foundational knowledge and theory about how a network of states can support implementation of ambitious new standards and promote coherence across systems of science education. The project will collect data through surveys, focus groups, key informant interviews, and case studies from multiple levels of the states' education systems including state level officials and classroom teachers. Researchers and state teams will serve as co-researchers through participatory research that builds local capacity for conducting systematic inquiry into educators' needs and an information network to enable cross-state comparisons of perceived challenges to coherence. Outcomes from the project will include foundational knowledge about methods, tools, and strategies for building knowledge and theory in science education. In turn, these outcomes will benefit society by supporting the development of a shared vision for K-12 science education among participating states, experts, researchers, and the broader science education stakeholder community. In addition, the project will benefit the students in the states by increasing their knowledge of science and engineering in ways that will allow them to engage in public discussions and it will benefit the design of solutions to expand diversity in STEM fields.