This study explores the role of unconventional forms of classroom assessments in expanding minoritized students' opportunities to learn (OTL) in high school physics classrooms. In this research + practice partnership project, high school physics teachers and researchers co-designed a unit about momentum to expand minoritized students' meaningful…

This article evaluates a validity argument for the degree to which assessment tasks are able to provide evidence about knowledge that fuses information from a progression of core disciplinary ideas in ecology and a progression for the scientific practice of developing evidence-based explanations. The article describes the interpretive framework…

Over the past several decades, there has been a tremendous growth in our understanding of genetic phenomena and the intricate and complicated mechanisms that mediate genetic effects. Given the complexity of content in modern genetics and the inadequacy of current instructional methods and materials it seems that a more coherent and extensive…

Assessments associated with learning progressions are designed to provide diagnostic information about the level and nature of student understanding. Valid interpretations of such diagnoses are only possible when students consistently express the ideas associated with a single learning progression level. Latent class analysis was employed to…

This qualitative study analyzed grade 12 biology students' answers to written extended-response questions that describe hypothetical scenarios of animals' evolution. We investigated whether these type of questions are suitable for students (n = 24) to express a meaningful understanding of evolutionary theory. Meaningful understanding is comprised…

Teachers play a central role in inquiry science classrooms. In this study, we investigate how seven teacher variables (i.e., gender, experience, perceived importance of inquiry and traditional teaching, workshop attendance, partner teacher, use of technology) affect student knowledge integration understanding of science topics drawing on previous…

In 2005 India introduced a new National Curriculum Framework aimed at providing a more constructivist approach to learning for all subjects. Previous research on the impact of curriculum reform in other countries (e.g., United States) concluded that for reform to be successful teachers' orientations toward teaching and learning must be considered…

This article describes some of the underlying conceptualizations that have gone into the work of the BEAR Center in the development of learning progressions. The core of all of these developments has been the construct map, which is the first building block in the BEAR Assessment System (BAS). After introducing the concept of a learning…

A model of the character and mechanism for knowledge restructuring is presented and a model of educational practice designed to facilitate this form of restructuring is described. A broadened and integrated view of assessment and instruction called a portfolio culture, central to the educational model, is discussed. (KR)

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory study was to identify factors that influenced prospective and experienced secondary level science teachers' reasoning as they evaluated or selected tasks to formatively assess their students' understanding of scientific concepts. The analysis of the coded written responses revealed two categories of…

Lays out an agenda for developing assessment tools and researching their effectiveness. Series of design tasks is proposed, with related research questions. Needed theoretical research includes studies of the effects of alternative assessment on policy and practice as well as the development of new psychometric techniques. Influences of new…

Argues that assessment should be an integral component of the science curriculum and that assessment should assist students and teachers in accomplishing their goals. Points out the failures of the process-product models of school reform. (DDR)

Presented are the results of a survey of elementary school teachers in the state of Illinois. Results are compared to a previous survey conducted 10 years earlier. Discussed are obstacles to science instruction, teacher training, teacher attitudes, student evaluation, and school and community support. (CW)

Study suggests that cognitive referents are important influences in how a teacher thinks about assessment and may constrain a teacher's implementation of innovative practices. Identification of referents such as myths, their associated beliefs, and metonymic conceptual models that teachers use to make sense of their actions is an important step in…

Argues that science educators often face the problem of abnormal distributions when conducting large-scale assessments or evaluating national curriculum projects that require complex sampling plans. Examines the precision of science test scores. (DDR)