The "Next Generation Science Standards" explicitly endorse argumentation as essential practices for K-12 science classrooms because it can concurrently engage the learners in the coordination of conceptual, epistemic, and social goals. It is important to develop students' capacities to interpret information and data to reasonable…

Standards-based grading, an alternative form of grading in which a student's achievement is based on their performance on a clearly defined set of standards rather than on their performance on tests and assignments, is commonplace in K-12 education but has been slow to catch on in higher education. This article presents an example of how…

Literacy standards increasingly emphasize the importance of analytic text-based writing. Little consensus exists, however, around what high-quality student responses should look like in this genre. In this study, we investigated fifth-grade students' writing in response to analytic text-based writing tasks (15 teachers, 44 writing tasks, 88 pieces…

Attaining the vision for science teaching and learning emphasized in the Framework for K-12 Science Education and the next generation science standards (NGSS) will require major shifts in teaching practices in many science classrooms. As NGSS-inspired cognitively demanding tasks begin to appear in more and more science classrooms, facilitating…

In many countries, just as in the United States, the pressure is on to raise the quality of the teaching force; the bar is being raised for what teachers should be able to do. Drawing on her experiences organizing the International Summit on the Teaching Profession and leading delegations of educators to various nations, Stewart describes how some…

This case study explores policy implementation of a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)-focused charter school over a three-year period. Gateway Science Academy of St. Louis (GSA), a K-12 district, has applied the STEM-focused curriculum model for seven years. This case study uses the Fullan Change Theory's seven core…

Alignment to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is essential in efforts to interpret the standards and to compare curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment efforts with respect to the standards. However, relatively little work has explored the alignment implications of NGSS. This article is a conceptual analysis that gives an overview of…

In line with the purpose of this special issue, we examine how school leaders can lead to create the vision and reality for schools and their communities to explicitly address forms of academic anxiety and emotional exclusion. We suggest how school leaders can work to engage parents in helping to remove acquired affective disability and 'emotional…

Get past the knowing-doing gap and confidently implement standards-based learning. This book offers a comprehensive look at what standards-based learning looks like in action, from creating formative assessments to using data to inform instruction to transitioning to standards-based grading systems. Instead of comparing students to each other,…

Following recent analysis by "We The Educators", a joint project of the Alberta Teachers' Association, the Canadian Teachers' Federation and Education International, the global proliferation of education technologies is inseparable from "the privatisation and standardization of education occurring around the world" (We The…

This paper provides a conceptual analysis and methodology to improve the Next Generation Science Standards' focus on interdisciplinary connections. The paper identifies a plethora of connections across Disciplinary Core Ideas that are neglected by the NGSS. In addition, it presents a methodology to generate "educative" curriculum…

Federal policy limits the number of students that a state may assess with an alternate assessment aligned to alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS) to no more than 1% of all students in the grades assessed in a state. The AA-AAS is intended only for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. This Brief addresses important…

Rural students often face challenges in receiving high-quality education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Yet without meaningful STEM educational opportunities, rural students might not develop the knowledge and skills needed to compete in a technology-driven workforce. The Learning by Making program (LbyM), an innovative…

Teacher education in Ghana has undergone significant transformations over the years, with the introduction of policies aimed at improving professional standards and educational outcomes. This article critically examines the evolving landscape of teacher education in Ghana, focusing on key policy interventions such as the teacher licensure regime…

On October 14 and 15, and December 8, 2021, the Board on Science Education at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a virtual Summit entitled Taking Stock of Science Standards Implementation. Participants explored the landscape of state science standards implementation, identified where there have been successes and…