Next Generation Science Standards and Designing School System Educational Infrastructure to Support Elementary School Science Instruction (Poster 66)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Eight
  In Poster Session: 2023 AERA Undergraduate Fellows Research Poster Fair

Abstract

"The NGSS requires schools and teachers to make significant instructional shifts; for example, moving from learning about scientific phenomena to figuring them out (NGSS Lead States, 2013; Schwarz et al., 2017). As such, this study is broadly interested in the work of districts to support these sorts of ambitious instructional shifts. This study specifically investigates how one suburban district, Bartlett, restructured its educational system to integrate NGSS learning ideals into classroom instruction and to support teachers in organizing, managing, and improving elementary science instruction. This single case study (Yin, 2014) is embedded within a larger comparative case study of 13 districts across the United States. Bartlett is a suburban district in Massachusetts with a predominantly White population and a median household income above $150,000. Data sources include nine interviews with district administrators and an external partner, one observation from a curriculum meeting, and two artifacts describing curriculum materials. Data analysis involved the drafting of an analytical memo integrating deductively coded data with information from interviews and observations to create a narrative of the system-building work in Bartlett. Preliminary results show Bartlett has foregrounded two key domains of the analytic framework in their system-building design: building educational infrastructure, and developing and distributing instructional leadership. A “homegrown curriculum” allows district science leaders to handcraft science instruction. Bartlett’s community science center and its two leaders also serve as major assets to the district’s science endeavors. Next steps include conducting interviews with teachers and more classroom observations to further develop the practical theories and models of this study.

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Author

• Jamison E. Stout, Northwestern University
  Presenting Author