1. California Alliance for Next Generation Science Standards (CA4NGSS)
COMMUNICATIONS TOOLKIT
MARCH 22, 2017

2. NGSS Communications Needs
Elevate science itself - historically shortchanged.
New standards are complex and dramatically different.
Promote understanding
Promote patience – to achieve full CA-NGSS implementation
Potential for political challenges.
Educator buy-in essential to success.
Quick comments on early history of group that quickly focused partners on communications.

3. Communications Work Group Participating Organizations
ACSA
CSBA
Partnership for Children & Youth
CA4NGSS
CSP
Solano COE/ACSA
Cal Academy of Science
CSTA
State Board of Education
Cal Recycle
CTA
TechNet
CCSESA
Education Trust-West
Ten Strands
CDE
Environmental Literacy Steering Committee
UC Davis
CDE Foundation
Exploratorium
Chevron
Great Schools
Children Now
LA Chamber of Commerce
Common Sense Media

4. NGSS Communications Campaign
Purpose
Structure
Ensure public understands science is a critical part of every student’s education – not just future scientists.
Establish importance of science to economy and students’ preparedness for tomorrow’s jobs.
Help parents understand new standards, their importance, how they differ, what to expect.
Promote a positive political/policy environment; mitigate problems or misunderstandings as they emerge.
Maintain focus on full CA-NGSS implementation.
Ensure inclusion of science in all LCAPs.
4-year campaign with phased timeline aligned to implementation stages for each targeted audience.
Overall goals & management structure.
Audience-specific campaign goals & strategies.
Site-based educators (teachers & principals)
District administrators & local education leaders
Parents
Business
Media
Others TBD, e.g. higher education, non-formal educators
Science critical:
Deeper understanding and knowledge – problem solving, collaboration, investigation, communication
Promotes equity – relevance; language
Equal importance to math/ELA

5. 2016 Campaign Goals & Target Audiences
12-month goals
Priority audiences for 2016
Develop a common, consistent voice for CA- NGSS across the activities of CA4NGSS organizations.
Increase understanding and support of CA- NGSS among teachers, administrators and other local education leaders/activists.
Highlight impacts on equity
Increase the number of districts that have established plans and resources for CA-NGSS implementation.
Share exemplars.
Foster development of a cadre of champions within target audiences.
Teachers
Principals
District superintendents & administrators
School board members

6. Initial Approach for Audience-Specific Campaigns
Message content
INITIAL Outreach approach
Reach audiences through their involvement in existing networks. I.e., partners such as CSTA, CTA, CFT, ACSA, PTA, etc. tailor messages and brand materials to engage their members through their publications, conferences and training activities.
Leverage CDE and COE communications channels and training events for statewide dissemination.
Design multi-media resources and develop social media distribution strategy.
Tailored messages to persuasively address audience-specific concerns & questions.
Additional talking points to provide important factual information.
“Toolkit” of supportive resources that:
Package messages in formats that meet audience needs.
Respond to common questions and objections.
Support recipients to be “trusted messengers” to peers and parents.
Words are only 7% of messaging. The rest is who and how it’s delivered…

7. CA NGSS Communication Tools
Resources are available for download from the ca4ngss.org site. Materials are organized by audience.

8. Available Tools General Audience: Parents
What Are Core Messages?
NGSS General Awareness Article
Leveraging LCFF/LCAP to Support Science
Leveraging LCFF/LCAP Synopsis
Budget & Planning Timeline
Advocating CA-NGSS to Your Local Board/Superintendent
Sample Advocacy Letter to LEA
Parents
Core Messages for Parents
Talking Points: Educators to Parents
Parent Fact Sheet
PPT – Building Support for CA-NGSS Implementation
Beginning & End of Year Info Flyers for Parents (by grade level)
Beginning and End of Year PPT Templates – What is CA-NGSS for Parents (by grade level)
Parent Information Video to Build Support for CA-NGSS (with English and Spanish subtitles.)
Download at

9. Available Tools Site Leaders: District Leaders CA-NGSS for Principals
Talking Points: Educators to Educators
Educator Fact Sheet
Core Messages for Educators
District Leaders
Implementation Planning Tools
Introduction
Tool
Research Brief
District Action Plan
PPT to District or School Leaders
CSBA Brief on Supporting NGSS Implementation
Best Practices for Engaging Stakeholders in Budget and Planning
Download at

10. Core Message Development
Why create core messages?
A coordinated campaign needs common language to convey key themes and concepts to a broad range of audiences.
Need a positive, compelling narrative about the value of science and engineering education for California students and economy.
Ensure language is tailored to California-specific issues and audiences.
Serve as a base from which to develop audience-specific messages and talking points.
The messages that have been shared with you today are intended to be at a level that will address many of the issues and areas that the various members of this Alliance need to address. They are intended to be adapted, modified, and or tailored to best meet the needs of your various audiences.

11. Process & Timeline for Core Message Development
Review and borrow from existing materials. (Jan - Feb 2016)
Individual outreach w/partner orgs & survey Rollout attendees to identify issues & questions. (Feb - Mar 2016)
Draft & share/edit core messages. (Mar – May 2016)
Test/validate messages through focus groups and/or surveys of target audience representatives. (May 2016)
Develop supporting collateral. (May 2016-ongoing)
Roll out core messages to CA4NGSS participating organizations. (June/July )
The message were developed collaboratively by the work group participants over several months. We drew heavily from existing materials and research that is available from national, other states, and locally in California. This timeline represents what occurred and has been adjusted based on progress made thus far.

12. Landscape Survey and Use of Existing Materials
Achieve and the NGSS Adoption State Network
STEM Teaching Tools
WestEd
California Department of Education
Lawrence Hall of Science
Alliance Members
The Teaching Channel
100Kin10
Frameworks Institute
And many more
National Science Teachers Association
As a first step, Alliance members conducted a landscape survey of available materials, and where appropriate, incorporated those materials and components of them into the toolkit.

13. Deliverables for Core Message Development
Core messages distributed to all CA4NGSS participating organizations.
General awareness-raising article drafted for publication/posting by CA4NGSS participating orgs.
Public launch of CA4NGSS website with core messages incorporated.
Plans in place to support focus on CA-NGSS and use of core messaging at select partner conferences and events (e.g., CSTA, NSTA, CSBA, CSU, Rollouts).

14. Message Testing & Development
Educators & Parents

15. Areas of Focus of Core Messages & Toolkit Items
College and Career
Science at every grade
Doing – not memorizing
Closing the gap
Implementation timeline

16. About the Survey
The survey was conducted to test the Core Messages drafted with support from this Communications Work Group.
The resulting data informed the development of toolkit items using the Core Messages that resonate with the intended audiences.
The Core Messages were tested among 1,500 educators and 200 parents.
Respondents were asked to rank the Core Messages according to appeal, understanding, positive feeling, and call-to-action, and then based on those rankings an average score was created for each message.
Work was funded, in part, by the Carnegie Corporation of New York
First, we’ll look at the results from the survey of educators.

17. Educators
75%
The sample size for school-site administrators, district-level administrators, superintendents, and school board members are small, but combined (42), they are 60% unfamiliar or neutral and 40% familiar.
25%

18. Educators Who Teach Science
55%
45%

19. Top Tier Message (Educators): Students Like Learning This Way
“California’s Next Generation Science Standard embrace a young person’s innate curiosity by introducing science at the earliest grades to all students, encouraging them to ask questions and emphasizing hands-on investigation and discovery. This approach to teaching is more engaging and in line with what we know about how students learn.”
-1,500 California public school educators were surveyed
-82% of respondents (568) found this message appealing
-86% found it somewhat or very easy to understand
-Made 82% of respondents feel somewhat or very positive about NGSS
-About 68% would take action, based on this statement: talk to others about NGSS; ask the school or district to support NGSS; or seek more information

20. Mid-Tier 1 Messages (Educators)
California Students Need More Science in Elementary Schools
CA-NGSS Is a Better Way to Learn Science
Science Is How We Understand the World Around Us
Science Learning in Out-of-School Settings

21. Mid-Tier 2 Messages (Educators)
All of California’s New Standards Work Together
Transitioning to New Standards Requires Patience and Persistence
NGSS Promotes Equity
The ranking of the message, “NGSS promotes equity” this low was a surprising find.
-63% found the message appealing
-72% found the message easy to understand; more than 11% of people found this message hard to understand
-63% said the message made them feel somewhat or very positive about NGSS
-57-59% of respondents would take some form of action
Digging deeper, the one group that found this message particularly compelling were the educators who identified themselves as Out-of-Classroom Teachers/TOSA Coach. The message that resonated strongly with them was 5b.
-Appeal: 76%
-Positivity: 76%
-78% more likely to talk to others about NGSS and ask school or district how they are supporting NGSS

22. Bottom Tier Messages (Educators)
New Assessments Will Support Good Instruction
The Whole Community Is Needed to Strengthen Science Education
School Districts Must Lead in Planning for NGSS Transition
-These messages ranged in appeal, from (10) 55-61% (12).
-Ease of understanding, 67-71%
-Feelings of positivity, (10) 50-56% (12) (feelings of negativity, 11-14%)
-Each of these statements still prompt some form of action from the majority of respondents (52-60%).
-In particular, the Messages about assessments and school districts leading the planning for transition each prompted 60% of respondents to ask their school or district what they are doing to support NGSS.
-Recommendations for these messages: while messages about assessments and districts leading implementation seem to be sufficiently easy to understand, they should only be used as a way to directly respond to questions, as they don’t improve feelings of positivity or particularly appeal to audiences. They will prompt follow up questions for the school or district.

23. Top Tier Message 1 (Parents): Students Like Learning This Way
“California’s Next Generation Science Standards ask students to think and behave like scientists and engineers. When students understand how scientists and engineers do their, and have opportunities to carry out investigations and design solutions, they become more engaged in their learning and increase their comprehension.”
-81% of respondents (101) found this message appealing
-86% found it somewhat or very easy to understand
-Made 83% of respondents feel somewhat or very positive about NGSS
-This message would prompt 75% of respondents to seek more information, 68% to ask the school or district how they were going to support NGSS, and 64% to talk to others.

24. Top Tier Message 2: Strong Science Education Is Essential for College and/or Career Readiness (Parents)
“Our workforce needs people with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) competencies. STEM jobs comprise 20% of all U.S. jobs and are expected to keep growing faster than overall employment. In California, STEM careers now comprise more than a quarter of all new job openings, including many of the highest paid occupations. Our students should be prepared for the career and economic opportunity these jobs offer.
-80% of respondents (103) found this message appealing
-84% found it somewhat or very easy to understand
-Made 78% of respondents feel somewhat or very positive about NGSS
-This message would prompt 81% of respondents to seek more information, 79% to ask the school or district how they were going to support NGSS, and 68% to talk to others.

25. Mid-Tier Messages (Parents)
Science Is How We Understand the World Around Us
Teacher Expertise and Creativity Is Valued
NGSS Promotes Equity
California Students Need More Science in Elementary Schools
When respondents were asked to compare the message, “California Students Need More Science in Elementary Schools” to others, they ranked that message as #1.
While not as weak as it was with educators, the Equity message didn’t resonate as strongly as we would expect.
-73% found the message appealing
-81% found the message easy to understand
-75% said the message made them feel somewhat or very positive about NGSS
-64-71% of respondents would take some form of action
-Looking deeper, 94% of parents who were familiar with NGSS, found the message appealing versus 63% when they were unfamiliar.
-90% of those who made <$75k found the message easy to understand. 73% of those who made more found the message easy to understand.
-Most revealing, 86% of those who made <$75k felt more positively towards NGSS, versus 67% of those who made more.
-And 94% of those familiar with NGSS had positive feelings about NGSS after hearing this message, versus 66% of those who were unfamiliar.
A conclusion can be drawn that, like with teachers, parents need to understand the issue more to see how NGSS relates to equity, and this message would resonate more among parents in lower income districts or schools.

26. Bottom Tier Messages (Parents)
The Whole Community Is Needed to Strengthen Science Education
Transitioning to New Standards Requires Patience and Persistence

27. CA NGSS Communication Tools http://ca4ngss.org
Resources are available for download from the ca4ngss.org site. Materials are organized by audience.