1. AAESA K-12 Science Transition Plan: 2016 - 2020
Key Considerations
Year 1:
Year 2:
Year 3:
Year 4:
Assessment Timeline and Framework:
In 2020, current 2nd graders will be assessed on new test at 5th grade, current 5th graders at 8th grade, and current 8th graders at 11th grade.
Assessments composed of 3-Dimensional item clusters that “bundle” Performance Expectations together and embed content (Disciplinary Core Ideas), Science and Engineering Practices, and Crosscutting Concepts. Individual items not intended to be separated and used independently.
Spring 2017:
Last year of science M-STEP with items aligned to 2006-adopted science standards (Grades 4, 7, 11)
Separate pilot test of new Michigan Science Standards (MSS) aligned item clusters in select schools (Grades 5, 8, 11).
Spring 2018:
Continue to pilot MSS aligned item clusters (Grades 5, 8, 11) with accountability TBD.
No 4th or 7th grade science assessment.
Spring 2019:
Aligned to MSS M-STEP state wide field test (Grades 5, 8, 11) which will not count.
Spring 2020: Fully operational MSS Assessment in grades 5, 8, and 11:
Grade 5 test to assess 3-5 grade standards, with K-2 standards as critical foundation of the K-5 progression.
Delivered via online in M-STEP format with Multiple Choice, Technology Enhanced, and Constructed Response items.
Instruction/Professional Development/Leadership Development
Key Actions and Decisions
Identify and support science leaders and utilize them in district PD planning and facilitation.
Develop comprehensive, multi-year plan focused on shifts:
Introductory science PD for all staff.
Administrator PD.
PD for new Cereal City Science units or other curriculum if selected.
PD for secondary science teachers as needed.
Continue support of science leaders and utilize them in district PD planning and facilitation.
Update comprehensive, multi-year plan focused on shifts:
Key Teaching Shifts:
The goal of instruction needs to shift from facts to explaining phenomenon.
Inquiry is not a separate activity – all science learning should involve engaging in practices to build and use knowledge.
Teaching involves building a coherent storyline across time.
(Source: What Professional Development Strategies Are Needed for Successful Implementation of NGSS? Reiser, Brian. Northwestern Michigan University, 9/13)
Develop district-level elementary science leaders to support transition to MSS with emphasis on new instructional shifts and that impacts curriculum decisions:
Cohort 1 (Year 2): 12/1/16
Cohort 2 (Year 1): 12/1/16 and 3/17/17
Plan and begin implementing PD for new MSS-aligned Cereal City science units: Summer 2017
AAESA and district teacher leader supported introductory/awareness-level PD for all staff including administrators.
Continue to develop and support district-level elementary science leaders to support transition to MSS with emphasis on new instructional shifts and that impacts curriculum decisions:
Cohort 1 (Year 3)
Cohort 2 (Year 2)
Implement countywide professional development for new MSS-aligned Cereal City (Physical Science) units and/or other science curricula: Fall 2017-Summer 2018
Continued AAESA and district teacher leader supported science PD for all staff (ie CoP, high-leverage practices across disciplines, formative assessment, etc.).
Cohort 2 (Year 3)
Implement countywide and district-level professional development for new MSS-aligned Cereal City (Earth and Space and Life Science) units and/or other science curricula: Fall 2018-Summer 2019
Desired State:
Science Instruction has shifted in all classrooms:
Lessons are structured so that work is driven by questions arising from phenomena and framed within the Community of Practice model.
Investigations guide construction of explanatory models and the teachers’ role is to support the knowledge building aspects of the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs).
Extensive opportunities for argumentation and reaching consensus about ideas.
Build a classroom culture that supports the SEPs; the shift of responsibility is from the teacher to the students.
Instructional strategies in science are leveraged in other content areas.
Formative assessment strategies are being consistently implemented.
R-1: Communicate and support a vision of instruction that is consistent with A Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards.
R-2: Support teachers in making incremental and continuing changes to improve instruction.
R-3: Develop a classroom culture that supports the new vision of science education. (Teachers should align their teaching approaches, curriculum resources and students’ tasks with the vision. Principals should support the vision and provide necessary resources for teachers and students.)
R-4: Make assessment part of instruction. (Teachers should incorporate performance tasks, open-ended questions, writing tasks, student journals, student discourse, and other formative assessment strategies in their instruction. Summative evidence of student learning that is aligned to the Performance Expectations in MSS should be gathered through student work products that document elements of performance tasks.)
R-5: Begin with leadership. (Designate teams that include teachers to lead implementation of the MSS/NGSS. Initial PD efforts should be focused on these leadership teams.)
R-6: Develop comprehensive, multi-year plans to support teachers’ and administrators’ learning.
R-7: Base design of professional development on the best available evidence. (Build on the key findings from research. PD should be (1) content specific; (2) connect to teacher’s own instructional practice; (3) model the instructional approach being learned and ask teachers to analyze examples of it; (4) enable reflective collaboration; and (5) be a sustained element of a comprehensive and continuing support system. For sustained implementation, research shows that principals’ understanding of and support for instructional changes is key.

2. Key Considerations Year 1: 2016-2017 Year 2: 2017-2018
Curriculum
Key Actions and Decisions
Utilize science leaders and/or vertical science team to review K-8 curriculum using NGSS evaluation tools. Provide opportunities for teachers to experiment with instructional shifts before selecting curriculum.
If district adopts new Cereal City curriculum:
Schedule inventory of Cereal City Physical Science Units: Spring/Summer 2017
Order new materials to complete Physical Science kits
Secondary science teachers:
Select course model option that best suits your district.
Prepare recommendation report.
Communicate to administration about the process and about the shifts that are coming.
Schedule inventory of Cereal City Units: Spring/Summer 2018
Order new materials to complete new units.
Presentations to home districts - review & revise recommendations based on district feedback.
Course descriptions completed during the fall, ready by January 2018.
Schedule inventory of Cereal City Units: Spring/Summer 2019
Secondary science teacher:
Courses in place.
Lesson/ sequence development focus.
K-8 curriculum adoption complete.
Secondary science has courses in place and continuing to revise/refine lesson/sequence development.
Key Curriculum Shifts:
Move from a “standard by standard” approach to curriculum which would lead to redundant and fragmented learning, to an approach in which standards are “bundled” into instructional units that recognize the interconnections between the 3-Dimensions (Science and Engineering Practices, Crosscutting Concepts and Disciplinary Core Ideas.
Provide opportunities for teachers to experiment with trying some of the instructional shifts before selecting or developing curriculum.
Other resources in addition to curriculum need to be considered: space, equipment, storage, supplies, computers/software, etc.
Field test Cereal City Physical Science units:
Collect feedback from field testers.
Collect student artifacts, video footage, etc. for use in PD.
Provide resources and tools for districts to evaluate alternate science curriculum resources.
Field test Cereal City Earth and Space Science units:
Collect feedback from field testers
Field test Cereal City Life Science units:
Collect student artifacts, video footage for use in PD.
Fully articulated elementary science curriculum that is NGSS/MSS-aligned
Science lessons/investigations are CoP –aligned with increased rigor, relevance and inquiry; common language being used
Science is viewed as equally important as the other content areas; science is often the context for integrated lessons
Successful implementation of Cereal City or alternate Science curriculum
Curriculum uses
R-9: Do not rush to completely replace all curriculum materials. (Look for curriculum materials designed around goals for student learning that are consistent with the NGSS)
R-10: Decide on course scope and sequencing. (Scope and sequence is especially important for grades 6-12 for which the Performance Expectations are organized in grade bands (6-8 and 9-12). The process of planning scope and sequence should be guided by the strategies outlined in Appendix K of the NGSS.)
R-11: Be critical consumers of new curriculum materials. (District leadership teams should use a clear set of measures and tools with which to judge whether curriculum materials are truly consistent with the goals of A Framework for K-12 Science Education.
R-12: Attend to coherence in the curriculum. (Curriculum designers and curriculum selection teams should ensure that curriculum materials are designed with a coherent trajectory for students’ learning. Students need to experience the practices in varied combinations and in multiple contexts to be able to use them as required to meet the MSS Performance Expectations.)

3. Key Considerations Year 1: 2016-17 Year 2: 2017-2018 Year 3: 2018-2019
Assessment
Key Actions and Decisions
Communicate to all staff that this is the last year for the 4th grade M-STEP science assessment.
Support teacher leaders as they develop formative assessment strategies.
Decide if your district wants to pilot 5th grade assessment items.
Key Assessment Shifts;
The NGSS identify assessable performance expectations (PEs), or what students should know and be able to do at the end of instruction.
Each PE represents the integration of three “dimensions” of science education: scientific and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas (DCIs), and crosscutting concepts (CCCs). As such, both student learning and assessment around the NGSS should be “three dimensional”.
Identify assessment resources
Revise & field test Cereal City and/or other elementary science curriculum-based pre/post and summative assessments and rubrics; collect student work (K-5)
Begin work on formative assessment and performance tasks.
Expand assessment resources
Professional development on protocols for looking at student work
Support performance task development
Identify science Essential Learning Targets
Identify science Essential Learning Targets; begin development of science CFAs.
Quality science performance tasks available
All K-5 teachers have access to high-quality common Cereal City and/or other elementary science pre/post and summative assessments and rubrics;
Key district staff trained on developing performance tasks and using protocols for looking at student work
Elementary science PLCs functioning with identified ELTs and CFAs.
R-14: Help teachers develop appropriate formative assessment strategies. (Help teachers develop appropriate formative assessment strategies. School leaders need to ensure that professional development for science teachers covers issues of assessment and supports teachers in using formative assessment of student thinking to inform ongoing instruction.)

4. Key Considerations Year 1: 2016-2017 Year 2: 2017-2018
Systems
Key Actions and Decisions
Create, build, and support Vertical Science Teams
Build budget for PD for science leaders, administrators, and all staff.
Plan for necessary resources to support science instruction.
Communicate to parents, students and stakeholders about the shifts in science instruction, curriculum and assessment.
Create and build in time for Vertical Science Teams
Key Components:
District vision for science instruction that aligns to NGSS.
Resources for science and opportunities for collaboration are leveraged in and outside the district.
Local district policies ensure consistency with the goals for implementing NGSS/MSS.
Communication strategies are developed and shared.
Support vertical alignment teams
Provide training for key science teacher leaders
Administrator training – what does a NGSS/CoP –based science classroom look like?
Develop a parent, student and stakeholder information communication toolkit to help build understanding around the NGSS/MSS.
Identify necessary resources including key technology that supports the implementation of the NGSS/CoP model
Strengthen existing partnerships; identify new ones
Develop a parent, student and stakeholder information toolkit to help build understanding around the NGSS/MSS.
High-functioning vertical alignment science teams effecting change in the district around science instruction and assessment (NGSS and CoP framework)
Administrators with solid understanding about science teacher evaluations
Common language being used
Tools and resources in place to support NGSS-aligned curricular materials
Pertinent technology is in place to support the implementation of the NGSS and CoP model
Partnerships are developed and sustained that support NGSS/CoP implementation
R-1: Communicate and support a vision of instruction that is consistent with A Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards
R-8: Leverage networks and partners. (Cultivate partnerships with other districts, PD networks, web-based PD resources, science education researchers, MI Math & Science Centers Network, etc.)
R-15: Create opportunities for collaboration. (District & school leaders should create and systematically support opportunities for teachers and administrators to collaborate within and across districts/schools, with focus on improving instruction to support students’ learning as described in Framework.)
R-16: Identify, participate in, and build networks. (communities of practitioners, policy makers, science experts, and education researchers)
R-18: Ensure existing state and local policies are consistent with the goals for implementing the MSS/NGSS.
R-19: Create realistic timelines and monitor progress.
R-21: Communicate with local stakeholders. (Develop comprehensive strategy for communicating with parents and community members about the MSS/NGSS and changes needed to implement them (ie multiyear timeline, possible changes in students’ assessment results, and how science classrooms may be different.)