1. Building Support for California NGSS: Tools to Communicate
California Alliance for
Next Generation Science Standards (CA4NGSS)

2. Presenters
Neetu Balram, Communications Director, Californians Dedicated to Education Foundation
Jessica Sawko, Executive Director, California Science Teachers Association

3. Please Introduce Yourself
Name
Affiliation
Your experience with CA-NGSS either implementing or communicating

4. California Alliance for NGSS (CA4NGSS)
Established in 2015 to connect organizations in CA committed to supporting implementation of California’s new science education standards.
80 organizations associated with the Alliance
Mentioned in the state’s implementation plan – Strategy 8
Org. Structure consists of an executive committee, steering committee, and working committees including communications
Staff lead is Jessica Howard at CDE Foundation
Executive Committee and Steering Committee
Meets bi-annually – next meeting is today at 3:00 pm (double check time and location)
Communications has been its primary work thus far – Neetu and Jessica have been heavily involved in this work along with Children Now, CSBA, CTA, ACSA and California PTA and other orgs.

5. Messages and Messaging

7. Message Testing & Development
Educators & Parents

8. About the Survey
This survey was conducted to test the Core Messages drafted with support from this Communications Work Group.
Testing the Core Messages allows us to move forward with the development of toolkits with confidence that the Messages will resonate with the audiences.
The Core Messages were tested among 1,500 educators and 200 parents.
The surveys were sent through links in s from CSTA, CTA, Children Now, and Facebook, and then questions were asked to to confirm the respondents were California public school or public charter school educators and/or 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.
First, we’ll look at the results from the survey of educators.

9. Educators Who Teach Science

10. Parents

11. Getting Down to Business
Messaging Tools and Resources

12. Areas of Focus College and Career Science at every grade
Doing – not memorizing
Closing the gap
Implementation timeline

13. Available Tools Core Messages CA-NGSS for Principals
Talking Points: Educators to Educators & Educators to Parents
PPT – Building Support for CA-NGSS Implementation
Planning Tools
Parent Fact Sheet
Educator Fact Sheet
General Awareness Article
Leveraging LCFF/LCAP to Support Science
Back-to-School Info Flyers for Parents*
PPT – What is CA-NGSS for Parents*
Video Shorts to Build Support for CA-NGSS*
Download at

14. Utilize the Tools
And Make Them Your Own

15. Learn by Doing Break into pairs
Address the following, making use of Educator Talking Points and Fact Sheets for Principals and Teachers:
Why is my school/district making this change?
What does it look like in the classroom?
Time: 10 min.
Without getting into specific shifts and the nitty gritty of the standards.
How does starting with these messages and this approach set the stage for a more productive, supportive, and collaborative conversation?

16. Learn by Doing – Round 2 Break into pairs
Address the following, making use of Educator to Parent Talking Points and Fact Sheets for Parents:
Why is my school/district making this change?
What does this mean for my student/child?
Time: 10 min.

17. Volunteers?
Using the tools, briefly present opening comments to a parent audience
PTO Meeting
Back to School Night Presentation
Using the tools, briefly present opening comments to educator audience
PLC Meeting
District PD Introduction

18. Feedback and Q & A
Fire Away!

19. Contact Us www.ca4ngss.org Neetu Balram Jessica Sawko
cdefoundation.org
Jessica Sawko