Assessments

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Designing for Engineering: A Model for Integrating Engineering and Science NGSS Middle School Benchmark Assessments

This paper describes the project design approach for developing item sets for the NGSS engineering performance expectations (PEs) for middle school. It further examines how the design approach allows the integration of assessments for engineering PEs and for science PEs and how resulting item sets elicit three-dimensional responses from students for both PEs.

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Bridging the Gap: Evaluating a Design Approach for Curriculum-Neutral NGSS Benchmark Assessments in Middle School

This study focuses on the project approach to item design and eliciting three-dimensional student performances aligned to the NGSS middle school performance expectations. It also examines the curriculum-neutrality and accessibility of items for students, regardless of their curriculum of instruction.

Two children and a staff member are working together during a science activity.

Articulating a Transformative Approach for Designing Tasks that Measure Young Learners’ Developing Proficiencies in Integrated Science and Literacy

As early elementary classrooms shift to implementing Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) instruction, high-quality assessments are essential for providing teachers with information about where students are in the process of developing proficiency in science. In this paper, we introduce an approach […]

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Assessment at the intersection of science and literacy

The authors of this article, all of whom have been a part of this effort to assess argumentation in literacy-rich science curriculum, have struggled with our attempts to build 3 argument-related assessments—understanding, critiquing, and constructing arguments about scientific phenomena in both oral and written modes.