Orange County Department of Education and the CAST Science Overview: Cultivating a Scientifically Literate Society

The Orange County Department of Education (OCDE) plays a crucial role in supporting local districts in the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and preparing students for the California Science Test (CAST). The department's efforts are geared towards fostering a scientifically literate society, equipping individuals with the skills to understand the world around them and critically analyze problems.

The Promise of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

The NGSS represent a significant shift in science education, moving away from rote memorization and towards a more engaging, inquiry-based approach. Seven years after their introduction, these new standards are showing a lot of promise in a world transformed by technology. The intent was to create a more scientifically literate society, where people better understand the world around them and are able to think critically to find solutions to everyday problems.

Interconnectedness and Cross-Cutting Concepts

The Next Generation Science Standards demonstrate the interconnectedness between subjects that were once taught in silos. Moreover, there are certain “cross-cutting concepts,” such as patterns and the notion of cause and effect, that have applications across all domains. With a special emphasis on both environmental literacy and the application of technology, NGSS is engaging students of all abilities by nurturing their innate curiosity.

For example, third-graders still study how plants start off as seeds, how animals in the forest adapt to their environment and how weather changes with the seasons. Research shows students not only prefer to learn this way, they remember these lessons better and are more willing to embrace rigorous content.

Challenges and OCDE's Response

Science teachers in California have had to dramatically transform their lessons, and because NGSS leverages the interconnectedness of science, some have had to re-learn disciplines they haven’t studied in years. Another challenge is that elementary schools in some districts extend to grade six, meaning they now have to bolster their science offerings to meet more rigorous sixth-grade science standards. The Orange County Department of Education recognizes these obstacles and has an all-star team in place to address the needs of our local districts.

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OCDE's Support for Local Districts

Since the NGSS adoption, OCDE’s staff of educational leaders has traveled to schools and districts across the county to lead trainings and offer resources. Our work will evolve as we continue to track results from the new California Science Test, or CAST. In California and throughout the country, science instruction is moving away from the old paradigm of telling students what to do and what to see. Today, it’s not just about knowing science.

The Foundation of NGSS: A Framework for K-12 Science Education

The development of the Next Generation Science Standards was a state-led effort. All states were invited to apply to be one of the lead state partners, who provided leadership to the writers throughout the development process. The Lead State Partners put together broad-based committees to provide input and feedback on successive drafts of the standards. Major funding for the development of the Next Generation Science Standards was provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the GE Foundation, and the Noyce Foundation.

In 2010 the National Academy of Sciences, Achieve, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Science Teachers Association embarked on a two-step process to develop the NGSS. The first step of the process was led by the National Academy of Sciences, a non-governmental organization founded in 1863 to advise the nation on scientific and engineering issues. In July 2011, the NRC, the functional advisory arm of the National Academy of Sciences, released the Framework report. The second step in the process was the development of standards grounded in the NRC Framework. The standards were subjected to numerous state reviews as well as two public comment periods and benefitted from additional feedback from the National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) and many critical stakeholders at the local and national level.

The NRC, the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), began the process by releasing A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas in July 2011. The Framework, authored by a committee of 18 individuals who are nationally and internationally known in their respective fields, describes a new vision for science education rooted in scientific evidence and outlines the knowledge and skills that all students need to learn from kindergarten through the end of high school.

As part of the development process, the standards underwent multiple reviews, including two public drafts, allowing anyone interested in science education an opportunity to inform the content and organization of the standards. As partners in this endeavor, the NAS, NAE, NRC, and the National Academies Press (NAP) are deeply committed to the NGSS initiative. While this document is not the product of an NRC expert committee, the final version of the standards was reviewed by the NRC and was found to be consistent with the Framework. These standards, built on the Framework, are essential for enhancing learning for all students and should enjoy the widest possible dissemination, given the vital national importance of high-quality education. The NGSS represent a crucial step forward in realizing the Framework’s vision for science education in classrooms throughout our nation.

Key Components of the Framework

The Framework outlines the three dimensions that are needed to provide students with a high-quality science education. The integration of these three dimensions provides students with a context for the content of science, how science knowledge is acquired and understood, and how the individual sciences are connected through concepts that have universal meaning across disciplines.

Science and Engineering Practices: Dimension 1 describes (a) the major practices that scientists employ as they investigate and build models and theories about the world and (b) a key set of engineering practices that engineers use as they design and build systems. Similarly, because the term “inquiry,” extensively referred to in previous standards documents, has been interpreted over time in many different ways throughout the science education community, part of our intent in articulating the practices in Dimension 1 is to better specify what is meant by inquiry in science and the range of cognitive, social, and physical practices that it requires. As in all inquiry-based approaches to science teaching, our expectation is that students will themselves engage in the practices and not merely learn about them secondhand.
Crosscutting Concepts: The crosscutting concepts have application across all domains of science. As such, they provide one way of linking across the domains in Dimension 3. These crosscutting concepts are not unique to this report. They echo many of the unifying concepts and processes in the National Science Education Standards, the common themes in the Benchmarks for Science Literacy, and the unifying concepts in the Science College Board Standards for College Success.

With these ends in mind, the committee developed its small set of core ideas in science and engineering by applying the criteria listed below. Be teachable and learnable over multiple grades at increasing levels of depth and sophistication. In organizing Dimension 3, we grouped disciplinary ide…

The Three Dimensions of NGSS

Every NGSS standard has three dimensions: disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) (content), science and engineering practices (SEPs), and crosscutting concepts (CCs). Currently, most state and district standards express these dimensions as separate entities, leading to their separation in both instruction and assessment. SEPs and CCs are designed to be taught in context-not in a vacuum.

Coherence and Alignment

Science concepts build coherently across K-12. The NGSS content is focused on preparing students for college and careers. The NGSS are aligned by grade level and cognitive demand with the English Language Arts and Mathematics Common Core State Standards. This allows an opportunity both for science to be a part of a child’s comprehensive education and for an aligned sequence of learning in all content areas.

Performance Expectations

In putting the vision of the Framework into practice, the NGSS have been written as performance expectations (PEs) that depict what students must do to show proficiency in science. SEPs were coupled with various components of the DCIs and CCs to make up the PEs. The NGSS architecture was designed to provide information to teachers and curriculum and assessment developers beyond the traditional one-line standard. The PEs are the policy equivalent of what most states have used as their standards. In order to show alignment and coherence to the Framework, the NGSS include the appropriate learning goals in “foundation boxes” in the order in which they appeared in the Framework.

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State standards have traditionally represented practices and core ideas as two separate entities. Observations from science education researchers have indicated that these two dimensions are, at best, taught separately or that the practices are not taught at all. It is important to note that the SEPs are not teaching strategies-they are indicators of achievement as well as important learning goals in their own right. As such, the Framework and NGSS ensure the practices are not treated as afterthoughts. Coupling practice with content gives the learning context, whereas practices alone are activities and content alone is memorization. It is through integration that science begins to make sense and allows students to apply the material.

Flexibility and Curriculum

The NGSS are standards, or goals, that reflect what a student should know and be able to do; they do not dictate the manner or methods by which the standards are taught. The PEs are written in a way that expresses the concept and skills to be performed but still leaves curricular and instructional decisions to states, districts, schools, and teachers. The PEs do not dictate curriculum; rather, they are coherently developed to allow flexibility in the instruction of the standards. Students should be evaluated based on understanding a full DCI. Multiple SEPs are represented across the PEs for a given DCI. Curriculum and assessment must be developed in a way that builds students’ knowledge and ability toward the PEs. Because of the coherence of the NGSS, teachers have the flexibility to arrange the PEs in any order within a grade level to suit the needs of states or local districts.

The Importance of Science Education

There is no doubt that science-and therefore science education-is central to the lives of all Americans. Never before has our world been so complex and science knowledge so critical to making sense of it all. When comprehending current events, choosing and using technology, or making informed decisions about one’s health care, science understanding is key. Science is also at the heart of this country’s ability to continue to innovate, lead, and create the jobs of the future. All students-whether they become technicians in a hospital, workers in a high-tech manufacturing facility, or Ph.D.

Since then, many advances have occurred in the fields of science and science education, as well as in the innovation-driven economy. The United States has a leaky K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent pipeline, with too few students entering STEM majors and careers at every level-from those with relevant postsecondary certificates to Ph.Ds. The current education system cannot successfully prepare students for college, careers, and citizenship unless the right expectations and goals are set. Implementing the NGSS will better prepare high school graduates for the rigors of college and careers.

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