Partnership for Building Capacity for Improvement in State Science Education

ECR（教育和人力资源核心研究）项目强调基础STEM教育研究，这将产生该领域的基础知识。因此，研究文献充分记录了州和地方科学系统的不一致性，以及不一致性使系统级改进难以实现的方式。该项目将调查州级科学教育者和政策制定者可能采取的步骤，以帮助围绕课程、教学和评估相一致的共同愿景建立连贯的科学教育体系。它将通过测试策略来解决不连贯的问题，以更好地理解国家科学教育系统为所有学生提供机会的条件，以满足《K-12科学教育框架》（NRC, 2012）中提出的具有挑战性的科学教育新愿景。一个由国家团队和研究人员组成的网络将共同努力，将独特的专业知识融合到协同设计过程中，并利用形成性评估作为促进教育领导实践进步的工具，进行严格的实施研究。该项目将研究与国家领导人在各自系统中的角色相关的系统中重要的两种主要形式的一致性：(1)纵向一致性，关注对科学学习目标的共同理解以及对评估目的和用途的共识的程度；(2)横向一致性，关注课程、教学和评估政策与实践与科学教育新愿景的一致性。该项目将采用基于设计的实施研究（DBIR），采用混合方法建立关于国家网络如何支持实施雄心勃勃的新标准和促进科学教育系统之间的一致性的基础知识和理论。该项目将通过调查、焦点小组、关键信息提供者访谈和案例研究收集数据，这些数据来自各州教育系统的多个层面，包括州一级官员和任课教师。研究人员和各州团队将通过参与性研究作为共同研究人员，建立地方能力，对教育工作者的需求进行系统调查，并建立信息网络，以便跨州比较连贯性面临的挑战。项目成果将包括关于科学教育中建立知识和理论的方法、工具和策略的基础知识。反过来，这些成果将通过支持参与国、专家、研究人员和更广泛的科学教育利益相关者社区对K-12科学教育的共同愿景的发展而造福社会。此外，该项目将使各州的学生受益，增加他们的科学和工程知识，使他们能够参与公共讨论，并有利于设计解决方案，扩大STEM领域的多样性。

The ECR (Education and Human Resources Core Research) program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that will generate foundational knowledge in the field. As such, the incoherence of state and local science systems is well-documented in the research literature, as are the ways that incoherence makes system-level improvements difficult to attain. This project will investigate the steps state level science educators and policymakers might take to help build coherent systems of science education around a common vision where curriculum, instruction, and assessment align. It will address the problem of incoherence by testing strategies to better understand the conditions under which state systems of science education afford all students with opportunities to meet the challenging new vision for science education presented in A Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2012). A network of state teams and researchers will work together to bring a unique blend of expertise to collaborative co-design processes and to conducting rigorous implementation research using formative assessment as the vehicle for promoting advancement in educational leadership practice. The project will examine two main forms of coherence important in systems relevant to state leaders' roles in their respective systems: (1) vertical coherence, which looks at the degree to which there is a shared understanding of the goals for science learning and consensus about the purposes and uses of assessment: and (2) horizontal coherence, which focuses on the alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment policies and practices with the new vision for science education.The project will employ design-based implementation research (DBIR) using a mixed methods approach to build foundational knowledge and theory about how a network of states can support implementation of ambitious new standards and promote coherence across systems of science education. The project will collect data through surveys, focus groups, key informant interviews, and case studies from multiple levels of the states' education systems including state level officials and classroom teachers. Researchers and state teams will serve as co-researchers through participatory research that builds local capacity for conducting systematic inquiry into educators' needs and an information network to enable cross-state comparisons of perceived challenges to coherence. Outcomes from the project will include foundational knowledge about methods, tools, and strategies for building knowledge and theory in science education. In turn, these outcomes will benefit society by supporting the development of a shared vision for K-12 science education among participating states, experts, researchers, and the broader science education stakeholder community. In addition, the project will benefit the students in the states by increasing their knowledge of science and engineering in ways that will allow them to engage in public discussions and it will benefit the design of solutions to expand diversity in STEM fields.