Partnership for Building Capacity for Improvement in State Science Education

ECR（教育和人力资源核心研究）计划强调基础STEM教育研究，将产生该领域的基础知识。因此，国家和地方科学系统的不一致性在研究文献中有很好的记录，因为不一致性使得系统层面的改进难以实现。该项目将调查州一级科学教育工作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系统。它将通过测试战略来解决不一致的问题，以更好地了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。一个国家团队和研究人员的网络将共同努力，将独特的专业知识融合到协作共同设计过程中，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。该项目将审查与国家领导人在各自系统中的作用有关的系统中重要的两种主要形式的一致性：（1）纵向一致性，即考察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，侧重于课程、教学本项目将采用基于设计的实施研究（DBIR），使用混合方法，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本知识和理论。 该项目将通过调查、焦点小组、关键知情人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。研究人员和州团队将通过参与性研究担任共同研究人员，参与性研究将建设地方能力，以便对教育工作者的需求进行系统调查，并建立信息网络，以便能够对所认为的一致性挑战进行跨州比较。该项目的成果将包括有关方法，工具和战略的基础知识，以建立科学教育的知识和理论。反过来，这些成果将通过支持参与国家，专家，研究人员和更广泛的科学教育利益相关者社区之间的K-12科学教育共同愿景的发展而造福社会。此外，该项目还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，并有利于设计扩大STEM领域多样性的解决方案。

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.