Developing Science Assessments for Language Diversity in Early Elementary Classrooms

迫切需要为早期年级制定符合下一代科学标准(NGSS)的经过审查的基于课堂的形成性评估任务；具体地说，需要考虑到年轻学生的语言和识字多样性，并在设计中明确将年轻科学学习者的公平和包容性纳入其中。该项目将采用一种创新和独特的设计方法来设计教学评估材料，这种方法结合了以证据为中心的设计的连贯和系统的设计要素，科学材料设计的公平和包容框架，以及针对不同语言学习者的包容性设计原则。利用这三方面的方法，这项计划将开发一套符合NGSS的一年级科学形成性评估任务和一套教学材料，以支持教师对具有不同语言技能和能力的学生进行形成性评估。这些资源将对早期小学年级的课堂教师有很高的效用，并为满足早期年级对可用的NGSS统一评估的需要迈出了重要的一步。这种设计方法将为评估开发商提供一个经过严格设计和测试的模式，以开发他们自己的NGSS协调评估，支持小学早期课堂的科学学习，促进新课程材料的进一步开发，并支持对现有课程材料的评估。该项目将发展小组检查和个人检查作为形成性评估，并研究每项评估的设计特点、实施做法和负担能力。为了实现这一项目的目标，该项目将在下一代青年科学家科学评估(NGSA-YS)和公平与包容性课程设计(EI-CD)方法之间架起桥梁，以产生一种新颖和创新的评估设计和开发方法。这种结合的方法将产生新的评估，可靠地衡量年轻学习者的NGSS三维科学能力，并有目的地将公平和包容性定位为评估设计的核心。此外，该项目还将开发资源，指导教师实施和评分评估，并将结果应用于不同语言的课堂，为教学提供信息。为了支持关于有效性的说法，该项目将从多个来源收集数据，包括专家评论、对学生表现的认知访谈、一个小课堂试点和一个更大的实地研究。该项目将使用既定的心理测量和定性方法来调查评估任务的分数结构，评估评估任务是否为学生提供了充分和包容的机会来证明他们的科学熟练程度，并确保评估任务的形成性使用提供做出教学决定所需的适当年级以及语言和识字信息。还将收集课堂实施数据，以了解教师管理和评分方面的挑战，以及评估对教师的可用性和价值。该项目将为科学教育领域做出贡献，为教师提供形成性评估任务、习语和课堂上使用的辅助材料，并为评估开发人员提供一个为一年级创建NGSS评估的模型，其中包括开发额外任务的原则和设计文件。发现研究预科-12项目(DRK-12)旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高预科-12学生和教师在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)方面的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和经验上的证明。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

There is an urgent need for vetted classroom-based, formative assessment tasks for the early grades that align with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS); specifically, ones that consider the language and literacy diversity of young students, and explicitly integrate equity and inclusion for young science learners in the design. This project will design instructional assessment materials by using an innovative and unique design approach that brings together the coherent and systematic design elements of evidence-centered design, an equity and inclusion framework for the design of science materials, and inclusive design principles for language-diverse learners. Using this three-pronged approach, this project will develop a suite of NGSS aligned formative assessment tasks for first-grade science and a set of instructional materials to support teachers as they administer the formative assessments to students with diverse language skills and capacities. These resources will be of high utility for classroom teachers in the early elementary grades and offer an important step towards meeting the need for useable NGSS aligned assessments for the early grades. The design approach will provide assessment developers with a rigorously designed and tested model for developing their own NGSS-aligned assessments which will support the study of science in early elementary classrooms and promote further development of new curriculum materials, and support the evaluation of existing curriculum materials. This project will develop small group checks and individual checks as formative assessments and study the design features, implementation practices, and affordances of each assessment. To accomplish the goals of this project, the project will bridge the Next Generation Science Assessment for Young Scientists (NGSA-YS) and the Equity and Inclusion Curriculum Design (EI-CD) approaches to generate a novel and innovative assessment design and development approach. The combined approach will generate new assessments that reliably measure young learners’ NGSS three-dimensional science proficiency and purposefully position equity and inclusivity as central to the design of the assessments. In addition, the project will develop resources that guide teachers’ implementation and scoring of the assessments and their application of results to inform instruction in language-diverse classrooms. To support claims about validity, the project will collect data from multiple sources including expert reviews, cognitive interviews of student performance, a small classroom pilot, and a larger field study. The project will use established psychometric and qualitative approaches to investigate the structure of scores from the assessment tasks, evaluate whether assessment tasks provide students with sufficient and inclusive opportunities to demonstrate their proficiencies in science and ensure that formative use of the assessment tasks provides appropriate grade and language and literacy information needed to make instructional decisions. Classroom implementation data will also be collected to learn about challenges in teacher administration and scoring, and the usability and value of the assessments to teachers. This project will contribute to the field of science education by providing teachers with formative assessment tasks, rubrics, and support materials for use in their classrooms and by providing assessment developers with a model for creating NGSS assessments for Grade 1 that includes principles and design documents for developing additional tasks.The Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.