High School

MOSART HS PS developed assessment tools based on both NRC Standards and NGSS for high school chemistry and physics. The 500 new test items were combined into instruments and validated by content experts. Comprehensive data from a nationally representative sample of 12,000 high school students and their teachers measures the content knowledge of both groups and allows the estimation of item characteristics. Pre- and post-tests associate yearly knowledge gains with teacher characteristics and pedagogies used.

The Building on MOSTs project focuses on improving the teaching of secondary school mathematics by exploring the teaching practice of building on MOSTs (Mathematical Opportunities in Student Thinking). We cyclically work with teachers to enact the practice, analyze those enactments, and refine our understanding of the practice. Building consists of four elements: (1) Establish, (2) Grapple Toss, (3) Conduct, and (4) Make Explicit.
PI: Keith Leatham, Brigham Young University

This project explores how secondary mathematics teachers can design mathematically captivating learning experiences using the mathematical story framework to improve aesthetic opportunities with complex mathematical content. This study has developed and tested 28 MCLEs. By comparing captivating lessons with those that students describe as dull or boring, we have identified multiple characteristics of captivating mathematics lessons. Also, in addition to raising student interest, MCLEs positively impact teacher and student questioning.

This project seeks to develop and validate learning progressions and items with dynamic features to generate machine-scorable student responses for assessing computational thinking, in a test of college-ready critical reasoning skills, and to integrate these items into an existing online assessment system, the Berkeley Assessment System Software (BASS). This assessment is intended to be useful for formative and summative purposes in high-school and introductory college-level STEM classes, including mathematics and computer science courses.

Through the integration of STEM content and literacy, this project studies the ways teachers implement literacy practices in the STEM classroom. Teachers will facilitate instruction using scenarios that present students with STEM-related issues, presented as scenarios. After reading and engaging with math and science content, students write a source-based argument in which they state a claim, support the claim with evidence from the texts, and explain the multiple perspectives on the issue.

The Advancing Coherent and Equitable Systems of Science Education (ACESSE) project is a deep collaboration between the Council of State Science Supervisors, the University of Washington, and the University of Colorado Boulder. ACESSE brings together educators and researchers to collaboratively research, develop, and promote strategies to make science education more coherent and equitable. Our work focuses on: sensing and guiding improvement, the co-design of professional learning resources, and leadership capacity development for equity.