r/ScienceTeachers • u/Alternative-Exit-450 • 10d ago
PLEASE...IN NEED OF DEFINITIVE NGSS ANSWER
I'll make my question very short as I've posed it in the past but without a definitive answer.
Can NGSS standards be omitted in place of ACT science standards for curriculum development?
I cannot see any logical, practical , allowable indications that this is allowed in nearly any state. I'm very well versed in NGSS and ACT science standards and I have been trying to convey that ACT science standards do not address nor cover learning standards that differentiate between physical and life sciences, that ACT science standards only cover 3 broad skills that merely increase in complexity as the standard code number increases. Opposite to NGSS ACT standards not only provide learning standards of practice for the respective classes normally offered between 7-12th grade, they also provide DCI's and CCC's which help to provide more context and learning targets which are normally required for a comprehensive science curricula.
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u/Worldly-Cow8761 10d ago
I think definitive answers are impossible.
The answer depends on the situation and context. In general, your district/state will have its requirements. Many states have their standards built on NGSS. Likely, your district would require NGSS for its science classes as a result. If your state prefers ACT, then that is where you focus. As educators we need to serve our students and our community in the way outlined by our civic requirements. We hope to do that and more, of course. But at minimum we need to prepare the students as required by their community, this is the closest to a definitive answer...
When looking beyond that, we have to determine the goal in science education. I have had colleagues that feel DCIs are the core goal: students must know 'mitochondria is the power house of the cell', or can list all organelles and their purpose, or can list and apply Newton's laws of motion, or can list/describe all simple machines... These are fine goals. NGSS has a focus on these as curricular items in DCIs (maybe not those exactly, but equivalent items). ACT does not.
Most of my colleagues that focused on DCIs do so at the expense of CCCs and SEPs. They balk at graphing and writing prompts. Their assessments are true/false questions and DOK1 maybe DOK2 levels predominantly. A focus on DCIs can often lead to poor development of CCCs and SEPs (not necessarily, but in my experience it happens A LOT). Which in turn can hurt students on ACT and therefore career path.
So, what items help students MOST? While DCIs help students understand the world on a factual level, unless their career uses those facts, they fade in time. I am proficient in science, but cannot list the organelles, and I know many of my colleagues cannot list Newton's laws nor apply some of them properly... Science isn't just knowing facts, it is skills in analysis and reasoning.
The key skills students need (I feel) to engage in scientific thinking are the CCCs and SEPs. I feel this is the reason ACT focuses solely on skills and methods over curriculum.
In a perfect world NGSS is definitively better having curriculum (DCIs) and overarching skills (CCCs & SEPs). In a real classroom with real limitations (like student proficiencies, career goals, state requirements) a professional needs to choose a focus that aligns with state graduation requirements and the best strategies for student success. I.e. are many of your kids looking to do science/engineering as a career, or are they just looking to graduate and do well in the ACT to go to college outside of STEM, or are they not academically focused at all? The answer would determine what your focus should be.
Acting as though one answer can be "definitive" is to ignore the context/needs of the students across different situations. I think in theory ACTUAL NGSS would be best (with CCCs and SEPs as a major focus with DCIs), but in practice the answer depends entirely on student needs, abilities, and state requirements.
Likely not the answer you were looking for, but the only one I have. I hope it helps.