New Standards and Environmental Education

1. New Standards andEnvironmental Education • What is happening with Common Core and with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)? • How do these new standards affect environmental education?

2. The World Before 1992 • No national education standards • States and districtseducationally “all over the map” • Textbooks provided structure • Very uneven and very unequal public school education, especially impacting economically and/or educationally poor states, rural locations, ethnic minorities, ELL

3. 1990s: National and State Standards • Voluntary national education standards • States partly coordinated • More coordination within a state • Encyclopedic, fact-oriented, algorithmic textbooks • Higher stakes multiple choice tests • Very uneven and unequal education

4. 2001: NCLB • “Voluntary” national education standards • States partly coordinated; lots of extra work and $ nationally for publishers, test makers • Tighter coordination within a state • Encyclopedic, fact-oriented, algorithmic textbooks, perhaps even more so • Teaching to the state NCLB tests • Less teacher control • Very high stakes multiple choice tests • Education less uneven/unequal (but better?)

5. Now : Common Core • State-Driven National Coordination • English Language Arts (ELA) and Math • States to be much more coordinated in ELA/Math • New education emphases • Need different curriculum resources • Need professional development • Need different testing • Quality? Effect on inequality?

6. Now : NGSS • “National” Voluntary; 26 Lead State Partners • Science and Engineering • 26 states potentially more coordinated + others • Very new education emphases • Need different curriculum resources • Need professional development • Need different testing • Quality of education? Effect on inequality?

7. NGSS Conceptual Framework (2011) • Coordinated by National Research Council • Three Dimensions (DCI, Practices, Cross-Cutting) • Disciplinary Core Ideas in Physical Science, Life Science, Earth/Space Science, Engineering Design organized in four grade spans • Science and Engineering Practices (e.g., analyzing data; arguing from evidence) • Cross-Cutting Concepts (e.g., systems) • Framework to serve as basis for grade level NGSS standards

8. NGSS Finalized (2013) • Coordinated by Achieve working with 26 Lead State Partners • Performance expectations • Embody DCIs, Practices, and Cross-Cutting Concepts • Grades K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 integrated science • 6-8 andHigh School by discipline or integrated • 26 states committed to trying to adopt NGSS with no or minimal changes • Other states watching, considering

9. NGSS and Common Core • NGSS is not part of Common Core. • NGSS has a lot in common with Common Core especially with respect to Practices (what we want/expect students to be able to do). • NSTA webinar “Connections Between Practices in NGSS, Common Core Math, and Common Core ELA” http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/Ngss/webseminar17.aspx

10. What is Common to All? ALL the standards – Math, ELA and Science – require that teachers and students focus more attention on disciplinary “practices.”

11. Science and Engineering Practices • Ask questions and define problems • Develop and use models • Plan and carry out investigations • Analyze and interpret data • Use mathematics, information and computer technology, and computational thinking • Construct explanations and design solutions • Engage in argument from evidence • Obtain, evaluate and communicate information

12. Mathematical Practices • Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them • Reason abstractly and qualitatively • Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others • Model with mathematics • Use appropriate tools strategically • Attend to precision • Look for and make use of structure • Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

13. Capacities of ELA Literate Students • They demonstrate independence • They build strong content knowledge • They respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline • They comprehend as well as critique • They value evidence • They use technology and digital media strategically and capably • They come to understand other perspectives and cultures

15. Common to All Three • Reason with evidence • Build arguments and critique the arguments of others • Participate in reasoning-oriented practices with others Well-guided talk – scaffolded reasoning talk and discussion – areafoundation for all the practices in the Common Core and NGSS

16. Bad News from Research About Productive Talk in Schools • The dominant forms of talk in classrooms – recitation and direct instruction – do not support reasoning, building of arguments with evidence, or explaining, critiquing, and building common ground. • Teachers rely on recitation and a few reliable talkers. • Teachers often rely on group work, hoping the hands-on activities, in small groups, will teach the students what they need to learn.

17. Good News from Research About Productive Talk in Schools • The practices of discussion transfer from one content domain to another. • We now know a lot about how to induct students, from all backgrounds, into these reasoning practices, through rigorous content-rich, teacher-guided discussions. • We have identified learnable, useful tools that help teachers orchestrate “academically productive talk.”

18. How We Want Students To Talk • Externalize their thinking (metacognition) • Listen carefully to one another and take one another seriously • Dig deeper into the the evidence and thereasoningfor their positions • Work with the evidence and reasoning of others

19. Goals of Hawai‘i Environmental Literacy Plan (HELP) • Integrate EE in K-12 Schools • Develop and Support Learning Environments that Promote Environmental Literacy • Improve PD for Environmental Literacy • Monitor and Assess Environmental Literacy • Make EE and Environmental Literacy a Statewide Priority • Provide Sustainable Funding for Environmental Literacy

20. Key National EE Themes Embedded in HELP • Questioning, Analysis and Interpretation Skills • Knowledge of Environmental Processes and Systems • Skills for Understanding and Addressing Environmental Issues • Respecting and Learning from Indigenous Knowledge and Practices • Place-based Ecosystem Stewardship and Sustainable Living • Personal and Civic Responsibility

21. How Do We Get There From Here? “I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of her dreams, and endeavors to live the life which she has imagined, she will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” Henrietta Thoreau “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

22. Resources To Get There From Here • Better tools and resources are accessible on the web to support teacher development of thinking practices in science . • These resources and high quality teacher professional development enable teachers to use existing curricular materials to support effective evidence-based discussions. • The NSTA website and webinar have more information, including videos. Also check out Making Sense of Science.

23. It Is For Our Own Good We cannot engage others in a profound and demanding education unless we are joyously willing to do so ourselves. Being great educators requires us to be critical thinkers and life-long learners, not just learners of content but also learners of learning, and practitioners of changing ourselves and others.

24. Act Locally Think Globally Feel Cosmically Be Lovingly