How can you know what your students really understand about the science content you’re teaching?
You and your students may sometimes think you’re agreeing about ideas when, at a deep level, you’re really not.
Identifying rudimentary or false conceptions beneath the surface of students' spoken or written statements, or a student's expressions (and even student performance) is tricky.
Informed by our research, we’ve developed formative assessments that place students' understanding of science into several learning progressions.
Think of it as a ladder: each rung marks a stage of learning. Formative assessment helps you see where students are and guide them to the next rung.
These learning progressions connect to the NGSS: content progressions, align with Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), and practice progressions (like Argumentation) align with Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs). Each assessment task includes one DCI and one SEP, with questions targeting each.