What is a learning progression?

For example, in the Ecosystem learning progression this site highlights, students' understanding of basic relationships between individual organisms (like the predator-prey relationship) precedes their understanding of dynamic feedback between populations of organisms (like how a dwindling prey population is likely to affect the size of a predator population). The hierarchy of levels reflects a basic walk-before-you-run view of conceptual complexity.

The levels in a learning progression simultaneously represent (1) the degree of complexity of the ideas and (2) the developmental steps through which students typically pass on their learning journey. As a teacher, you will better be able to help your students ascend the ladder of understanding if you are clear about what the rungs of the ladder represent, and what rung each student is on. Higher levels of conceptual complexity typically develop over many years; the point of formative assessment is not to vault all students to the top of the ladder, but to help them reach, always, for the next rung.

For now, this pilot website focuses on two learning progressions: the Understanding Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems (ECO) learning progression and the Arguing from Scientific Evidence (ARG) learning progression. This latter learning progression addresses students’ ability to construct and critique claims, reasoning, and evidence in a variety of content areas.

In terms of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), our content learning progressions (such as Ecology) relate to NGSS disciplinary core ideas (DCIs), while our practice learning progressions (such as Argumentation) relate to NGSS science and engineering practices (SEPs). Each assessment task is designed to measure one DCI and one SEP. Each question within a task targets either the DCI or the SEP, but tasks may include both a DCI and a SEP.