Given the increasingly challenging set of global and societal problems, science education is called to make a concerted effort to move away from instruction that is singularly focused on content. Instead, classrooms should highlight the often complex cognitive and creative skills that are required to navigate and address challenges such as climate change, the spread of disease, and the impact of natural disasters. Likewise, science is an ever changing field, one where ongoing developments shape the priorities of classroom teaching. It is with these perspectives in mind that we have created this living environment curriculum--to prepare students for all the possibilities that innovation and change may bring.

This shift is exceptionally challenging. Even as we transition to new literacy-focused standards (Common Core Learning Standards) and conceptual science standards (Next Generation), teachers are still expected to meet existing content standards. Few secondary school teachers receive ongoing support and training, much less coherent tools and assessments, to incorporate both universal and discipline-specific skills in their classroom practice. We have found that science teachers often lack the necessary resources to support students with low reading levels in accessing content, resulting in a tendency to ‘teach around the text.’ 

In science education as elsewhere, teachers rely on the Internet as a source of open educational resources focused on science, technology, engineering and math to facilitate Common Core adoption. Teachers spend hours searching for materials and slowly piecing together courses in the hope of addressing the shifts expected in science instruction and the demand for greater literacy instruction with engaging, deep content. Indeed, resources found online can reflect the most current science practices and relevant pedagogy. Yet as recently highlighted in an article in Science, with no common lexicon describing scientific concepts, shared understanding of the quality or depth of materials, or aligned assessments to capture student growth over time, teacher use of “homegrown” resources haphazardly advances student achievement (Porcello & Hsi, 2013).

As a result, we have designed a curriculum that provides sequencing and standards alignment, along with assessment-driven personalization and pedagogical techniques. 

As a leader in Common Core implementation in New York City, New Visions for Public Schools  has engaged in an active curation and course development strategy to create strong standards-aligned instructional guidance systems that better support teachers and students in meeting the Core’s higher expectations. The result is a curriculum that provides sequencing, standards alignment, assessment-driven personalization and pedagogical techniques.

The New Visions Living Environment Curriculum is a new living environment (biology) course, based on work done in New Visions’ charter schools, aimed at creating a model for coherent integration of science content and practices along with discipline-specific literacy skills. Drawing on existing materials and collaborating closely with teachers and content experts, we have designed standards aligned common scope and sequence linked to resources that are organized in a way that can be accessible to teachers.  Units include a diagnostic assessment to determine students' starting points; intentional sequence of assignments/labs; embedded formative assessments that gauge progress; time to revisit material students have not mastered; and end-of-unit assessments to determine growth. Our goal is twofold--to improve students’ knowledge of scientific concepts and increase literacy, and to invest in teacher learning as a means to maximize student achievement. 

We are in the process of refining our materials in both New Visions charter and district high schools, and providing teachers with instructional and data coaching. In addition, the New Visions Living Environment Curriculum provides teachers, who often plan their lessons in isolation, with the opportunity to share what works in their classes and to learn from others’ expertise through Google’s web-based collaborative tools, effectively building a social network of New York City teachers around science materials and practices. 

Works Cited Porcello, D. & Hsi, S. (19 July 2013). Science education: Crowdsourcing and curating online educational resources. Science, 341(6143), 241-2. Bryk, T. (2010). Organizing schools for improvement. Phi Delta Kappan, 91(7), 22-30.

Guiding Values and Principles for Curriculum Design

Strategic Inquiry

Curriculum Components

Google Systems