In the first installment of a new web series, an NSTA article, Anticipating the Conceptual Framework for Science Education (PDF), takes an early look at the soon-to-be released framework and explores its development, role, possible content, and relationship to science standards. NSTA’s goal is to help science educators prepare for the Next Generation Science Standards by better understanding the framework on which they will be built.
The National Research Council (NRC) and Achieve, Inc., with support from NSTA and AAAS, have embarked on a two-step process to develop science standards. The first step is to develop a Conceptual Framework that is grounded in current research and identifies the science all K12 students should know. The NRC is conducting this work and is expected to release the framework in late spring. This framework will not only be a guide for developing the standardsa process led by Achieve, Inc. it will be a valuable resource for many in the science education community.
Stay tuned to NSTA.org for more details about The Common Core, the Science Conceptual Framework, and the Next Generation Science Standards. It’s yet another reason why NSTA (and OSTA for that matter) is worth the price of membership.