Kognity for High School Science presents phenomena-based science in an easy and flexible way, empowering teachers to bring science to life with confidence. Whether teachers use the content to spark ideas or dive in and adopt the full curriculum, Kognity’s lessons can be seamlessly integrated into existing plans for courses on biology, chemistry, physics, and, starting in the 2024–25 school year, Earth and space science.
Crafted by experts and built specifically for the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), Kognity’s rigorously vetted science content supports teachers in implementing complex standards. The curriculum includes embedded and color-coded performance expectations (PEs), crosscutting concepts (CCCs), science and engineering practices (SEPs), and disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) throughout.
All Kognity lessons are rooted in a natural phenomenon. A curated Driving Question Board inspires a student-led and teacher-guided classroom and acts as a stepping stone into phenomena-based learning, which helps students make meaningful connections to real-life situations and become more engaged in their learning. Kognity’s Media Library features more than 220 videos, 740 images, 650 interactives, and a reading assistance tool that supports more than 130 languages.
Teachers also have easy access to activities, teacher guides, lesson plans, and assessments designed to improve test scores by familiarizing students and teachers with content and performance in CCCs, SEPs, and DCIs. This saves teachers time grading three-dimensional learning and helps track student progress with reliable data.
In addition to its alignment with NGSS standards, Kognity for High School Science meets the ESSA Level IV (Demonstrates a Rationale) requirements of evidence standards.
Kognity integrates with all major learning management systems, including Canvas, Schoology, Microsoft Teams, and Google Classroom. From task management to rostering, these LMS integrations automate time-consuming processes for convenience and ease.
In the post-COVID pandemic educational setting, assessment offers ways to gain crucial insights into student thinking and learning and the areas requiring support for progress toward learning goals. While thoughtful assessment design and implementation are necessary for student success, building a strong assessment culture in schools is often overlooked but equally important.
In the same way that school culture can support or inhibit efforts to implement new ideas, a school’s assessment culture can influence whether assessment practices — directly or indirectly — positively impact teaching and learning.
Similarly, assessment culture is shaped by the underlying beliefs and expectations that students, educators and leaders have about assessment practices. In the same way that school culture can support or inhibit efforts to implement new ideas, a school’s assessment culture can influence whether assessment practices — directly or indirectly — positively impact teaching and learning.
Contrasting Perspectives of Assessment Culture
We can view different components of assessment culture on a continuum, ranging from less supportive to more supportive of teaching and learning. Imagine a school in which students talk about assessment as a process that confirms whether they are smart (or not). Compare that to another school where students see assessment as a process that identifies strengths and weaknesses that inform what they do next. We know that students who adopt a growth mindset are better equipped to tackle challenging work, deal with learning setbacks and have agency over their learning. In other words, using formative assessment as a tool for learning fosters this growth mindset in students.
Now consider contrasting teacher experiences. In one school, limited assessment-related professional learning opportunities only focus on the administration of purchased products. In another school, ongoing, assessment-related professional learning opportunities prioritize formative assessment practices that are embedded within the student learning experience.
The research is clear: Formative assessment has beneficial outcomes on student learning. Teachers are often drilled on summative assessments or test prep, but there isn’t enough professional development provided for effective formative assessment practices. When a school’s assessment culture focuses on test prep rather than best practices for classroom assessments, teachers and students miss out.
School and district leaders influence the assessment culture throughout a school system. When school or district goals prioritize test performance over a comprehensive demonstration of student understanding, this often leads to a narrowed curriculum. This focus on “teaching to the test” restricts students' access to an enriching educational experience.
Resources to help with district assessment systems:
Choosing the Right Tests: The District Assessment Procurement Protocol (DAPP): The DAPP is designed to help school district leaders select appropriate, high-quality commercial assessment products. The tool walks leaders through three activities designed to inform their assessment procurement process: 1) getting clear on use, 2) identifying desired assessment features and 3) evaluating the technical quality of their assessment options.
Fewer and Better Local Assessment: A Toolkit for Educators: This Education First resource provides clear and detailed directions for school system leaders to engage in an assessment review and streamlining process and provides adaptable tools and materials to support this review process.
First Step in Changing Assessment Culture
Due to the potential impact of assessment culture on practice, educators and leaders need to identify the cultural aspects at work within their school or district. Because assessment culture is built over time and often based on assumptions about assessment that are not explicitly articulated or shared by everyone in a school, understanding and changing a school’s assessment culture takes time.
One way to begin examining assessment culture is to ask people how they feel about the different types of assessments used within their school. Have conversations and gather input from a wide variety of people in the school community, including students, families, classroom teachers, support staff and school leaders. Provide multiple avenues for stakeholders to share their thoughts and opinions, such as anonymous surveys, structured focus groups or open-ended discussions.
The process of examining assessment culture through conversations helps schools and districts identify factors that support or potentially constrain the effective use of assessment evidence. By understanding your assessment culture, you can develop a strategy for changing assessment-related practices (e.g., assessment selection/development, use of evidence, professional learning, etc.) to more effectively support student learning.
ISTE is partnering with assessment experts from the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, with funding from the Walton Family Foundation and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, to explore the concept of assessment culture and refine a set of assessment culture continua. The ultimate goal is to support districts in identifying key aspects of assessment culture (i.e., make them visible) and facilitate change for school-based assessment practices to more positively impact student learning.
Standards-based grading is an educational assessment approach that focuses on evaluating students’ mastery of specific learning objectives. Grades are assigned based on a student’s understanding and proficiency of essential skills and knowledge outlined in predetermined standards. Standards-based grading promotes transparency, fairness and individualized learning experiences. This approach demands strategic implementation, outlined below in a 10-step guide for K-12 leaders.
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