Making Sense of Science and Literacy

This 5-year, $13 million partnership with Making Sense of SCIENCE and school districts in CA, NM, and WI was funded by the U.S. Department of Education Investing in an Innovation program.

The fundamental goal of the project was to deepen students’ understanding of science and improve their literacy skills — especially for English learners and low-performing students — by strengthening the content knowledge and instructional skill of their teachers.

Next generation science instruction can make big impacts on students, but it is challenging for teachers to make the transition. This video highlights how one district in California succeeded in supporting NGSS implementation with the support of Making Sense of SCIENCE.

At the conclusion of the project, hundreds of educators from across the country came together online to discuss lessons learned in the Making the Change to Next Generation Science Teaching and Learning video showcase. The showcase shared key findings, as well as tips for designing impactful teacher professional learning, preparing teacher leaders to leverage change, scaling up within changing and interdependent systems, and conduction large-scale research under complex conditions.

My students are really excited to be scientists and engineers. They love that they don’t have to know the correct answer right off the bat or build a perfect device the first time. They get to investigate their ideas more to understand them or rebuild design solutions that don’t hit the mark the first time.
4th & 5th grade teacher
Manteca, CA

Related Research & Posts

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Demonstrating Positive Impact on Leadership at All Levels

MSS teacher leaders develop a deep familiarity with Next Generation Science Standards and make plans to stay in the teaching profession more than their colleagues. Through leadership professional learning, they are able to support other teachers and advocate for increased science support at their sites.