SPS Science Instructional Materials Adoption K-8 Review Criteria CATEGORY 1: STANDARDS ALIGNMENT WHY: WHAT: Educational excellence and equity for every student is Goal One of our district s Strategic Plan. Our academic program is grounded in standards-based curriculum, with strong, targeted instruction delivered by highly-qualified teachers to ensure that every student graduates ready for color, career, and life. SPS Department of Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction website Our mission is to provide all SPS science classrooms with a common NGSS-aligned core scope and sequence that is engaging, authentic, culturally relevant, rigorous, and technology-based to be college and/or career ready. Our goal is that all our students will be scientifically literate. This is accomplished through a collaborative, interactive, rigorous science program responsive to the needs of diverse learners. SPS Science Department Mission Statement 4: Superior Evidence 3: Strong Evidence 2: Moderate Evidence 1: Minimal Evidence 0: No Evidence 1. Instructional resources introduce authentic, relevant, current, real-world phenomena that are experienced first-hand whenever possible, and systems that students can investigate, model, and explain using the targeted Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) and Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs). 2. Instructional resources introduce real-world phenomena and systems that engage students in discourse for sense making. Students develop and use models where applicable to help them craft a final written explanation of the phenomena. 3. The science curriculum provides opportunities for students to collect evidence using informational texts, literature, simulations, and other media related to science and engineering. SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 1 of 22
CATEGORY 1: STANDARDS ALIGNMENT 4. Provides grade-appropriate connection(s) to the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics and/or English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects. 5. Instructional resources progressively build students abilities to meet all grade-level Performance Expectations (PEs) through a three-dimensional instructional sequence, requiring students to engage in two of the three dimensions of teaching and learning (SEPs, DCIs, and CCCs) in each activity. 6. Lessons selected for in-depth study are developed through their role in explaining selected phenomena, chosen to support students in building the knowledge and abilities needed to achieve proficiency in a bundle of PEs. 7. Each lesson builds on prior lessons by addressing questions raised in those lessons, cultivating new questions that build on what students figured out, or cultivating new questions from related phenomena, problems, and prior student experiences. SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 2 of 22
CATEGORY 1: STANDARDS ALIGNMENT 8. The materials provide support for students to develop grade-level appropriate academic language and discipline-specific vocabulary through their use in context in classroom discourse around science phenomena (science talk), and through well-written and grade-level appropriate text resources. 9. Course descriptions are aligned to a specific progression of courses across each grade band so that students completing the course sequence can meet all grade band WSSLS PEs. The progression builds ideas in a planned sequence, so that each unit builds progressively on prior learning. The logic of the progression is described and explained in teacher resources. 10. Instructional materials are on a technology-based platform that supports growth of student digital literacy skills while addressing three-dimensional learning. Total Score: / Pts Possible: = % Score: Comments: SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 3 of 22
CATEGORY 2: ASSESSMENTS WHY: The Board of Directors of Seattle Public Schools believes that assessments are a critical component of our education system used to inform instruction through identification of student strengths, assessment of learning growth, and diagnosis of barriers, and areas of support. SPS School Board Policy # 2080 WHAT: Includes pre-, formative, summative, self-, and peer-assessment measures that assess threedimensional learning that provides data used to inform instruction. 4: Superior Evidence 3: Strong Evidence 2: Moderate Evidence 1: Minimal Evidence 0: No Evidence 1. Assessments in the instructional resources reflect the three-dimensional nature of the Washington State Science Learning Standards (WSSLS). Assessment tools measure what students know and are able to do, as defined by the Performance Expectations (PEs) in the WSSLS. Assessments stress performance tasks rather than rote memorization. Individual assessments engage students in at least two of the three dimensions of teaching and learning (SEPs, DCIs, and CCCs). 2. Entry-level assessments for each unit are provided to help teachers elicit students prior knowledge and preconceptions and gauge their facility for using the SEPs and CCCs. Information is provided to teachers to help them use the results of those assessments to guide instruction and to determine modifications for specific students or groups of students. 3. Teacher materials provide support to engage students in tasks that afford both learning and formative assessment opportunities at the same time and provide guidance to teachers on how to embed formative assessment activities in the broader learning activity. SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 4 of 22
CATEGORY 2: ASSESSMENTS 4. Brief formative assessment tools and practices at key stages in the unit of instruction are designed to elicit current understandings and preconceptions and to provide evidence of students progress toward mastering the three-dimensional learning called for in the WSSLS. 5. Instructional materials must also provide teachers with strategies of how to address preconceptions during instruction. These strategies are to be differentiated for different age levels. 6. Assessments should yield information teachers can use in planning and modifying instruction to help all students meet or exceed the standards. 7. Teacher resources supply a differentiated path for diverse students to build toward the PEs of the WSSLS. In particular, formative assessment tasks are designed to support teachers in collecting and analyzing data about student conceptual understanding. SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 5 of 22
CATEGORY 2: ASSESSMENTS 8. Summative assessments designed to provide valid, reliable and fair measures of students' progress and attainment of three-dimensional learning after a period of instruction (for example: at the end of a chapter or unit) should involve multi-component tasks including, but not limited to: hands-on or simulation-based performance tasks, open-ended constructed response problems, and scoring of portfolios of student work collected over the course of instruction. 9. Selected-response items, if used, should require analysis and reasoning to answer them, rather than simply memorized responses or restatement of facts. 10. Students progress toward meeting the three-dimensions of the WSSLS is assessed through both writing and performance tasks. Student written responses are consistent with the grade-level writing and mathematics requirements in the CCSS for ELA/Literacy and Mathematics. 11. Resources include student work expectations and analytical rubrics for scoring performance tasks and, where possible, examples of student work at each scoring level. Resources include an explanation of the use of rubrics by teachers and students to evaluate the progress of students models, projects, writing, and progression toward understanding. SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 6 of 22
CATEGORY 2: ASSESSMENTS 12. Assessment tools include multiple measures of student performance as addressed in the assessment chapter in the WSSLS, including, but not limited to, engineering design; performance-based tasks; evidence-based arguments; revised models; computational simulations; and oral presentations. 13. Assessment tools include technology-based assessments, supported by scoring rubrics and, where possible, examples of student work at each scoring level. Total Score: / Pts Possible: = % Score: Comments: SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 7 of 22
CATEGORY 3: ACCESSIBILITY FOR DIVERSE LEARNERS WHY: The district shall provide every student with equitable access to a high-quality curriculum, support, facilities, and other educational resources. SPS School Board Policy # 0030 WHAT: Instructional materials support students with special needs, including, but not limited to, standard English learners, English learners, long term English learners, students living in poverty, foster youth, girls and young women, advanced learners, students with disabilities, students experiencing trauma, and students below grade level. 4: Superior Evidence 3: Strong Evidence 2: Moderate Evidence 1: Minimal Evidence 0: No Evidence 1. Instructional resources, as age and grade-level appropriate, discuss trends and research in science and inform students about career pathways in science. 2. Includes suggestions for how to connect instruction to the students home, neighborhood, community and/or culture with a social justice lens as appropriate. 3. Provides opportunities for all students to connect their explanation of a phenomenon and/or their design solution to a problem to questions from their own experience. SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 8 of 22
CATEGORY 3: ACCESSIBILITY FOR DIVERSE LEARNERS 4. Teacher resources supply a differentiated path for all students. In particular, instructional resources should provide guidance to support students with special needs, including English learners, students living in poverty, foster youth, girls and young women, advanced learners, students with disabilities, students experiencing trauma, and students below grade level, in science skills and three-dimensional learning (i.e. chunking content, graphic organizers, etc.). 5. Assesses student proficiency using methods, vocabulary, representations, and examples that are accessible and unbiased for all students, which include multiple options and modes of student expression. 6. Resources include examples of people & groups who used their context, learning, and intelligence to make important contributions to society through science & technology from different demographic groups: Native Americans; African Americans; Mexican Americans and other Latino groups; Asian Americans; Pacific Islanders; European Americans; lesbian, gay, bisexual, & transgender Americans; persons with disabilities; women; and members of other ethnic and cultural groups. Resources emphasize the importance of science education to all members of our society in a way that is culturally and socially authentic. SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 9 of 22
CATEGORY 3: ACCESSIBILITY FOR DIVERSE LEARNERS 7. Resources include technology-based instructional tools that are designed to meet the needs of diverse learners and to provide equitable access for all students. Total Score: / Pts Possible: = % Score: Comments: SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 10 of 22
CATEGORY 4: EVALUATION OF BIAS CONTENT WHY: WHAT: As schools work to increase success for all students, it is important to recognize the impact of bias in classrooms, instructional materials, and teaching strategies. Evaluating for bias requires us to learn about others and to respect and appreciate the differences and similarities. WA OSPI Equity & Civil Rights Task Force Criteria adapted from the Washington Models for the Evaluation of Bias Content in Instructional Materials, WA OSPI Equity & Civil Rights Task Force (Appendix A) 4: Superior Evidence 3: Strong Evidence 2: Moderate Evidence 1: Minimal Evidence 0: No Evidence 1. Males and females equally reflect qualities such as leadership, intelligence, imagination, and courage. 2. Males and females are equally represented as central characters in narratives and illustrations. 3. Males and females are shown performing similar work in related fields. 4. Stereotyping language, such as, women chatting, men discussing, is avoided. SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 11 of 22
CATEGORY 4: EVALUATION OF BIAS CONTENT 5. Biographical or historical materials include a variety of male and female contributions to society, as well as minority characters and their discoveries and contributions to society. 6. Groups which include males and females are referred to in neutral languages (for example: people, mail carriers, firefighters, scientists, engineers, legislators). 7. Instructional materials contain a racial/ethnic balance within text and illustrations. 8. Minorities are represented as central characters within text and illustrations. 9. Minorities are shown in a variety of lifestyles, in active decision-making and leadership roles. SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 12 of 22
CATEGORY 4: EVALUATION OF BIAS CONTENT 10. Instructional materials provide an opportunity for a variety of racial, ethnic, and cultural perspectives. 11. People are portrayed not just as able-bodied and healthy, but also ill or having disabilities. 12. Qualities of character, such as leadership, imagination, courage, and integrity, are distributed amongst non-handicapped persons and persons with disabilities. 13. Both non-handicapped persons and persons with disabilities are represented as central characters in text and illustrations. 14. Non-handicapped persons and persons with disabilities are shown performing similar work in related fields. SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 13 of 22
CATEGORY 4: EVALUATION OF BIAS CONTENT 15. Non-handicapped persons and persons with disabilities are shown working and playing together as colleagues. 16. Persons with disabilities are referred to by their names and roles, rather than their disability. 17. Biographical and historical materials include contributions to society by persons with disabilities. 18. Oversimplified generalizations about social classes and groups are avoided in text and illustrations. 19. Contributions of individuals are valued for their benefit to all peoples of society. SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 14 of 22
CATEGORY 4: EVALUATION OF BIAS CONTENT 20. Materials provide an opportunity for dialogue which considers a variety of socioeconomic perspectives. 21. In addition to the traditional nuclear family model, family groups are depicted in which there are single parents, adopted and foster children, step-parents, same-sex parents, and/or relatives living with the family. 22. A variety of life s experiences are depicted. 23. Males and females are depicted in non-traditional as well as traditional roles in the family, at work, in leisure activities, and in attitude. Total Score: / Pts Possible: = % Score: SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 15 of 22
CATEGORY 4: EVALUATION OF BIAS CONTENT Comments: SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 16 of 22
CATEGORY 5: INSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING AND SUPPORT WHY: WHAT: [The District will] align instruction, mentoring, evaluation, and support to ensure each and every educator develops strong foundational teaching skills. SPS Formula for Success Educators must possess a repertoire of evidence-based instructional strategies in delivering the curriculum to develop talent, enhance learning, and provide students with the knowledge and skills to become independent, self-aware learners, and to give students the tools to contribute to a multicultural, diverse society. The curriculum, instructional strategies, and materials and resources must engage a variety of learners using culturally responsive practices. The National Association for Gifted Children website 4: Superior Evidence 3: Strong Evidence 2: Moderate Evidence 1: Minimal Evidence 0: No Evidence 1. The content is well-organized and presented in a manner that enables all teachers to efficiently deliver the essential knowledge and skills described in the WSSLS. 2. Resources include explanations to teachers regarding how the SEPs, DCIs, and CCCs work together to support students in making sense of phenomena and/or to design solutions to problems and build toward the PEs of the WSSLS. Teacher resources support understanding of how PEs are developed within units and across units throughout a year. 3. Resources encourage the meaningful use of technologies (such as video clips or computer simulations) to investigate phenomena that cannot be directly experienced in the classroom, as well as tools used to record, display, and analyze data. Guidance is also provided to teachers on how science instruction may be improved by the effective use of technology and multimedia literacy skills. SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 17 of 22
CATEGORY 5: INSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING AND SUPPORT 4. Resources suggest appropriate engineering design tasks in varied contexts as a path to understanding and applying the science ideas being learned. Where appropriate, resources suggest computational tools and software to support the design process and allow students to model or simulate their designed products. 5. Teacher resources provide background knowledge related to the scientific content in each lesson to support teachers without strong pre-existing knowledge or experience with the subject matter, including how the three dimensions are integrated into units and lessons. 6. Instructional objectives for three-dimensional learning are explicitly stated, clearly identifiable, and in student-friendly language in the teacher resources. Student resources provide experiences that clearly build to the development of learning goals without explicitly stating those goals prior to the instruction. 7. The teacher resources provide an estimated instructional time for each activity, lesson, chapter, and unit which allows for student engagement in the SEPs and engineering design projects. SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 18 of 22
CATEGORY 5: INSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING AND SUPPORT 8. The teacher resources provide guidance in daily lessons and units of instruction with appropriate opportunities for checking for understanding and adjusting lessons, if necessary, to ensure threedimensional learning. 9. Teacher resources include a planning guide describing the relationships between the components of the program and how to use all the components to meet all of the WSSLS. 10. Instructional resources should include a list of consumable and non-consumable equipment and materials required for each lesson, identification of any possible allergy concerns, and any relevant MSDS sheets. 11. Electronic learning resources, including technology-based assessments, support instruction that is connected explicitly to the WSSLS, have a well-designed user interface, provide technical support, and include suggestions for appropriate and differentiated use. The resources include a backup, analog-based plan in case of network or equipment issues. SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 19 of 22
CATEGORY 5: INSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING AND SUPPORT 12. Teacher resources discuss and identify preconceptions typical at a grade band (such as incomplete explanations based on everyday experiences or vernacular conflicts between the everyday use of a term and the meaning of the term in a scientific context) and provide guidance to help students build more accurate understandings of the scientific concept or process. 13. The teacher resources provide guidance and support for engaging students in collaborative conversations using grade level appropriate academic vocabulary for scientific discourse. 14. Instructional materials provide an intentional balance of a wide variety of activities within a unit (e.g. simulations, hands-on activities, readings, discourse, kinesthetic activities, etc.) 15. The teacher resources provide background information about important events, diverse people, places, ideas, and scientific principles appearing in, but not limited to, the WSSLS. SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 20 of 22
CATEGORY 5: INSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING AND SUPPORT 16. Resources provide teachers with instructions on how outside resources (e.g., guest speakers; museum visits; electronic field trips, informal science education providers including state parks, nature parks, science centers, local organizations, school gardens or schoolyard open spaces, local parks, etc.) can be incorporated into a three-dimensional learning, standards-based science program. Total Score: / Pts Possible: = % Score: Comments: SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 21 of 22
SPS Science Instructional Materials Adoption K-8 Review Criteria SUMMARY CATEGORY 1: STANDARDS ALIGNMENT Total Score: / Pts Possible: = % Score: CATEGORY 2: ASSESSMENTS Total Score: / Pts Possible: = % Score: CATEGORY 3: ACCESSIBILITY FOR DIVERSE LEARNERS Total Score: / Pts Possible: = % Score: CATEGORY 4: EVALUATION OF BIAS CONTENT Total Score: / Pts Possible: = % Score: CATEGORY 5: INSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING AND SUPPORT Total Score: / Pts Possible: = % Score: SPS Science Instructional Materials Review Criteria, Version 06.04.18 Page 22 of 22