You can realize the shared vision of a science assessment informed by principles of assessment design that also reflects local needs, emphases, and interpretations.
WestEd provides expert assistance designing and developing comprehensive next-generation science assessment systems. We take an evidence-based approach to all stages of development, to ensure that the assessments are valid, fair, and reliable measures of students’ science knowledge and abilities.
Customized Support
Our services are customized to each client’s context and needs. Our dedicated and versatile team of science specialists facilitate an iterative, engaging, multiple-stage process, with policymakers and education stakeholders, to develop a tailored solution for a comprehensive science assessment system.
Both online and paper-and-pencil assessments can be designed and developed.
Trusted Experience
Our next-generation science assessment team has provided the following for clients:
- CCSSO Science Assessment Item Collaborative: Facilitated input and needs from 15 collaborative members to develop NGSS Assessment Framework, Item Specifications Guidelines, and NGSS item cluster prototypes. These documents can be accessed at the CSAA Science Assessment Item Collaborative spotlight page.
- Washington, Delaware, Louisiana, South Dakota, Kentucky, Arizona: Design and/or development of assessments and assessment systems for the state’s three-dimensional science standards.
- College Board: Development of formative assessment items for new AP Insight products (AP Biology; AP Chemistry).
Delaware officially adopted the Next Generation Science Standards in the Fall of 2013 with an eye toward the future. While it was fully recognized that traditional instruction and pedagogy would have to change to meet the expectations of these new standards, it was also clear that a new and innovative approach to assessment would be necessary. It was an approach expected under the Every Student Succeeds Act, but to date, it was an approach that had not yet been implemented. In 2016, WestEd began working with Delaware on a Phase I contract to design, develop and pilot innovative science assessment tasks that would inform the creation of viable specification documents for a statewide science assessment system aligned with NGSS. The WestEd team came prepared with detailed background research, informed item development procedures, designs for cognitive labs with students and a complete research protocol for development, testing and finalizing a strategy for identifying best practices aligned with NGSS based on the Delaware’s identified goals.
Since completing work to identify a prototype/workable assessment plan aligned with NGSS expectations, WestEd has continued to work with Delaware. Our final, operational assessment project has been a joint effort and WestEd continues to offer salient and research based advice that keeps us on the cutting edge of NGSS development.
April McCrae
Education Associate: Science Assessment, Delaware Department of Education
Contact Us
To learn more, contact Kevin King at [email protected] or 435.655.1229