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Stephen Pruitt, a former chemistry teacher and a long-time champion of the science education community known for his outgoing personality and tireless work on NGSS adoption and implementation, was forced to resign his post on April 17. Check out the following news clips: EdWeek, April 18, 2018; Courier Journal, April 17, 2018

After past sparring over hot-button topics like evolution and climate change, Utah Board of Education gives go-ahead to draft new science standards The Utah State Board of Education greenlit plans Thursday (April 12) to begin drafting new school science standards, a process likely to touch on divisive issues like climate change and evolution. The state… Read more »

CAZENOVIA, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) – Students across New York state will soon notice a gradual roll-out of the state’s new science standards. Recently, NewsChannel 9 was given a rare behind-the-scenes look at how the new standards incorporate lesson study and maintain a focus on engineering. The observation took place at Burton Street Elementary in Cazenovia while second-graders… Read more »

About 18 states have adopted the Next Generation Science Standards. And although these shared science expectations have been out for about five years, testing models that fully capture students’ grasp of them have lagged far behind. (So far, only a handful of states have updated their science tests to match.) The NGSS poses some big… Read more »

Achieve, a non-profit that focuses on college and career readiness, has announced new members of its Science Peer Review Panel. The additions will help the organization to expand its work evaluating lesson sequences and units designed for the Next Generation Science Standards and sharing high-quality examples online. Participants will receive ample professional development as part of their new roles. Three-hundred… Read more »

WORCESTER – A local university is helping the state’s education department assemble a team of educators who will fan out across Massachusetts in the coming year to help school districts figure out how to implement the state’s new math and science standards in their classes. The math and science/technology/engineering (STE) ambassador program, the first of… Read more »

The Associated Press reports that Juneau school officials are considering adopting science education standards that include teaching middle and high school students about climate change. Alaska’s Energy Desk reports the Juneau School District is borrowing some core ideas from the Next Generation Science Standards, which include providing students with an understanding of the relationship between… Read more »

The nonprofit group Achieve, which advocates for better standards and assessments, has launched an interesting new initiative that brings together several trends: curricular alignment, digital badges or credentials, and open educational resources. The initiative is meant to respond to the continuing challenge of ensuring that, in the nearly 20 states that have adopted the Next… Read more »

ost teachers are embracing California’s new science standards, but the rollout has been hampered by teacher shortages, lackluster elementary science education, lack of supplies and other obstacles, according to a new report. The report by the Public Policy Institute of California surveyed 204 school districts across California at the end of the 2016-17 school year about their progress in… Read more »

A fan sat in front of Middletown Middle School sixth-grader Morgan Speirs, slightly blowing her blond hair as she held a fake microphone. “There’s a hurricane here in Ocean City, and winds are reaching more than 75 miles per hour,” she said, recording a mock news report for her class about a hurricane in Ocean… Read more »