Building Capacity for State Science Education (BCSSE)

In order for the instructional innovations laid out in the Framework for K - 12 Science Education and the resulting academic standards for science to take hold, teachers need high quality instructional materials that support students’ sensemaking around a contextualized phenomenon or in designing solutions to solve a problem using science ideas and practices rather than learning about an isolated science topic. 

A recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report Call to Action for Science Education: Building Opportunity for the Future (2022) stated that “for many students, instructional materials, supplies, and other critical curriculum resources are insufficient,” and while high-quality instructional resources are starting to be available “[...]many students are still provided with out-of-date textbooks and have their laboratory or investigation work limited by a lack of material and supplies.”

Organized by the Council of State Science Supervisors (CSSS) and underwritten by a generous grant provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, this convening brings together individuals who work to advance high quality science teaching and learning, including state education agency leaders, science educators, education stakeholders, researchers, and curriculum designers — to explore how high-quality instructional materials (HQIM), particularly freely available open education resources (OER) can be leveraged to advance better, more equitable science education across K-12 schools. 

PURPOSE: 

This two-day conference is designed to help state science leaders leverage free, high-quality instructional materials and related resources to advance science education. Attendees will experience contemporary science instruction, hear from experts in the field, share learning across states, and have dedicated collaboration time with state teams to reflect and strategize on the use of high-quality Open Education Resources (OER) to improve science learning. State teams will:  

• understand how transformations in new understandings about science teaching and learning inform the evolution of what instructional materials need to include;

• understand the efficacy and unique opportunities of anchoring professional learning with high-quality, equitable open education instructional materials;

• gain new insights and strategies for improving science teaching and learning at scale through state-level systems and structures that support the implementation of quality OER; and

• examine and adapt state plans to better utilize open education resources in a way that supports the state vision of science teaching and learning.