Designing NGSS Assessments to Evaluate the Efficacy of Curriculum Interventions NGSS ECD
- Author(s):
- DeBarger, Angela Haydel; Penuel, William R.; Harris, Christopher J.
- Publication Year:
- 2013
- Source:
- Paper presented at the Invitational Research Symposium on Science Assessment, Sep 2013
- Document Type:
- Paper
- Page Count:
- 27
- Subject/Key Words:
- Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), Science Education, Assessment, Evidence Centered Design (ECD), ETS K-12 Center
Abstract
In this paper, we articulate an approach to designing assessments for the purpose of evaluating curriculum interventions intended to support implementation of NGSS. We outline the structure of a validity argument for such uses within an evidence-centered design (ECD; Mislevy & Haertel, 2006) framework. We then illustrate our approach by describing the design and testing of an assessment being used to evaluate middle school science curriculum materials in a cluster randomized trial in a large urban district. We highlight the challenges we faced, the design decisions we made, and rationale for those decisions. We conclude with recommendations for developing NGSS-aligned assessments for program evaluation.