Commentary: The Role of Curriculum Resources in Promoting Effective and Equitable Science Learning

The articles in this issue represent ground-breaking work to design and develop researchbased supports for the implementation of the vision of science education put forward in “A Framework for k-12 Science Education,” hereinafter referred to the “the Framework.” As Chair of the National Research Council (NRC) study committee that produced this consensus report, I am both elated by the progress represented by this work and humbled by the level of effort and commitment that the authors of these papers, many of whom also participated in the NRC study, have exhibited, and continue to undertake, in these multiyear research and development efforts. The Framework presented a research-based vision for how science should be taught; we invented the term “three-dimensional science learning” to describe it. NGSS and other science standards based on the Framework have now been widely adopted. However well designed they may be, such standards are a blunt instrument to drive reforms. The Framework recognized the translation from the vision to implementation would require not only new standards but also significant work on the three-pronged need for curriculum development, teacher preparation and professional learning, and assessment design and practice. The four papers in this issue report on significant work on the first two of these three areas, although for the second area attention is limited to teacher professional learning associated with implementation of the specific curricula but not the more general professional learning of preor in-service. The work described in most cases also includes shifts in the design of assessment tasks embedded in the curriculum, although that aspect is, unfortunately, not stressed in these papers, probably due to limitations of space.