What roles will district staff play in NGSS Adoption?

[sare...@yahoo.com]

I've noticed that the participants in this course have a variety of different roles and levels of influence on the adoption go the NGSS.  I would like to start a discussion about what are key ideas that need to be effectively communicated at everyone about the NGSS and to suggest possible leadership actions.

1) I noticed that the NGSS are integrated and with the cross cutting concepts are a new expectation.  Many parents and educators are familiar with a single science class (B-C-P) and the integrated approach would require further investigations.    Who will be responsible for leading the discussion about the pros and cons of integrated courses versus discrete courses?  

One, I've noticed that many people assume that any course that is not discrete is a "lower" level course and not for college bound students.  Two, it that to prepare students for the AP science courses requires a very large set of skills and concepts be taught in the pre-requisite course .  For example the AP biology teachers have a very long list of content for biology that needs to be covered because it is a prerequisite for AP Bio. Three, parents will need to be assured from multiple secondary universities and colleges that integrated science is college prep.  While Eric mentioned in passing that colleges would not be put off by students taking "non-traditional" named courses there are some misconceptions and biases to address. 

2) I noticed that the NGSS have a lot of perforce expectations.  These labs will require additional prep time and supply monies. Who will be responsible for getting teachers the time and money to purchase and prepare the materials?

3) While integrated courses make sense to me and I've had to create a number of them,  I also know that supplemental materials and textbooks should not be the sole driving force for a course or curriculum, they are still a valid backbone support for a course.  Who will be responsible for generating the supplemental materials for each course? 

Especially if it is integrated and there is no textbook to support it?  I've done courses with out official textbooks and it was possible but under the current expectations of a class of 35 students with full inclusion and differentiation with embedded honors (seriously) I know that I cannot find and create all the resources on my own.  It is unfair to expect teachers to create everything from scratch.

[Eric Brunsell]

ultimately, curricular decisions are the responsibility of the district  (course sequence, textbooks, resources, etc.).  Generally, education of parents about curricular decisions also falls to districts (they might ignore it or shift it to individual teachers).  DPI would need to do some education related to policy changes -- but, their ability to do that is also very limited.

I agree with your comment about misperception and biases regarding integrated courses -- that is a "tough nut to crack."

[Barbara Walton-Faria]

I am hoping to see effective differentiated PD from the state and district. I'm also hoping that a reasonable timeline will be adopted, unlike the one adopted for Common Core which is happening much too quickly to be effective.