High School Report Overview

The instructional materials reviewed for High School partially meet expectations for Gateway 1: Designed for NGSS. Criterion 1: Phenomena and Problems Drive Learning partially meets expectations. Phenomena and problems are present, connected to DCIs, and presented to students as directly as possible. The materials consistently elicit but inconsistently leverage student prior knowledge and experience related to the phenomena and problems present. Phenomena and problems drive learning and use of the three dimensions at both the learning sequence and learning opportunity levels, but not consistently. Criterion 2: Three Dimensional Learning partially meets expectations. The materials include three-dimensional learning opportunities and opportunities for student sensemaking with the three dimensions. While element-level three-dimensional learning objectives are present, student opportunities to use and develop the respective elements are not consistently present. The formative and summative assessments inconsistently measure the three dimensions for their respective objectives. 

The instructional materials reviewed for High School meet expectations for Gateway 2: Coherence and Scope. The materials include nearly all publisher-claimed DCI elements encompassing all high school life science and some engineering, technology, and applications of science elements. The materials include all publisher-claimed grade-band SEP elements, with adequate opportunity for students to use practices repeatedly and in multiple contexts. The materials include nearly all of the publisher-claimed grade-band CCC elements and provide repeated opportunities for students to use CCCs across the course. The materials accurately represent the three dimensions across the course and only include scientific content appropriate to the grade band. While the materials demonstrate how the dimensions connect across and within units, as well as how student tasks increase in sophistication, these components are inconsistent.