Professional learning and other teacher supports are perceived as foundational, addressing root causes of many OpenSciEd practitioner challenges across adoption, enactment, and assessment.¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · qualitative r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2024 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Practitioners identified professional learning and professional/practical supports for teachers as foundational needs enabling district adoption, classroom enactment, and assessment outcomes. → McElhaney 2024

Evidence¶

McElhaney 2024¶

McElhaney, K., Urban, R., Kamdar, D., Baker, A., Tsai, K., and Roschelle, J. (2024). Practitioner-reported Needs for Enacting, Implementing, and Adopting OpenSciEd Curriculum Materials [White paper]. Digital Promise. https://doi.org/10.51388/20.500.12265/215

q2 · i? · qualitative · r2

Synthesis of the focus-group needs maps (Figures 2–4) across 28 interviewed practitioners. The report states "Practitioners identify professional support for teachers to be foundational to meeting needs across the system levels," and that PL and other supports "appear to address root causes of many challenges experienced by practitioners."

"Practitioners identify professional support for teachers to be foundational to meeting needs across the system levels."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Working-group synthesis identified four crosscutting research themes for OpenSciEd — related
• OpenSciEd practitioners' highest-priority needs group into six areas: student engagement, classroom culture, assessment, materials adaptation, planning/reflection time, and teacher capacity. — related
• Teachers and education leaders differ in which OpenSciEd challenges they prioritize: teachers rate student engagement higher, leaders rate materials adaptation and teacher capacity higher. — related
• Many teachers' knowledge of students' GC and CoV increased in sophistication over the school year, and teachers reported the professional learning and just-in-time supports were helpful — related
• OpenSciEd enactment faces key challenges: project fatigue, unit length and pacing, pseudoagency, and gaps in student sensemaking practices — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Teachers are able to support rich and participatory science discussions during OpenSciEd enactment, per detailed case studies of experienced teachers — related
• Most field-test teachers report curriculum-based professional learning prepared them for distinctive OpenSciEd pedagogy, with mixed results on standards beliefs — related
• District leaders report that building a shared instructional vision before curriculum adoption lays the foundation for successful IM implementation — related
• Practitioners most often name students with disabilities (37.4%) and multilingual learners (31.0%) as groups experiencing equity challenges with OpenSciEd. — related
• School leaders allocated resources to expand organizational capacity around adoption and implementation of the Skyline ELA curriculum in grades K-2 — related
• Student hat activities and planning-reflection tools support teachers' curricular sensemaking, content understanding, and empathy with student experiences — related