OpenSciEd

Product or Programme · All products and programmes
Evidence · 15 claims (10 for, 5 mixed) · 8 studies (5 review, 3 qualitative), q1–q2 · 0 of 8 report an effect size · 13 claims rest on one study

Description

OpenSciEd is a freely available, Creative Commons–licensed middle-school science curriculum developed to address the Next Generation Science Standards.

Components

• OpenSciEd open science curriculum materials: OpenSciEd is a middle school science curriculum described by the article as "a set of Creative Commons licensed, freely available curriculum materials addressing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)". The materials are adaptable, extensive and detailed, and certified through a peer-review process for NGSS design. The paper treats OpenSciEd both as an intervention and, because of its openness, as an ecosystem supporting research and innovation. (A Field-Driven, Equity-Centered Research Agenda for OpenSciEd: Updated Version)
• OpenSciEd teacher supports: unit-specific PD themes and professional learning activities: OpenSciEd teacher supports are "a comprehensive system of materials and structured professional learning experiences that enable teachers to implement the OpenSciEd vision successfully." Unit-specific materials foreground four themes: content understanding, unit storyline, goals for specific lessons and activities, and logistical and materials strategies. Professional learning takes the form of four-day (or more) workshops in which teachers analyze video of problems of practice, focus on navigation routines, immerse themselves in content from the student perspective by switching hats, and collaborate and reflect with peers. (An Initial Logic Model to Guide OpenSciEd Research: Updated Version)
• OpenSciEd research logic model with five components: The white paper organizes OpenSciEd research using a logic model with a five-part structure. As the report states, "This logic model has five main components: design (distinctive principles and affordances), classroom (enactment), teacher supports, system-level (implementation), and outcomes." The authors use this structure to map the 24 reviewed papers by primary focus area and to frame gaps, arguing that district-level implementation and student outcomes remain under-studied relative to design and enactment. (McElhaney et al. (2024))
• Four categories of desired OpenSciEd outcomes: student, teacher capacity, system, and resources and innovations: The paper identifies "four broad categories of desired outcomes for OpenSciEd: student outcomes; increased teacher capacity; system-level outcomes (e.g., districts, states, and policies); and resources and innovations that support curriculum implementation and student learning." These are desired outcomes reflecting what designers hope to achieve rather than what outcome research has gathered evidence about to date. Student outcomes go beyond NGSS-based learning to engagement, autonomy in practices, and equity; teacher capacity includes sustainable implementation and equitable engagement practices; system outcomes include deep and wide district adoption and teacher collaboration cultures; in (An Initial Logic Model to Guide OpenSciEd Research: Updated Version)
• OpenSciEd research logic model: The article reproduces a logic model articulated in a companion paper, which "describes the expected outcomes from an intervention and details the rationale for expecting impact, based on learning sciences principles". It links OpenSciEd's distinctive principles and key affordances to three nested ecosystem levels (classroom interactions, teacher supports, system alignment) and four desired outcome categories: equitable student outcomes, teacher capacity, system-level outcomes, and resources and innovations. The model is used to organize and map the emergent research themes. (A Field-Driven, Equity-Centered Research Agenda for OpenSciEd: Updated Version)
• OpenSciEd research logic model linking inputs, three ecosystem levels, and four outcome categories: The paper's central framework is a logic model that "links two types of inputs, three levels of the U.S. educational ecosystem that are targeted by OpenSciEd intervention, and four broad categories of desired outcomes (system, teacher capacity, students, and resources and innovations)." It details the rationale for expected impact based on learning sciences principles and design features, and clarifies intended relationships among OpenSciEd principles, components and implementation, and desired outcomes. These relationships outline hypotheses to be tested in research studies, and the model highlights knowledge gaps for the field. (An Initial Logic Model to Guide OpenSciEd Research: Updated Version)
• The OpenSciEd storyline instructional model: coherence from the students' perspective via four teaching routines: The storyline instructional model centers on coherence from the students' perspective, emphasizing students' epistemic agency, with the instructional sequence driven by student and peer questions about a phenomenon rather than a premeditated sequence determined by disciplinary experts. The review reports that "the paper describes four teaching routines to promote coherence from the students' perspective: anchoring phenomenon, navigation (i.e., figuring out next steps), putting pieces together (i.e., assembling science ideas and practices), and problematizing (i.e., uncovering gaps or problems in current understanding)". OpenSciEd's distinctive principles include being coherent to students, b (A Summary and Synthesis of Initial OpenSciEd Research)
• OpenSciEd classroom-level instructional features: facilitator teacher, student questions, navigation routines, practices, problematization, and assessment: Figure 2 summarizes six distinctive classroom features: the teacher as facilitator who choreographs learning experiences without prescriptive scripts; instruction driven by student questions supported by driving question boards; lesson-to-lesson enactment with "whole class navigation discussions to maintain coherence from the students' perspective"; practice-based activities engaging science and engineering practices; problematization moments that prompt students to identify gaps in understanding; and assessment opportunities such as consensus models and performance tasks applying concepts to new contexts. (page:designs/openscied-classroom-instructional-features)
• OpenSciEd's five distinctive instructional principles: The article enumerates the distinctive principles that define students' intended classroom experience with OpenSciEd: "these principles include (1) being coherent to students, (2) being phenomena-driven, (3) promoting evidence-based revision, (4) promoting consensus-building, and (5) embodying the vision of the Framework". Collectively they are said to promote equitable participation by giving students agency and explicitly valuing their ideas, experiences, and backgrounds. (page:designs/openscied-distinctive-instructional-principles)

Claims

• Working-group synthesis identified four crosscutting research themes for OpenSciEd [+W]
• Practitioners most often name students with disabilities (37.4%) and multilingual learners (31.0%) as groups experiencing equity challenges with OpenSciEd. [+W]
• Professional learning and other teacher supports are perceived as foundational, addressing root causes of many OpenSciEd practitioner challenges across adoption, enactment, and assessment. [+W]
• Most field-test teachers report curriculum-based professional learning prepared them for distinctive OpenSciEd pedagogy, with mixed results on standards beliefs [+W]
• OpenSciEd classrooms showed greater science achievement growth than non-OpenSciEd classrooms in one district comparison [+W]
• No significant differences in science learning or attitudes between OpenSciEd and mySci eighth-grade classes in one small comparison [~W]
• OpenSciEd enactment faces key challenges: project fatigue, unit length and pacing, pseudoagency, and gaps in student sensemaking practices [~M]
• Formative assessment practices coherent with OpenSciEd are constrained by grading expectations misaligned with formative goals and by the time cost of evaluating and giving feedback on three-dimensional tasks. [~W]
• Teachers are able to support rich and participatory science discussions during OpenSciEd enactment, per detailed case studies of experienced teachers [+W]
• Students' sense of belonging predicts their contributions to classroom knowledge building at both student and teacher levels [+W]
• Collective enterprise and care in equitable classroom cultures are positively associated with students' science interest [+W]
• OpenSciEd curriculum design goals, especially coherence from the student perspective, come into tension during unit design [~W]
• OpenSciEd grade 7 units align with some data-practice frameworks but are less aligned with digital tools, large data sets, and full data cycles [~W]
• Students find OpenSciEd units relevant and coherent, with over 90% reporting relevance and 87% reporting the lesson ties to the bigger picture [+M]
• OpenSciEd materials equitably support student participation and engagement across racial, gender, and linguistic groups, per field-test SEET and teacher-report data [+M]

Related Products and Programmes

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Key Sources

• McElhaney, K., Baker, A., Kasad, Z., Roschelle, J., & Chillmon, C. (2022, March). A field-driven, equity-centered research agenda for OpenSciEd: Updated version [White paper]. Digital Promise. https://doi.org/10.51388/20.500.12265/153
• McElhaney, K., Baker, A., Chillmon, C., Kasad, Z., Liberman, B., & Roschelle, J. (2022, March). An initial logic model to guide OpenSciEd research: Updated version [White paper]. Digital Promise. https://doi.org/10.51388/20.500.12265/152
• McElhaney, K. W., & Kamdar, D. (2024). Updated summary and synthesis of OpenSciEd research [White paper]. Digital Promise. https://doi.org/10.51388/20.500.12265/231
• McElhaney, K. W., Mills, K., Kamdar, D., Baker, A., & Roschelle, J. (2023, March). A summary and synthesis of initial OpenSciEd research: Updated version [White paper]. Digital Promise. https://doi.org/10.51388/20.500.12265/171

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	product
id	openscied
title	OpenSciEd
description	OpenSciEd is a freely available, Creative Commons–licensed middle-school science curriculum developed to address the Next Generation Science Standards.
status	review
moved_from	design/openscied-classroom-instructional-features, design/openscied-distinctive-instructional-principles, element/openscied-open-curriculum-materials, element/openscied-teacher-supports-pd, theory/open-scied-research-logic-model, theory/openscied-four-outcome-categories, theory/openscied-logic-model, theory/openscied-research-logic-model, theory/storyline-instructional-model-student-coherence
product_kind	curriculum
generated	by process:sweep-kinds on 2026-10-10
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources	4 — mcelhaney-k-baker-a-kasad, mcelhaney-k-baker-a-chillmon, mcelhaney-2024, mcelhaney-k-w-mills-k

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