Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

In March of 2006, state-wide assessments (CSAPs) in science will begin to be administered to all Colorado 5th and 10th grade students, as well as to 8th graders, to whom the test has been given for several years. The new state assessment frameworks are a document developed to guide the test-makers as they prepare these tests, but they are also a tool with great potential to improve teaching and learning in Colorado science classrooms.

Frameworks were developed for each of the six Colorado Science Standards by teams of teachers, district science leaders, university and public science educators and scientists, working with the Colorado Department of Education (CDE). While the standards define what students should know, the frameworks indicate how students could show they knew it—what they could do to demonstrate their mastery of each benchmark within the standards. The frameworks also make more explicit the developmental structure of the standards and the expectations for growth in students’ thinking capacities through their school years.

Sandra Laursen is a CIRES outreach scientist who helped to write the frameworks for Earth and space science. She is particularly interested in sharing the frameworks with educators and helping them to think about how to use the frameworks to improve science instruction. Some of the resources she has developed as part of this work are available here for the use of Colorado science educators.

Resources

• The Colorado science frameworks can be downloaded from the CDE web site: CSAP Assessment Frameworks.

• Laursen and Daniel Snare of Jefferson County Schools have developed a workshop presentation on the frameworks for teachers. Our workshop presentation materials provide a good orientation to the frameworks. You are welcome to use these slides as long as you acknowledge the source. The interactive portions vary with each workshop we present and are not included. (Microsoft PowerPoint© file)

• Laursen has presented workshops on the frameworks to teachers at the Colorado Science Convention and in Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley school districts, and to university science educators. Participants learn what the frameworks are and how they came to be, and have a chance to examine these documents up close. If you are interested in arranging a workshop for your school district or education group, contact Sandra Laursen (sandraDOTlaursenATcoloradoDOTedu).

• We have developed a large-format version of the frameworks that has been particularly useful in staff development sessions. Ray Tschillard of Greeley Schools and Dan Snare of Jefferson County Schools collaborated on this effort. (PDF, how to use PDF file)

Science teachers study the state assessment frameworks at a school district workshop.