Tag Archives: teachers

Celebrate The Teachers in Your Life This Week

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! We know that with long hours and dedication, teachers and administrators are taking on the challenge of implementing new science standards. We’re here to help! Our resources communicate the framework and standards for NGSS, provide guidance on assessment, and support professional development. As a token of appreciation for all that you do, use code NGSS18 for a 25% discount off the list price for all our titles, now through June 30th.

Seeing Students Learn Science: Integrating Assessment and Instruction in the Classroom

Seeing Students Learn Science: Integrating Assessment and Instruction in the Classroom

Science educators in the United States are adapting to a new vision of how students learn science. Children are natural explorers and their observations and intuitions about the world around them are the foundation for science learning. …

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Science Teachers' Learning: Enhancing Opportunities, Creating Supportive Contexts

Science Teachers’ Learning: Enhancing Opportunities, Creating Supportive Contexts

Currently, many states are adopting the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) or are revising their own state standards in ways that reflect the NGSS. For students and schools, the implementation of any science standards rests with teachers. …

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Guide to Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards

Guide to Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards

A Framework for K-12 Science Education and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) describe a new vision for science learning and teaching that is catalyzing improvements in science classrooms across the United States. Achieving …

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Design, Selection, and Implementation of Instructional Materials for the Next Generation Science Standards: Proceedings of a Workshop

Design, Selection, and Implementation of Instructional Materials for the Next Generation Science Standards: Proceedings of a Workshop

Instructional materials are a key means to achieving the goals of science education—an enterprise that yields unique and worthwhile benefits to individuals and society. As states and districts move forward with adoption and implementation of …

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Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards

Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards

Assessments, understood as tools for tracking what and how well students have learned, play a critical role in the classroom. Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards develops an approach to science assessment to …

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Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States

Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States

Next Generation Science Standards identifies the science all K-12 students should know. These new standards are based on the National Research Council’s A Framework for K-12 Science Education. The National Research Council, the …

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A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas

A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas

Science, engineering, and technology permeate nearly every facet of modern life and hold the key to solving many of humanity’s most pressing current and future challenges. The United States’ position in the global economy is declining, in part …

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Ready, Set, SCIENCE!: Putting Research to Work in K-8 Science Classrooms

Ready, Set, SCIENCE!: Putting Research to Work in K-8 Science Classrooms

What types of instructional experiences help K-8 students learn science with understanding? What do science educators, teachers, teacher leaders, science specialists, professional development staff, curriculum designers, and school administrators …

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Surrounded by Science: Learning Science in Informal Environments

Surrounded by Science: Learning Science in Informal Environments

Practitioners in informal science settings–museums, after-school programs, science and technology centers, media enterprises, libraries, aquariums, zoos, and botanical gardens–are interested in finding out what learning looks like, how to …

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16 New Books: Greenhouse Gases, Gulf War and Health, Helium Reserve, and more

I hope that those of you in the U.S. had a happy and relaxing Independence Day weekend. We welcome you back to the working week with one of the biggest lists of new books that we’ve had since we’ve started posting them once a week here on Notes From NAP. There’s sixteen of them, the vast majority of which have free PDFs available.

Because of the high number of new books this week, we’re going to present it here as a simple list. If you have any comments or questions about Notes From NAP, feel free to contact us through this form. We’d love to get any feedback you might have.

New Publications This Week

Persistent Forecasting of Disruptive Technologies–Report 2 (final)

A Foundation for Evidence-Driven Practice: A Rapid Learning System for Cancer Care: Workshop Summary (final)

Strengthening the National Institute of Justice (prepublication)

Steps Toward Large-Scale Data Integration in the Sciences: Summary of a Workshop (final)

Review of the Research Program of the FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership: Third Report (prepublication)

International Differences in Mortality at Older Ages: Dimensions and Sources (prepublication)

Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century (final)

Demographic Changes, a View from California: Implications for Framing Health Disparities: Workshop Summary (final)

Selling the Nation’s Helium Reserve (final)

Preparing Teachers: Building Evidence for Sound Policy (final)

Verifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Methods to Support International Climate Agreements (final)

Certifiably Sustainable?: The Role of Third-Party Certification Systems: Report of a Workshop (final)

Promoting Cardiovascular Health in the Developing World: A Critical Challenge to Achieve Global Health (final)

Realizing the Energy Potential of Methane Hydrate for the United States (final)

Gulf War and Health: Volume 8: Update of Health Effects of Serving in the Gulf War (final)

Envisioning the 2020 Census (final)

7 New Books In Education, Hydrology, Climate Change & Hybrid Vehicles

Our featured publication of the new books this week is in the topic of education and has already found a good deal of popularity thanks to this article in Education Week. There’s six more books (five with free PDFs) new to nap.edu this week, dealing with subjects such as water and hydrology, testing, and conflict and security issues.

Featured Publication

Preparing Teachers: Building Evidence for Sound Policy (prepublication)

Teachers make a difference. The success of any plan for improving educational outcomes depends on the teachers who carry it out and thus on the abilities of those attracted to the field and their preparation. Yet there are many questions about how teachers are being prepared and how they ought to be prepared. Yet, teacher preparation is often treated as an afterthought in discussions of improving the public education system.

Preparing Teachers addresses the issue of teacher preparation with specific attention to reading, mathematics, and science. The book evaluates the characteristics of the candidates who enter teacher preparation programs, the sorts of instruction and experiences teacher candidates receive in preparation programs, and the extent that the required instruction and experiences are consistent with converging scientific evidence. Preparing Teachers also identifies a need for a data collection model to provide valid and reliable information about the content knowledge, pedagogical competence, and effectiveness of graduates from the various kinds of teacher preparation programs.

Federal and state policy makers need reliable, outcomes-based information to make sound decisions, and teacher educators need to know how best to contribute to the development of effective teachers. Clearer understanding of the content and character of effective teacher preparation is critical to improving it and to ensuring that the same critiques and questions are not being repeated 10 years from now.

All New Publications

Best Practices for State Assessment Systems Part I: Summary of a Workshop (prepublication)

Language Diversity, School Learning, and Closing Achievement Gaps: A Workshop Summary (prepublication)

Review of the WATERS Network Science Plan (prepublication)

The Use of Title 42 Authority at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: A Letter Report (prepublication)

National Security Implications of Climate Change for U.S. Naval Forces: Letter Report (final)

Transitions to Alternative Transportation Technologies–Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (final)