On May 24, Rhode Island's State Board of Education unanimously adopted the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The NGSS are being developed by 26 states (AZ, AR, CA, DE, GA, IL, IA, KS, KY, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MT, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OR, RI, SD, TN, VT and WA) and, similar to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts and mathematics, are focused on identifying common standards to provide greater comparability across states.
The Standards are organized by three categories: Science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts, and are much more contextual than many existing state standards. Developers say the NGSS are much more aligned with the way that students learn in the 21st century. An interactive version of the is now available online allowing searches and organization of content.
Kentucky and Maine are the next states expected to approve the NGSS later this spring.
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