NGSS 2nd Draft Response

 AAPT Sponsored Discussion Group Response to Achieve on the Next Generation Science Standards Second Draft

A response to the second draft of the Next Generation Science Standards (http://www.nextgenscience.org/) was based on the discussions at a meeting on January 28, 2013 of experienced high school physics teachers and representatives from the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Physic, the National Society of Black Physicists, and the American Institute of Research.

Fourteen professionals gathered at the American Center for Physics to participate in a discussion of the second draft of the NGSS and to provide feedback to Achieve.  Five of the participants are currently teaching high school, two are university faculty members, three are disciplinary society staff members and two are retired physics teachers.  Others are a National Science Digital Library editor, science fellows in the federal government, a teacher-in-residence at a university physics department, and one who works in large-scale assessment.  Seven of the participants have their highest post-secondary degrees in physics, and seven are in education.  Three currently are teaching high school physics, seven had taught high school physics in the past, one taught other disciplines, and two have never taught at the high school level.  The average number of years experience teaching high school physics was almost 15; the range was from 4 to 44 years of experience.  Other K-12 teaching experience included middle school and high school mathematics and language arts, high school earth and space science, high school biology, and middle school mathematics and science.  About one-third of the participants had experience with science standards reviews at the state level and most had experience with science standards review at the federal level.

A response produced by this group was sent to Achieve.  A summary of this response is available [NGSS 2nd Draft Summary].   A summary of the response to the first draft is available [NGSS 1st Draft Summary].  For further information or if you have comments, please contact Beth Cunningham at bcunningham@aapt.org or Robert Hilborn at  rhilborn@aapt.org.