Today, the New York City education department released an updated K-5 science curriculum, to be implemented next year, that incorporates parts of the Next Generation Science Standards.
New York was one of the 26 lead state partners that helped develop the Next Generation Science Standards. So far 13 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the standards—but New York was not among them.
New York City’s new “K-5 Science Scope and Sequence” document explains that it contains parts of the Next Generation Science Standards “in anticipation of an NYS adoption of the NGSS or a state version of the NGSS and to help NYC educators develop an awareness of the NGSS.”
The document is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards’ “science and engineering practices,” which outline what effective inquiry looks like, and the “cross-cutting concepts,” or core ideas that span the science fields. The curriculum also includes the state’s existing science standards and it identifies how each unit connects to the Common Core State Standards for math and language arts (which New York has adopted).
As I wrote last month, many districts are implementing the Next Generation Science Standards despite being in states that have not adopted the standards. In some places, science teachers have led that effort. In others, local school boards have made the decision to go forward with the NGSS.