AERA 2026

Join BSCS Science Learning at the 2026 AERA Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, California, April 8–12, 2026. Details listed below, or click here for more information (enter in the search bar: BSCS).

Thursday, April 9

Supporting Productive Customization Of HQIM Through Assessment Task Design

Thursday, April 9 • 9:45 –11:15 a.m. PDT
Westin Bonaventure, Floor: Level 2, Echo Park

Abraham Lo, BSCS Science Learning
Elaine Klein, BSCS Science Learning
Melissa Campanella, University of Colorado, Boulder
William Penuel, University of Colorado, Boulder

Objectives and Theoretical Framework:
Preparing teachers to productively customize HQIM so that students engage with phenomena that connect to their interests and identities is an important, but challenging, goal for science education (NRC, 2012). In this paper, we present an approach to customization that relies on an “opening” (Remillard & Kaye, 2002) that exists in HQIM to design alternative phenomenon-driven assessment tasks that better connect to students’ interests and local contexts. This approach can produce more equitable learning outcomes for students (DeBarger et al., 2017), while maintaining unit integrity. In addition, this approach creates feasible opportunities for teachers to better understand the units’ design and how to develop assessments of student proficiency in ways that align with the Framework vision.

Methods:
We recruited 18 teachers from a large urban Midwest district that adopted HQIM to support standards implementation. In grade-level teams (three middle and four high school), teachers participated in a six-day professional learning (PL) series to support them in using tools to customize a unit to better engage their students’ interests and science-linked identities (Authors, et al., 2024). Teachers engaged in 25 hours of PL plus time to collaborate and receive feedback. Teachers analyzed the unit’s alignment with the Framework vision and used information from students and 3D standards to identify alternative phenomena to anchor a revised assessment. After implementing their assessments in the fall, teachers will use student and survey data to reflect on their designs and share insights. Below, we share our thematic analysis of teachers’ assessments, exit tickets, and field notes to understand the rationales for teachers’ design decisions as well as the successes and challenges of adapting HQIM through task design.

Results:
While teachers shared that developing an alternative task was challenging, they reported that the tools helped them brainstorm and vet candidate phenomena. All teams used information collected from their students to justify their phenomena choices. For example, one team leveraged their students’ learning how to drive to design a task to understand how Newton’s 2nd Law explains why weather conditions affect vehicle stopping distances. Other groups leveraged students’ everyday interests, such as cooking or sports.

Teachers also valued unpacking the 3D standards and how it helped them better understand the unit’s design and what opportunities students needed when making sense of the chosen phenomena. Their reflections also highlighted the productive tension of presenting a problematized scenario to students, in terms of providing enough context for the phenomenon while narrowing in on a puzzling aspect to figure out, driving the coherence and motivation for students to complete the assessment task. The availability of data and information to make visible what was puzzling about the phenomenon was an additional limiting factor.

Scholarly Significance:
These initial findings suggest that designing an alternative, phenomenon-driven assessment is a complex, yet accessible, entry point for teachers to localize HQIM. Furthermore, engaging teachers in PL specifically designed to support this work can be essential to support teachers and to design productive assessment customizations.

Event

Adaptation of Science Instructional Materials: Localizing Curriculum Materials to Support Equitable Sensemaking

Friday, April 10

Centering Student Voice in Science Assessment through Leveraging Student Experience Data

Friday, April 10 • 9:45 –11:15 a.m. PDT
InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown, Floor: 5th Floor, Echo Park

Cari Herrmann Abell, BSCS Science Learning
Clarissa Deverel-Rico, BSCS Science Learning
Jeffrey Snowden, BSCS Science Learning
Andy Brubaker, BSCS Science Learning
Melissa Campanella, University of Colorado, Boulder
Jean Flanagan, BSCS Science Learning
Dennis Lee, BSCS Science Learning
Patricia Olson, BSCS Science Learning
Christopher Wilson, BSCS Science Learning

Abstract

Current science education reforms emphasize incorporation of student voice into assessment. However, opportunities for students to share assessment experiences remain limited. This study addresses this gap by presenting a survey for directly gathering student experience data. Middle and high school students responded to the survey after taking a three-dimensional assessment task. The survey had a five-factor structure that measured Comprehension & accessibility, Preparedness & connection to prior experiences, Interest, Local and global relevance, and Personal connection and developing agency. Preliminary results from 1,698 students revealed that test position revealed that test position had a varied influence on student experience, with factors like Preparedness and Relevance showing significant decreases on subsequent tasks, while Interest was unaffected.

Event

Reimagining Assessment as a Learning Process: Student Voice, Classroom Practice, and Data Analytics

Saturday, April 11

Disturbing the Grammar of Schooling: An Ecological Analysis of Interdisciplinary Climate Change Education

Saturday, April 11 • 9:45 –11:15 a.m. PDT
JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. LIVE, Floor: Gold Level, Gold 3

Kathryn N. Hayes, California State University, East Bay
Emily Harris, BSCS Science Learning
Eric Nolan, California State University, East Bay
Karina Garbesi, California State University, East Bay

Abstract

Transforming secondary education to address complex socio-scientific issues like climate change requires disrupting the traditional “grammar of schooling.” This case study examines how a Networked Improvement Community (NIC) at a public middle school designed and spread interdisciplinary, justice-centered, solutions focused, climate change learning experiences across a middle school despite typical structural barriers. Drawing on ecological models to analyze systems change, we found that adaptation was enabled by four key factors: disciplinary and identity diversity among participants, multiple formal and informal roles (including boundary spanners, organizers, and “disturbers”), strategic resource leveraging, and interdependent relationships. The findings contribute to understanding whole-school reform as an ecological system and inform improved design of interdisciplinary initiatives within conventional school structures.

Event

AERA Roundtable Session