Stephanie O'Brien
STANYS President, 2024-2025

President's Message

My Fellow Educators,

With the introduction of the New York State Science Learning Standards (NYSSLS), we are presented with a unique opportunity to empower our students through meaningful assessment practices that foster deep understanding and critical thinking. As we gather for the 129th Annual Conference, I am delighted to announce our theme: "Launching into NYSSLS Assessments: Empowering Sensemaking Opportunities for Liftoff." This year's conference theme demonstrates our commitment to providing educators with the tools and strategies necessary to navigate the implementation of NYSSLS assessments effectively. By embracing sensemaking opportunities, we can inspire our students to engage with science in a way that ignites their curiosity. 

What can we expect the exams to look like? Question clusters in these new exams include an introduction, multiple stimuli such as reading passages, diagrams, photos, and graphs, and questions drawing on these stimuli. These stimuli are designed to have students make sense of the phenomenon by providing a context that drives the assessment storyline. Questions will not be the straight recall of memorized facts. The NYSED website details that exam questions in the cluster will still be comprised of 60% multiple-choice and 40% constructed-response questions. These storyline clusters will guide students through building Science and Engineering Practices, Disciplinary Core Ideas, and Crosscutting Concepts related to a specific phenomenon centered around an anchor Performance Expectation (PE), though they may also include questions addressing related PEs. 

Why are we moving to this type of assessment? This shift in the assessment will be a more meaningful and holistic evaluation of students' science understanding and skills of the NYSSLS standards. The NYSSLS exams will employ Principled Assessment Design, a research-based approach to assessment construction. This method focuses on conceptual and applied student understanding. To support students in preparing for these assessments teachers can create classroom tasks using the Performance Expectations and Performance Level Descriptions (PLDs) to build lessons and assess students’ proficiency in concepts and skills.

How can you help students prepare for these assessments? Use the Performance Level Descriptions (PLDs) to guide your instructional practice. The PLDs outline the knowledge and skills students demonstrate at different performance levels, illustrating the progression of learning within a subject. They are crucial in test development processes, guiding question writing, and standard setting. Simple strategies such as giving students facts and asking them which facts support the claim they have. 

How can I learn more about assessments? Attend the state conference, November 1-4, to collaborate and learn ideas from other educators across the state. I look forward to the keynotes, presentations, enriching discussions, and insights that will undoubtedly emerge from our time together at the conference.