A Year of Science Exploration and Innovation

In the fall of 2024, we began piloting Cognia Interim Science Assessments for grades 6-8. In our pilots, students interact with three interims across the school year, including innovative assessment tasks such as a longitudinal task that allows students to build upon and revise their thinking around science phenomena. Teachers administer the interim and participate in professional learning sessions to guide data use and interpretation. As we continue in our development and testing, we are sharing key developments from the pilot, including how we use curriculum-aligned assessment data to inform teaching and learning, how teachers engage with professional development, and how the assessment design is evolving.

A Diverse Network of Schools

The science pilot involves a range of schools across seven distinct pilot districts, including one international school. These schools represent various regions of the United States, including the Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and the Midwest. Together, the schools have approximately 4,000 students and nearly 40 teachers participating in the pilot. This diversity in school locations and demographics provides a broad perspective on how the OpenSciEd curriculum is implemented across the country and the opportunity to test our assessment materials in varied educational settings.

Using Cognitive Lab Protocols to Analyze Student Interactions

A crucial part of the pilot is understanding how students engage with tasks on the platform. Using cognitive lab protocols, we’re able to track how students make sense of the tasks and interact with the platform over time. These protocols give us a deeper look into student thinking, shedding light on how they approach problems and how their strategies evolve throughout the year.

This data allows us to see how students’ interactions change as they grow, which is valuable for refining our platform and gaining insight into student development. It is a powerful tool for understanding how students build their scientific knowledge and skills over time, and it informs both the design of the tasks, and the instructional support provided to teachers.

Teacher Professional Learning: Building Capacity for Effective Instruction

Teachers play an essential role in the success of the interim science assessment pilot, and we’re offering a comprehensive six-hour professional learning program to support their work. This program is designed to help teachers understand the purpose behind the assessments, the design and intent of the tasks, and how to support their students before, during, and after the assessment process. We also focus on ensuring a smooth transition between instruction and assessment, allowing for a seamless classroom experience.

By analyzing assessment results, teachers are empowered to make data-driven decisions that address the strengths and needs of their students.

A critical aspect of our professional learning is helping teachers understand how the data from assessments can inform instructional practices. By analyzing assessment results, teachers are empowered to make data-driven decisions that address the strengths and needs of their students. This, in turn, enhances their ability to personalize instruction, providing targeted support where it is most needed.

Longitudinal Growth Task: Measuring Student Progress Over Time

One of the standout features of the assessment is the longitudinal growth task, which offers students the opportunity to build on their prior thinking and show how their understanding has developed over the course of the year. This approach mirrors the idea of taking a child’s photo with the same background every year to see how much they’ve grown. We can better understand how students’ scientific thinking evolves by tracking student progress over a constant context—focusing on a single phenomenon throughout the year.

The longitudinal task allows students to iterate on their ideas, refining and expanding their knowledge as they engage in more complex thinking. This ongoing process of refinement gives teachers and students a clearer picture of growth and allows for meaningful feedback that can guide future learning.

Close-Curricular Tasks: Connecting Learning to Real-World Applications

In addition to the longitudinal growth task, we’ve developed close-curricular tasks that ask students to apply what they’ve learned throughout the OpenSciEd units to new, real-world scenarios. These tasks require students to use the same scientific practices, core ideas, and cross-cutting concepts they’ve learned in the OpenSciEd units, but in a different context. By engaging with transfer tasks, students are encouraged to think critically and apply their knowledge in novel ways, deepening their understanding of the scientific concepts at hand.

This approach promotes the transfer of learning from one context to another, ensuring that students develop a robust understanding of scientific practices that they can apply across various situations.

This approach promotes the transfer of learning from one context to another, ensuring that students develop a robust understanding of scientific practices that they can apply across various situations. It also encourages critical thinking and sense-making skills, which are essential for success in the sciences.

Feed Forward Reporting: A Dynamic Tool for Instructional Support

One of the most exciting innovations in this pilot is the development of the feed-forward reporting structure. Designed to provide actionable insights to teachers, the feed-forward reports help educators understand where their students excel and where they may need additional support. This reporting structure is not just about looking back at student performance—it’s about using the data to guide future instruction.

By examining the data, teachers are directed to specific OpenSciEd curriculum features where they can address students’ strengths and needs. The feed-forward reports are curriculum-specific, allowing teachers to tailor their instruction to the precise needs of their students. This tool ensures that instructional decisions are informed by data, making it easier for teachers to provide personalized support.

For example, if teachers notice that their students excel in identifying components and processes in models but struggle to explain interactions among those components, the feed-forward data will point them toward specific OpenSciEd lessons that focus on modeling interactions in a different context. This ensures that students have the opportunity to work on these critical skills multiple times and in varying situations.

Leveraging AI for Curriculum Support

We’re also leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze curriculum materials, such as teacher guides, scopes and sequences, and OpenSciEd resources. By using AI to analyze these materials, we gain insights into where teachers can address specific practices, cross-cutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) in their lessons. This helps ensure that the curriculum aligns with the assessment goals and that students are exposed to a well-rounded and effective science education.

For instance, using AI, we can identify patterns in student performance that suggest a need for further instruction in certain areas. In this way, teachers can be guided to specific OpenSciEd lessons and routines that will build on their students’ strengths and help them address gaps in teaching and learning. The goal is to continuously improve the alignment between curriculum and assessment, ensuring that students build on their knowledge and receive the support they need to succeed.

Science Motivation and Identity: Understanding Students’ Engagement

In addition to academic performance, the pilot also includes science motivational and experiential questions designed to gather data on how students perceive themselves as scientists. These questions ask students to reflect on their opportunities to engage in science, their interest in the topics they’re studying, and how they identify as someone who is good at science.

By fostering an environment where students feel empowered to share their ideas and take ownership of their learning, we can support the development of scientifically literate individuals.

This data helps us understand how students view their role in the classroom and how motivated they are to participate in science learning. It also provides valuable information for teachers, allowing them to identify students or groups of students who may need more support to engage and advocate for themselves in the classroom. By fostering an environment where students feel empowered to share their ideas and take ownership of their learning, we can support the development of scientifically literate individuals.

Looking Ahead: Scoring and Benchmarking

As we progress with the pilot, we’re preparing for the next phase: scoring, benchmarking, and rubric development. The assessment is designed to be completed in 90 minutes, and once scoring is complete, we will be holding opportunities for our pilot teachers to participate in the scoring process. These sessions will allow teachers to contribute to developing and refining rubrics, ensuring that the assessment accurately reflects student learning.

This process not only benefits the development of the assessment but also helps teachers and teacher leaders understand how to leverage high-quality curriculum materials, like OpenSciEd, as educative resources for teacher learning. By participating in the scoring and rubric development process, teachers gain a deeper understanding of how assessments can improve their teaching practices and support their students’ growth.

Conclusion

The Cognia OpenSciEd Science Pilot is an exciting and innovative initiative that is helping to shape the future of science education. With its focus on data-driven insights, professional learning, and ongoing support for teachers, the pilot is laying the foundation for a more personalized and effective use of the OpenSciEd science curriculum. As we continue to gather data, refine our tools, and work closely with teachers, we are moving closer to our goal of providing high-quality, curriculum-aligned assessments that support student growth and teacher development. This work is not only about improving assessments, but also about building a community of educators and learners committed to advancing science education for all students.

We are grateful for the participation of our pilot schools and look forward to continuing this important work in the months ahead. Cognia is building on our work with districts by expanding middle school science interim testing and launching a new pilot for elementary and high schools in the 2026–2027 school year.

If you are interested in working with us on our innovative science assessments’ continued development and pilots, contact us at studentassessments@cognia.org.

Dr. TJ Heck is an accomplished educator and leader with expertise in assessment design, professional learning, and science instruction. Dr. Heck holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education from Michigan State University and has served on numerous advisory boards and committees. She is the Director of Learning Solutions Content in Science at Cognia. She leads the development of science assessments aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and OpenSciEd curriculum. Dr. Heck also serves as an Adjunct Professor at James Madison University in the College of Education. Her career includes extensive experience as a middle school science teacher and administrator, where she designed innovative educational programs emphasizing problem-based learning and culturally relevant instruction and assessment.