Spotlight on IMPACT

Science classrooms, particularly those in schools labeled “underperforming,” have long been engaging students in activities that bear little resemblance to the kind of creativity, curiosity, and critical debate that drive innovation in science and engineering. Assessment policies that pressured instruction to emphasize easily-tested knowledge and skills are often blamed for turning K-12 science learning into routines of rote recall of facts, formulas, and procedures. Recognition of the detrimental effects these policies can have on teaching, learning, as well as students’ well-being, has resulted in assessment being considered a villain of public education. However,  in some places, assessments are having the opposite impact - they are playing a central role in transforming science classrooms into joyful, active, and intellectually engaging spaces that challenge common notions of how and why assessments are used in science classrooms.