Invitation for Teachers

Invitation for Teachers to Participate in the Field Testing
of Middle School and High School Science Assessment Items
AAAS Project 2061 is developing assessment items to measure middle and high school students’ understanding of important science ideas from the National Science Education Standards and the AAAS Benchmarks for Science Literacy. We are recruiting middle and high school science teachers willing to field test our multiple-choice test items with their students in April, May or June of 2010. As an incentive, each participating teacher will receive a copy of Volume 2 of the Atlas of Science Literacy or a $50 gift card from either Borders or Barnes and Noble Bookstore. The assessment should take no longer than 45 minutes to complete, and will cover one of a variety of topics in science. It is not necessary that your students have had formal instruction on any of the topics being tested.
The guidelines for participation are as follows:
You must be a middle or high school science teacher in the United States.
Your students must be in 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade.
You must obtain permission to participate from the appropriate school or district personnel.
You must return all testing materials to AAAS Project 2061. Pre-paid shipping labels will be provided.
This study is not intended to evaluate teachers or students. Individual students will not be identifiable, and teacher information will remain strictly confidential. Our only interest is to learn how students respond to these test items so that we can design test items that are valid measures of what middle and high school students know about important science ideas.
If you are able to participate, please click the link below and complete the registration form that follows. Participation in this study is limited, so registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. If necessary, we will also adjust our selections to achieve representation from urban, rural, and suburban schools from different parts of the country. Teachers who are selected to participate will be notified by email.
2010 Project 2061 Field Testing registration
The deadline for registration is April 2nd, 2010.
If you have any questions, please contact the coordinator of this assessment study by email at 2061assessment@aaas.org or by phone at 1-202-326-6207.