GRADE

Reviewers were first asked to perform a preliminary assessment on the NGSS (used in 20 states plus the District of Columbia) and submit their preliminary evaluations. The reviewers and staff from NCSE and TFN Education Fund then participated in a conference call to discuss their evaluations, with the goal of ensuring the comparability of their evaluations, both for the NGSS and for the remaining standards. Reviewers were free to revise their evaluations for the NGSS following the conference call. Reviewers then examined the remaining 30 sets of state science standards (in random order to avoid any order-dependent source of bias).