Toolkit
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NEW! 2025 Science Standard Alignment Toolkit (high school 9-12)

This toolkit provides guidance on the standards alignment process and the tools available through KSDE to support standards alignment in science. Note: Coming soon will be unpacked standards tools for physics, chemistry, and biology as well as additional standards alignment guidance for k-8 science. 

 

NEW! 2025 KSDE Vision for Science Instruction

 

 

NEW! KSDE Guidance for Selecting Quality Instructional Materials for Science

 

 

 Guidance Documents
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 TitleDescription
2023 Science Elementary Scope and Sequence GuidanceThe intent of this document is to provide guidance considering themes and units that could scaffold in a meaningful way for both a balanced implementation and assessment system. Districts are encouraged to exercise their local control.
2023 Science HS Scope and Sequence GuidanceThe graduation requirements outlined by the Kansas Department of Education state that students should earn three credits in the areas of science that include concepts of Life Science, Physical Science and Earth/Space Science. This document is support only
2023 Science MS Scope and SequenceScience standards at the middle school level are grade banded and not grade specific.For this reason, districts are encouraged to exercise their local control the intent of this document is to provide guidance considering themes,units & best practice.
2024 Safety GuidanceThis document is intended to provide guidance on reccomended safety practices.
KSDE Guidance for Slecting Quality Instructional Materials for Science 
KSDE Vision for Quality Instruction in Science 
Science Constructive Coaching ToolConstructive Coaching conversations should not be used for the evaluation of Kansas educators. Conversations between observers and classroom educators should focus on ways to deepen and elicit investigative, critiquing, and sense-making behaviors.
Science Instructional Materials and Curriculum Evaluation ToolThis tool is intended to support districts in making decisions adopting curricular materials and resources to support science teaching.
Standards Alignment Toolkit (High School 9-12)This toolkit provides guidance on the standards alignment process and the tools available through KSDE to support standards alignment in science. The toolkit currently focuses on high school science with additional guidance coming soon for k-8.
Kansas Science Standards
In this section of documents, you will find the front matter for the standards and the K-12 standards themselves. Read the descriptions about each document for more details.
 TitleDescription
Introduction to the Kansas science standardsAn executive summary of how these standards are different from previous standards (pdf)
How to Read the KCCRSSA quick overview of how to interpret the information in the standards documents (pdf)
K-12 Kansas Science Standards --"topic" arrangementTHE KANSAS K-12 SCIENCE STANDARDS arranged by the topics that were originally used to write the standards (pdf)
K-12 Kansas Science Standards--"Disciplinary Core Ideas" arrangementTHE KANSAS K-12 SCIENCE STANDARDS arranged by the disciplinary core ideas dimension (pdf)-- for clarification, these are the SAME standards, but just arranged in a different order--use whichever one works better for you

Kansas Science Standards--Appendices

The appendices to the standards are fantastic resources to understand what these standards are all about and how to use the standards to advance instruction in our classrooms.
 TitleDescription
A-Conceptual Shifts in the Next Generation Science StandardsA deeper look at the shifts that make these standards new and different (pdf)
B-Responses to the Public DraftsA summary of the feedback to the two complete public drafts of these standards (pdf)
C-College and Career ReadinessA discussion of what college and career readiness looks like in science (pdf)
D-Diversity and EquityAdvice on how to ensure these standards are for ALL students (pdf)
D-Diversity and Equity--Case StudiesZip file of the seven case studies referenced in Appendix D that provide examples of strategies classroom teachers can use to ensure that the NGSS are accessible to all students. Examples are included for elementary, middle, and high school. (zip file)
E-DCI ProgressionsA summary table of how the disciplinary core ideas develop in the standards across K-12 (pdf)
F-Science and Engineering Practices across gradesA summary of how the science and engineering practices dimension develops across K-12 (pdf)
G-Crosscutting Concepts across grade levelsA summary of how the crosscutting concepts dimension develops across K-12 (pdf)
H-Nature of Science in KCCRSSA summary of how the nature of science is woven throughout the standards (pdf)
I-Engineering Design in KCCRSSA discussion of how and why engineering is integrated into these standards (pdf)
J-Science, Technology, Society and the EnvironmentAn explanation of how the interdependence of science, engineering and technology, and the influence of science, engineering and technology on society and the natural world are incorporated into the standards (pdf)
K-Course Mapping 6-8 and 9-12A pragmatic guide to making decisions about how to map out the 6-8 and 9-12 grade banded standards to courses (pdf)
L-Connections to Math StandardsAn explanation of how these science standards were developed in a way that compliments the expectations in our Kansas Kansas math standards (pdf)
M-Connections to ELA StandardsAn explanation of how these science standards were developed in a way that compliments the expectations in our Kansas Kansas English Language Arts (ELA) standards (pdf)
 Contact Information
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Stephanie Alderman-Oler
STEM Program Manger K-12
stephanie.alderman-oler@ksde.gov
785-296-8108

Carrie Hurd
Publc Service Adminstrator 
carrie.hurd@ksde.gov
785-296-2078

 


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