Middle School Expansion

The Math and Science Bureau (MSB) of the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) continues to support high-quality science instruction in middle schools (grades 6–8). The MSB is wrapping up the last year of the OpenSciEd field test; as a result of New Mexico teacher participation, a coherent curriculum will be available for public use across the country. The released units have received the Achieve Badge of High Quality.

This initiative is designed to support schools to go beyond just downloading curriculum and instead support teachers and leaders adopting and implementing this cutting-edge innovative science curriculum. Support includes on-going professional learning for district science leaders aligned to the open-source instructional materials and cost-sharing for materials.

High School Field Test

New Mexico adopted the NM STEM Ready! Science Standards in July 2018. High school curriculum materials aligned to the recommended Discipline Specific course map are hard to find. OpenSciEd is a project to develop free, high quality, NGSS-aligned curriculum materials for high school science. New Mexico is currently a partner state in the project to develop full year courses in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics with the Earth and Space science standards integrated fully into the courses. Currently, field test teachers are field testing these instructional materials, participating in professional learning (PL) to learn how to use the materials to support equitable learning in science and submitting feedback on the materials, based on the voices of New Mexico students/experienced teachers, making them ready for public release.