Scientific and Engineering Practices in K-12 Classrooms: Understand a Framework for K-12 Science Education
In this article, Rodger W. Bybee presents the science and engineering practices from the recently released A Framework for K–12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas (NRC 2011).

The Dawn of System Leadership
The purpose of this article is to share what we are learning about the system leaders needed to foster collective leadership. We hope to demystify what it means to be a system leader and to continue to grow as one. It is easy when we talk about exemplars like Mandela to reinforce a belief that these are special people, somehow walking on a higher plane than the rest of us. But we have had the honor to work with many "Mandelas," and this experience has convinced us that they share core capabilities and that these can be developed. Although formal position and authority matter, we have watched people contribute as system leaders from many positions. As Ronald Heifetz has shown in his work on adaptive leadership,2 these leaders shift the conditions through which others—especially those who have a problem—can learn collectively to make progress against it. Most of all, we have learned by watching the personal development of system leaders. This is not easy work, and those who progress have a particular commitment to their own learning and growth. Understanding the "gateways" through which they pass clarifies this commitment and why this is not the mysterious domain of a chosen few.

Communities of Transformation and Their Work Scaling STEM Reform
For the past 20 years, countless reports have been issued calling for reform of undergraduate STEM education to improve student learning and success for both majors and non-majors. Recent reports describe the need to focus on creating more student-centered learning environments that use the most eff ective research-based teaching, learning, and assessment strategies (American Association for Advancement of Science, 2011; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 2009; National Academies, 2010; National Science Foundation, 2010). All of these reports call attention to a set of problems in undergraduate STEM education: 1. Few students choose to be STEM majors; 2. Traditionally underrepresented groups have extremely low participation in STEM fi elds; 3. STEM majors face low graduation rates; and, 4. Th ere are broad skills that graduates lack as they complete STEM majors (e.g., teamwork, writing) and non-STEM majors (e.g., quantitative reasoning, analytical thinking), making it diffi cult for them to meet workplace needs in our technology-based knowledge economy. While experts across the country generally agree on the nature of the problems and on some of the interventions needed, there is less agreement about how to create widespread change. Some emerging evidence suggests that current approaches are ineff ective (Fairweather, 2009).

Standards for Preparation and Professional Development for Teachers of Engineering
This resource describes best practices needed to integrate engineering into teacher preparation programs.

What is engineering? Elaborating the nature of engineering for K‐12 education
What is engineering? What do engineers do? How is engineering related to, but distinct from, science? These questions all relate to the nature of engineering (NOE), and as engineering is incorporated into K‐12 education across the United States, the NOE is becoming increasingly important for students and teachers. This paper presents key dimensions of the NOE via a framework synthesized from studies of the engineering discipline from philosophical, historical, and sociological perspectives, as well as perspectives from within the engineering field.

Effective STEM Teacher Preparation, Induction, and Professional Development
Offering a high quality education to all U.S. students and building the educational system to support their teachers are topics of much concern and investment, passion and critique. Teacher quality is at the core of those ardent discussions, with calls for the reform and critical review of teacher preparation, induction, and professional development programs.

Constructing 21st-Centruy Teacher Education
Much of what teachers need to know to be successful is invisible to lay observers, leading to the view that teaching requires little formal study and to frequent disdain for teacher education programs. This article argues that we have learned a great deal about how to create stronger, more effective teacher education programs. Three critical components of such programs include tight coherence and integration among courses and between course work and clinical work in schools, extensive and intensely supervised clinical work integrated with course work using pedagogies that link theory and practice, and closer, proactive relationships with schools that serve diverse learners effectively and develop and model good teaching. The article also urges that schools of education should resist pressures to water down preparation, which ultimately undermine the preparation of entering teachers, the reputation of schools of education, and the strength of the profession.

NGSS Appendix F: Science and Engineering Practices
The Framework expresses a vision in science education that requires students to operate at the nexus of three dimensions of learning: Science and Engineering Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Disciplinary Core Ideas

Collective Impact
Large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination, yet the social sector remains focused on the isolated intervention of individual organizations. The Collective Impact framework identifies 5 conditions that lead to powerful results: 1. Common agenda/shared vision 2. Shared Measurement System/metrics of success 3. Mutually reinforcing activities and coordination 4. Continuous communication 5. Backbone support/structured management processes.

NGSS Appendix I: Engineering Design in the NGSS
This document describes how engineering design can be integrated into current science practices.