EarthX Goals, Objectives and Theories of Change

Table 1. The four EarthX project goals and associated objectives.

Goal 1. Build and nurture a strong Research-Practice Partnership to achieve Goals 2–4, employing best practices of partner engagement and empowerment, collaboration, evidence-based improvement, and productivity.

Goal 2. Develop and test disciplinary and cross-disciplinary professional learning (PL) strategies for supporting effective Earth science teaching in high school Biology, Chemistry, and Physics classes.

Objective 2.1 - Develop intensive and then extensive PL strategies through several cycles of implementation and improvement.

Objective 2.2 - Collect data on teachers’ practices and classroom discourse that can serve the multiple purposes of: 1) use in PL, 2) assessing the impact of PL on teacher practice for improving PL, and 3) scale-up and sustainability at the City Schools district level.

Objective 2.3 - Address our teacher research questions, including: How does teacher practice related to three-dimensional (3D), rigorous and responsive teaching change over time through intensive multi-year or more extensive, district-wide professional learning and support?

Goal 3. Develop Earth science-integrated curriculum and accompanying learning progression-aligned, embedded and summative 3D assessments of student performance that can support rigorous and responsive teaching about phenomena in the local-to-global environment at the interfaces between Earth science and Biology, Chemistry, and Physics.

Objective 3.1 - Develop integrated unit and accompanying assessments through several cycles of implementation and improvement.

Objective 3.2 - Support use of assessments for informing 1) rigorous and responsive instruction, 2) PL strategies and supports, and 3) scale-up and sustainability of District student assessment.

Objective 3.3 - Address our student research questions, notably: How do students’ 3D, Earth science performances improve over the course of a year and over the Biology, Chemistry, Physics sequence in response to teachers’ repeated use of 3D assessments to guide their instruction?

Goal 4. Bring EarthX strategies to scale, resulting in transformative, phenomena-based 3D instruction across the District.

Objective 4.1 - Document how data on student performance, teacher practice, and PL outcomes are used by the District for district-wide adoption of the EarthX PL strategies, assessments, and supporting resources.

Objective 4.2 - Document what supports are needed at the teacher, school, and District level to implement EarthX effectively across the District

Objective 4.3 - Examine sustainability of implementation of the EarthX innovations.

EarthX Theory of Change
Theory of change and overall design for the EarthX project. The main project goals and objectives associated with each component of the design are shown in the lilac-colored circles (refer to Table 1).

Table 2. The EarthX Vision of Excellence

The EarthX 5+1 Vision of Excellence
During Summer Academy 2024, participating cohort educators engaged as learners (“student hat”) in discipline-specific groups with sample lessons from the new curriculum. The cohort, as an interdisciplinary whole, then unpacked and reflected on their student experience, using a lens of the guiding principles outlined by the original EarthX project proposal: (1) Phenomenon-driven, (2) Three-dimensional, (3) Student-centered, (4) Responsive, (5) Earth science integration. Through cohort educator reflection a common theme began to emerge: the critical need to (+1) support ALL educators and students with the above five principles.

Table 3. EarthX Teacher Partner Outcomes

As a result of my participation as an EarthX Design Team Teacher (DTT) in the EarthX Research Practice Partnership (RPP) Project I will be able to independently, with confidence and competence:

  1. …identify, adjust as needed, and purposefully plan with Earth science integrated curriculum and assessment resources to ensure that implementation is aligned to EarthX 5+1 vision;
  2. ...analyze student data to inform planning and instruction aligned to the EarthX 5+1 vision;
  3. ...plan and facilitate formal professional learning for a variety of contexts and audiences aligned to the EarthX 5+1 vision;
  4. ...support school building colleagues to increase individual and/or small group capacity, motivation and self-efficacy to enact high quality instruction aligned to the EarthX 5+1 vision; and
  5. …continue to provide solution-oriented practitioner voice to innovate district level initiatives.