| Existing State Standards |
Next Generation Science Standards |
| Provide separate lists of content students should know and processes that they should be able to do |
Provide a set of performance expectations that integrate practices, core ideas, and crosscutting concepts |
| Based on the Benchmarks for Science Literacy (1993) and the National Science Education Standards (1996) |
Based on the Framework for K-12 Science Education (2012) |
| Often assessed with multiple choice questions that emphasized definitions |
Designed to be assessed in real world contexts |
| Engineering often excluded |
Engineering integrated with science |
| Expectations for what some students need to learn |
Expectations to prepare all students for college, career, and citizenship |
| No connections to mathematics and English language arts |
Explicit connections to mathematics and English language arts included |