Cross-posted from the Curriculum Matters blog

States and school districts are deeply immersed in trying to find instructional materials and other resources that will help students master the common-core standards and get ready for high-stakes tests in math and English/language arts that are linked to that content. Companies that produce curriculum and other resources are scrambling to keep up.

But while much of the focus in the marketplace has been on math and ELA content, a bunch of states are moving forward with big changes in another subject—science.This post breaks down where states stand actions in adopting the Next Generation Science Standards, actions which are likely to have a strong influence on schools’ demand for instructional resources in that subject for years to come.

(Many teachers, in fact, are already feeling the crunch, and complaining about a lack of classroom materials aligned to the new benchmarks in science.)

Tracking state adoptions of the Next Generation Science Standards can be trickier than you might think. Achieve, the group that led the development of the common science standards, doesn’t keep a map on its website. There isn’t one on the official Next Generation Science Standards site either. And some states have been quiet about their adoption decisions, likely to avoid drumming up the kind of controversy that’s characterized the Common Core State Standards. 

So we’ve updated our own map to keep you in the know:

As of the publishing of this blog post, 15 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the common science standards (though the map above will update as that changes).

In addition to keeping up on official adoptions, We’ll be doing our best to recognize the states that adopt near-replicas—such as South Dakota, shown in orange on the map. The Mt. Rushmore State adopted science standards with nearly identical organization, wording, and content, but some modifications around climate change.

As always, please do let us know if you hear of something we’ve missed.