An Event History Analysis of the Policy Adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards

Standards-based reform has grown in the field of education. Efforts to do so in mathematics and reading through the Common Core State Standards, while initially adopted widely, ultimately proved controversial. In contrast, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) have been less polarizing. Using an event history analysis, we examined the state political, economic, and social factors that predicted adoption of the NGSS as well as how factors differentially related to full-scale adoption or adoption of standards based on the NGSS. Results show, while few factors predicted adoption broadly, the presence of a larger proportion of Republicans in the legislature predicted a higher likelihood of adopting standards based on the NGSS than fully adopting them.