Science Assessments & Professional Development for California educators
We help teachers build confident, capable science thinkers, ready for high-stakes assessments and beyond.
Learn how our NGSS-aligned content and training empowers students to analyze, model, and reason through real-world science challenges.
We are proud to work with forward-thinking educators at:
Compton
Fresno
Desert Sands
Beverly Hills
Ontario-Montclair
Fontana
San Bernardino City
Chino Valley
Lennox
South Fork
College
Alview Dairyland
Santa Ana
Your Challenge: Shallow Science Curriculum with Low Cognitive Demand
Most Science curriculum focuses on isolated facts or static diagrams, offering minimal depth. Students are asked to recall rather than explain, analyze, or apply NGSS concepts like patterns, models, or data interpretation.
Our Solution
Our science content goes beyond vocabulary and recall. Students are challenged to synthesize information, model patterns, and explain phenomena, directly addressing NGSS and CAST expectations with DOK 2-3 questions. Easily track success across Performance Expectations or Item Type. This helps determine if students are struggling with the science concepts or with the design of the question.
Your Challenge: Limited Visuals, Data, and Question Variety
Most assessments underuse data tables and visuals. They also rely heavily on basic multiple-choice questions, limiting opportunities for students to show their thinking or engage with scientific practices.
Our Solution
We use interactive visuals, like star charts, shadow models, and data tables that students must analyze and interpret. Our questions include tables, drop-downs, multiple choice, short answer, and multi-select questions, giving students more ways to show their thinking and build confidence with CAST-style rigor.
Your Challenge: Lack of Student Engagement and Real-World Connection
Science content often feels disconnected from reality. Without creative, real-world scenarios, students miss opportunities to develop curiosity and build reasoning skills that mirror what’s expected on the CAST.
Our Solution
From music and rope models to star constellations and seasonal shifts, our scenarios are rooted in real-world examples. This makes science more engaging and ensures students see the relevance behind every concept they’re mastering. Question sets focused on the Performance Expectations are varied and help students think about these concepts in a variety of ways.
Strategic Thinking Assessments: Our formative assessments cover every CCSS and NGSS standard. These assessments are designed to evaluate students' understanding and strategic thinking capabilities in Math, ELA, and Science.
Actionable Insights: Our assessment platform immediately reports data on why students are struggling. This allows teachers to make timely interventions and adjustments to their instructional strategies.
Math: Sessions are delivered in person or online, with an introduction to Strategic Thinking in Math. Our Math professional development sessions are designed to inform educators on:
- A thorough understanding of the 16 Strategic Thinking Types and their importance in learning math.
- How to analyze questions to determine appropriate Strategic Thinking Types.
- Using the Classtime assessment platform and its specific features.
- Modeling activities that promote various Strategic Thinking Types.
ELA: Our ELA professional development trains teachers to help students recognize and use strategies to help them with CAASPP ELA item types and performance tasks. This allows students to feel more confident and focus on ELA content and less on the format of the question.
Science: Our Science professional development helps teachers with strategies to improve student performance on the CAST.
Our kick-off training at Ontario-Montclair School District. We introduced educators to techniques for identifying why students miss questions and integrating Strategic Thinking into their instruction.
At our training with Century Community Charter School, we broke down real data that demonstrates the common mistakes students make on CAASPP question types such as checkboxes and free text.
Our kick-off training day involved analyzing test-released questions, identifying thinking patterns within each question, and devising strategies to tackle them to ensure the district reaches its CAASPP Math goals.
Our training with the educators of College School District was all about introducing Mathematical Strategic Thinking. We’re working on grade-specific strategies to target the types of mathematical thinking needed to successfully tackle each CAASPP Math question.
Classtime's technology and methodology is supported by rigorous research from independent organizations, demonstrating strong evidence on student outcomes (ESSA Level IV and III).
WestEd
LXD Research