Science education policy researchers have long argued for the seamless alignment of curriculum, instruction, assessment and professional development to promote the implementation of standards-based reform in science education. This dissertation focuses on secondary science teachers as they learned and applied the Collaborative Inquiry Framework (CIF) to probe student achievement data generated by the New York State Intermediate Level Science (NYS ILS) assessment. This study positions the NYS ILS and data generated by it central to the alignment process. Case study methodologies were employed throughout this study to capture participants' use of the CIF in two discrete and sustained professional development opportunities: Site A, a grades 6-8 suburban middle school and Site B, a New York City Institute of Higher Education (IHE).

Findings show secondary science teachers engaged in cross-grade, cross-level, and cross disciplinary collaborative inquiry. Through these interactions, three levels of inquiry emerged: individual (teacher), data study team, and data study community, each with its own focus. Through these opportunities for further inquiry, secondary science teachers used data to inform curriculum, instruction, and professional development. Dissertation-wide findings indicate that the CIF is an effective approach to data study across professional development providers and data generated by the NYS ILS assessment is informative beyond its traditional summative purpose—thus advancing its function. Specific considerations for using the CIF for data study include: (1) teacher proximity to data, (2) context specificity, (3) data packaging, (4) teacher-participants' experience navigating and applying data, (5) equity and access to data, and (6) costs associated with packaging data. Unanticipated findings include greater than anticipated inter-teacher variability of curriculum taught at the same grade level; and in teachers' attitudes toward and comfort with Standards-based language and State constructed documents.

The potential for standardized testing, specifically the NYS ILS assessment, and data generated by it, coupled with the CIF to serve as drivers for standards-based science education is discussed. The possible use of NYS ILS and data from it to inform science learning opportunities in a New York City-based informal science education partnership program is presented as future research.