Since adopting Issues and Science we teachers have had to accept a little loss of control during the messy inquiry-based time as student understanding is developing. But, the best part of Issues and Science for teachers is the amount of support and resources available: rubrics, background notes, lesson structures, example answers.
All of the hands-on inquiry based lessons allow them to see the science in action and develop their own understandings of how science works. Students are now asking higher order and deeper questions that come from student discussions, model making, drawing conclusions, both written and drawn answers. The program has helped us understand the phenomena and story based parts of the NGSS instead of solely focusing on the facts and theories.