I know a lot of people are tired of testing, and some are tired of hearing about 21st century skills. But both are here to stay and both matter tremendously for education reform. Improving assessment is the very first bullet in Obama’s list of how to reform NCLB, and he intends to do it by creating new models for assessment that measure “higher order skills, including students’ abilities to use technology, conduct research, engage in scientific investigation, solve problems, present and defend their ideas.”
Easier said than done? On Monday Education Sector is going to release a paper I wrote about measuring 21st century skills (yes, 2 for 1! testing plus 21st century skills). At the same time we’re opening up a week-long discussion on our website to delve further into this topic--what should we measure? what can we measure? We hope you’ll join in with some good comments and hard questions.
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18 comments:
I am anxious to see this paper. I am also anxious to see what the Obama group plans to do here. I certainly hope their minds are still open. I really DO admire attempts to measure higher-order skills. However, from my experience, attempts at this a higher-than-local levels usually fall flat for many reasons.
I drank the kool-aid early that state and national exams should use constructed-response and performance event items to measure student learning. However, I have come to the conclusion after many years that this type of exam is best left to the local level.
The jump from selected response to higher-order questions is just rife with too many variables to make any sort of relevant impact on a scope as large as the national level.
I favor state and national level exams that are less intrusive. Many states are moving back to selected response as it is- simply due to the fact that they are FAR easier and less costly to grade and make use of the data.
I am excited about much of what I read from Obama's education plans. However, this part sound liek more of the same. The only difference seems to be a "we will do it better" and oh yeah... "we'll fund it, too."
My mind is open.
Sean
I believe that New Tech High has the best model for evaluating student performance available at this time. It should be considered by each state for modification if deemed necessary and implemented.
I wrote to both campaigns to reflect that I believe a call to challenge our youth to prepare themselves academically the best they can so that they and we can compete in the global society from the Office of the President is imperative. Students engaged by our President will drive out success and unite us just like it did when we were in the space race with the USSR. Times have changed but in some ways times haven't. Some fundamental truths always abound. Our students need to clearly understand the role their education plays in the future of this nation like we did in the 60's. Educational leaders remain at the ready to guide and shape willing learners. With a flat world, the competition will only become more keen. Mr. Obama - Lead on!!
The NCLB Act has been a success. Is there more that can be done, yes.
In today's society measuring job-seekers workforce readiness and employability skills for the workforce of the 21st century, there are employers and educators who have stated that entry level job-seeker are not prepared. The SCANS Report clearly demonstrates this.
A motivational change must come from the classroom educator as well as the students. Research shows that educators who are technology savvy limit the amount of technological-driven activities in the classroom. I have posed the question before relating to income freshman at the high school level who do not take dual credit courses. They start to prepare for their real life employability skills at the junior and senior level. In my opinion, I feel that this is no longer acceptable.
John Dewey said, "If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our students of tomorrow." Educational leaders must act as change agents for their staff and be held accountable for implementating new ideas and ways to prepare students for the future.
It is interesting to note that these '21st Century Skills' carry a name that sounds so "new." When did we stop needing each and everyone of these skills?
In the meantime, while we ponder that, please know that I applaud the effort and am actively engaged, in fact, have been actively engaged in teaching these skills since 1985. To learn about how, please check out our website at www.mnfpsp.org for basic details and be sure to get in touch with me with more questions.
Teaching the higher order thinking skills have been lost to the general classroom for too long. While teaching to the test has found out who our great test takers are, they have done nothing to teach kids how to use the information that they memorize. Since 1974, the Future Problem Solving Program, (FPSP) through academic competition, has continued to teach these skills as pull out programs, before, and after school programs. Little by little we have begun to imbed these skills into classrooms. Recently, we are having more and more requests for training classroom teachers.
Please keep getting the word out. Let's get these skills back into the classroom and let's keep challenging our students with this academic competition that is the 'dress rehearsal' for our future leaders.
I know that IB programs teach many of these skills so people often ask why they aren't in every school. The answer - cost. Please take the time to compare the FPSP with IB and you will be amazed at the cost difference. The FPSP keeps its cost low in order to create greater opportunity for participation while maintaining the integrity of quality and service to students.
Thank you for your efforts and, like I said, please help us to let our school leaders and teachers know that we have been out there and will continue to be out there as a resource for teaching kids critical and creative thinking skills and problem solving skills.
Cheryl Whitesitt
Executive Director
MN Future Problem Solving Program
I think the problem with testing higher order skills will be the lack of original learning that needs to occur first. Many students are barely grasping the prerequisites needed to move into higher order thinking tasks. What if the focus were to shift to examining true student engagement in the classroom instead of drill and kill primarily to adhere to the pacing guides many district are employing to make sure the standards are being taught? What has happened to differentiation and teaching for mastery? My graduate students are in programs to learn about "best practices" yet the districts in which they teach require them to follow pacing guides for ALL students and assess every week regardless of skill mastery.
On another note I think 21st century skills are incredibly important and should be a part of every school's mission for student performance and measurement.
I have not read your materials in depth but have glanced through them. I find it interesting that while you list your name as Partnership for the 21st Century, I see little in the area of School Business Partnerships.
School Business Partnerships brings the two communities, Education and Business together in a meaningful, relevant, relationship that has far reaching affects for the benefit of students and the community.
This is a piece of the education/business/community/country puzzle that is missing when we talk about testing for accountability just for statistical information. When we do that, we lose the importance of educational relationships.
Are you interested in developing this opportunity??
Jim Utter
School Business Partnerships
jutter@alaska.net
Our experience has shown the value of having business/school partnerships. I believe more exposure of the students to successful people in the various career paths can be very beneficial. This is in the form of personal involvement and mentoring with the teachers and the students, not just a one-time assembly. We cannot ignore the vaule of the relationships.
Part of the challenge is to also to entice business people to get involved with the kids. As we all know, this issue is bigger than just in the schools.
I am going to comment before reading your paper because I am so anxious to get a word in for arts education. The 21st century skills of innovation and creativity have long been the essence of quality arts education and now studies such as "Tough Choices, Tough Times" emphasize how important these skills are to give our students the competitive edge in a global economy. The Partnership for 21st century skills lists the arts as a core subject, yet they continue to be on the chopping block totally or minutes diminished. Where do people think portfolios came from and formative assessment. I could write a book...but better than my thoughts...Sir Ken Robinson, Daniel Pink, Richard Florida to name a few. We are preparing kids for jobs that won't exist...the edge is helping kids to know how to think, to innovate, to be creative...not what to think. There is so much information. This demands a major change in thinking. Yea to Obama. He has already stated the importance of including the arts in education and Michelle said she would not send her daughters to a school that did not have a good art program. Wake up American Educators.
Diane Franken
Executive Director
Iowa Alliance for Arts Education
Hi, I am sending a long letter to Governor Corzine in NJ. I am a parent (54 years old) have 3 children who’ve gone thru the same NJ school and on a scale of 1 to 5 – The BOE, Superintendent they had Pezak, William Bauer Business Manager gets a 1 (BAD); The Principal/Teachers only get a 2 for not educating us parents better on how to help our children better and vote for BOE. I never knew till a week ago the power they have an elected body of people that most of us don’t vote for!
Teachers I found out can’t report and state an opinion to anyone other than their supervisor even if they know the right things are not being done. IF the child needs help from the Child Study Tema they it seems are not allowed to ask. They have to ignore state rules based on each child's weaknesses.
How do I know experience. My 1989 birth child was never given an IEP but had a K-4 foundations language problem, identified as ADD by physcologist and parent got outside testing showcasing learning problems, and paid for tutoring and it caused problems in the relationship with all the yelling and problems – forgetting books, forgetting to write assignments and stuff and she is a great kid. Leaving the other details out please know this she is one of those who never got an IEP, 504 accommodation, and she did indeed graduate HS and failed the college state placement tests and must take remedial English. This means K-4 foundations were never taught well. They used the "Creative Phonics" thing and she still spells and writes that way and is not sure if she'll make it thru the remedial program stating mom I never got it then and how do you expect me to get it now? She is afraid she is not going to be able to attend college and she is gifted in math with spatial and formulas not word problems! She is gifted in Art. The High School never helped either even asking the guidance counselor for help.
I have another child born in 1993 who in K showed she had at minimum dyslexia. She was a happy kid at home but miserable at school. She wrote everything backwards, is a lefty and was treated as being irresponsible and forced to read in front of the class in 1st grade, we were forced to get tutors, and the teacher refused to let her go to a special classroom, had us pay a local teacher to come over the summer twice a week because her short term memory not good so she did not want her to take a step backwards - we trusted her - , she looped with the same teacher who tortured her made her read in front of the class, by then she was alienated her from peers, and finally gave in by the 3rd semester of 2nd grade to get her evaluate. The IEP would up stating only she had SLD - verbal ability at her grade level so they would not keep her back – do no good - but she could only read at K level! I did not know what to do and trusted them. She did better in 5/6 because she had a great teacher. But by 9th grade 3rd semester (harder then) was a disaster. April I found out nothing was being done about an IEP - Over spring break I paid for outside testing to showcase that she did or did not have a problem and she did big-time with a reading range of 4thto6th grade level.
The CST who had not been working with Jen, started to help 3rd semester and insisted Jen could read because she passed the GEPA and I had to give up my job Mothers Day to mediate with the state to get her more services. On file before mediation Her English Teacher said she was fine in 2 memo updates in May. You should read the academic achievement comments. When the Supt in 9th grade APPROVED her special neuro-physcological testing could be done he paid $3.5K (never done before by school) the results found multiple learning deficits and ADD she is "LD" and should have gotten a lot more was dyslexic but has compensated so now the intensive training that could have benefited her reading fluency – phonics we’ll never know if it would have made a differenc. For all of 10th grade the CST counselor is providing 2 30 min sessions to Jen of Project Read – step by step – No update yet – Report cards due so I’m looking for news on how they are making out and I expect a lot! They would not give ESY services so I found Jen a gifted program in Math/Science online – just lucky that was hands on physics, science, etc., something I knew she’d love. She went – Professor Lamella at Middlesex thought No and sent me an email saying she could not go based on the report card she received. I begged her. She let us come to the open house and approved Jen going and taking one of the 25 seats. She changed her life. You see LD kids have gifts! An autistic child at the school whose mom is on the board I learned this year who could not speak in 2nd grade now in 5th or 6th gets 100% on all spelling tests thanks to a wonderful aid who took training and broke the code!
My LD 10th grader I would not let take the SAT’s because I did not want her to feel bad hearing about her scores versus her peers. With the help of a great 10th grade team she is doing much better – biggest struggle is French II, she loves Bioliogy – teacher is awesome and influencing her big-time! But bow knowing her sister failed the college state placement tests - I am asking the Supt to ask tomorrow at BOE what they will do about 9-12th not covered by NCLB which is 2014. They are not following the law. Copies I have of this and that under IDEA, NCLB, etc. Did you know ADD AD/HD was added in 1997 to the Idea Part b.
http://dww.ed.gov/index.cfm Check this website - nothing for high school. I called the Director for L.Davy Commissioner for Governor Corzine and nothing for 9-12th. So what is every school doing about 8th-12th having foundations to pass state level college placement tests. Should they all just decide to give foundations English for credit - Dartmouth has a full year of remedial English courses - do the students get credit.
Then the same school had my gifted AD/HD reader who needed help showing in 3rd and CST was always - No NO NO to every request from the Child Study Team. Finally - 6th grade he checked out and decided to fail by the 3rd week of school, totally depressed, we gave up so meds by the end of 5th as they did not work and he did fine and made his feel sick. He was so depressed. It wound up the Assistant Principal stepped up to the Plate and did her job - the job the CST would not do - she put her neck out and we'll love her forever saving our boy! She helped for about 4 weeks making sure i knew what his homework was having to check the boards at the end of the day and send me an email and believe her day is long not like the teachers at the high school who are gone before the students get to their lockers - we made sure I got him to school tears and all - and they made sure to keep him there. Therapy, etc. We had to stay inside for two weekends to make up all the work but he gave in and did it! And you know what - He has moved his choice to a charter school 7th grade - doing awesome and invited to take the SAT's by John Hopkins having achieved over 95% in testing done that I forced the Byram school CST team to do at the end of the year! By then I was knowledgeable enough to win! and got it done by the time school started a decent neurological-pshycological test - woodcock johnson, etc.
2 Weeks ago I did a slide show on 21st Century Skills and sent it to the HS supt. Asked if they were going to do anything with virtual schools. I'll attach in a regular email hope your computer does not spit out - I took info - cut pasted and asked what they would do about it? Hope they bring up at the BOE tomorrow.
And What you said was so true. I read Obama's memo and nothing in there will solve problems - many of that rhetoric has been proven to not work - but its a good start. ON ED.Gov and IES there are results of many of these programs and statistics of what did or did not make a difference.
What about my school and not getting help?aAnd the school not following laws? Like AD/HD since 1997 is covered - the quote is in my long dissertation. What about all Governors giving up their 10th Amendment in Education so from the TOP DOWN we have think tanks – regionalize resources , and move faster and do better to get our kids ready for this challenging world they face! Governor Corzine I found about 2 weeks ago a letter enabling court cases in education to be escalated to Federal level – so can’t we get all 50 Governors to do this for education? Then a think tank of 50 Governors can work on what has worked, and put together a plan comprehensive K-12 (not just based on NCLB just because they get money from that )
What about not giving my daughter help - NCLB use to be for 2012 - they pushed back - she was enabled for special help and should have gone to like the Craig School who was equipped to help her better - the teachers at her school were not skilled in scientifically based researched reading methods - as a matter of fact the teacher she had 1st/2nd only went this summer for Orthn-Gillingham.
So you see you as so right. I printed out Obama’s paper for Lifetime Success through Education and I am sad. I am middle America or what does he consider Middle America. I have no money now. My house has devalued. My 401K is gone. Had my kids late and cant’ get the school to do the job they are suppose to do! And now unemployed – who thought after the summer I could not go back into the market leaving it making $70K and at least get $45k – nothing 54 –no one wants you if you have no degree! Does not matter I was the # 1 shipper and successful I just had to concentrate on getting help for my kids finally – I finally reached the level of need to research and get help!
So Obama Bidens paper No real change. All the same! I need to speak in front of the State BOE but I don’t know how to do it and feel strong in my statements not knowing all the laws. I research every day.
I have a lot of good ideas if you can pull some out of the dissertation I did in the copy of the email I’m sending. As you can see I had a LD problem and having ADD hyper focus and did fine in my work environment and I am very talented working with technology.
But writing –Not good at it – where do you think they received the LD from? But I’ve been successful just not in writing! Did you know EHA is what Special Ed use to be called and started in 1952.
Thanks
The United States must continue to give all students a strong core of academic knowledge, and teach students how to think. Schools should be operated in ways that utilize 21st century teaching methods.
Teachers need time to run high-quality, best practices classrooms.
Currently, schools, especially elementary schools, are testing so many days of the year, it is nearly impossible to find enough time to teach curriculum that is required. So, as students get older, they are missing core academic skills and falling further behind.
The NCLB ideal that every student in every school must reach certain standardized benchmarks at a specific time is not logical, or possible. A school is not a factory, it is a place that addresses each student personally.
Two things that are critical to improving education in America:
1. Educators must be the ones who form legislation about education, not politicians or businessmen.
2. American society does not value education as it once did, and MANY, MANY parents do not instill a value of education in their children. The only way to make education better, to improve graduation rates, is for leaders to raise up the values in this country, for there to be a movement that education, and respect for educators, becomes important again.
Despite being a public school "specialist" educator trying to teach 21st Century Informational Skills, parent to two Asperger's Syndrome boys, (both Johns Hopkins Scholars)and a highly intelligent daughter, I have constant difficulty meeting NCLB and those YAP requirements, preparing students for the "future jobs" that do not exist today, etc. My problem...trying to teach in a media center with books of no interest to today's 6-8 kids, run the library and teach 20+ computer classes weekly to 31-33 students of varying learning abilities (integrated learning,i.e. gifted, IEPs,504s,discipline problems together absent aids) with too few computers, and many that don't work any longer despite hours of constant repair attempts. Too few resources, not enough educators, too large classes of too varied learning styles. Why must we have grades? Why can't we educate students by skill levels or promote as they meet content level skills? Why can't they be advanced by mastery of skills or understanding of concepts? Isn't that how business works? I'd like to see a business president or CEO do what I do every day and still be sane enough at the end of the day to go home to autistic children with their own set of needs. Education is set up completely wrong! Let's reform teaching to truly meet 21st century needs. Not give students study sheets with the obvious answers on them, or instant gratification which is what they are used to and actually demand! Having never given a quiz before in media, I gave a simple 5 question quiz assessment and the students demanded a word list to find their answers in. Kids can't or don't want to read for comprehension. They want to "google" or "ask" for and get the answer in the first listed response. I hope none of these kids ever operate on my body in the future. I know they can do better...they have wonderful inquisitive minds that need development. Remember those "why?" days as toddlers? We need to reform our education so they can learn the skill of questioning, pushing themselves to learn, rather than pushing each other in the halls. 45 minutes per day, once a week is not the way. It is like primary school all over again. I hope and pray the complex informational society we live in is recognized so that schools get the assistance they need in equipment, personnel, business cooperation and sheer student desire to make this country move forward to be the world leader, not only of 21st Century Ideals, but in economics, green living, personal relationships and more!
I work for the International Baccalaureate Organization. For the past 18 months, I have frequently heard how closely IB programs are aligned with P21 skills. I am in the process of trying to create a meaningful comparison between IB and P21, to see where we converge and where we diverge. With academic programs fully developed for prek-12, IB has a wealth (perhaps an excess) of documentation on our standards, aims and objectives. But what I need is the relevant documentation on the P21 side. Any suggestions? I am very supportive of P21, and suspect there is much that IB can learn from it. But I need someone to help me focus on what to look at so UI can faciliatate a meaningful comparison.
Thanks
It is vitally important to know what we are educating for. When I taught middle school language arts some years back, I found my students for the most part really engaged processes that helped them develop higher order thinking skills. They enjoyed the multi-layered nature of good literature where the discussion of ideas about human nature yield insights about themselves and the world they live in. As has already been mentioned, teaching higher order thinking is anything but new. Centralized control, as opposed to local control, of developmental processes by which students become ready to engage our very complex world is a failed strategy. While America is not Finland, the Fins have professionalized teaching by requiring higher order pedagogical skills, and at the same time given teacher local control of curricula development, budgets and assessments. Finland's student test near the top of the industrialized world. In the short term, we in America would do well to consider their school reform strategies.
In the longer term, but not too long, we must address a more pervasive issue: as a culture we teach consumerism to our children as soon as they are old enough to turn engage screen media entertainment. The consumerist mindset endemic to our nation is far more than our tendency to buy stuff we don't really need. It engenders a mindset that obstructs students' engagement with developmental processes by which they come to be both constructive and noble. We need education that develops the human proclivities toward discovery and building and not mere personal gain by which we gain the power (money) to consume more.
Rick Vander Kam
rvanderkam@sbcglobal.net
I guess that after teaching for over 10 years, and dealing with all forms of assessments one way or another, I can say that there will always be a debate (even on a personal basis) on which, where or how to assess. Time constraints and the need for unbiased results, as well as economic considerations will always keep pushing evaluations towards standardized form of testing; however, having said that, both as a student and teacher, I truly believe that assessing skills will trump assessing content anytime, and although it may be an impractical and economically unwise choice to carry out on a continuous basis, it should be part of a mix of assessment forms required for summation grade at the end of any academic course. It’s a known fact that we need more than one skill to perform in any discipline, and we also need more than one type of performance measurement to deliver a true assessment of competency. On the other hand, no form of assessment, save for real performance and results, can deliver a complete picture of competency. Hence, to truly deliver performance assessment of 21 century skills, 21 century assessments should be used. We should be able to measure the ability to respond to evaluations similar to authentic problem solving situations, equal to making informed decisions, comparable to transferring and communicating results; and in doing so we should be able to allow students to openly access all the resources they would be able to access in real life contexts.
I have been a proponent and advocate of 21st century literacy skills at all levels of education (P-16). I have provided countless PD sessions to teachers to help them integrate these skills into their classrooms. I'm currently working on a project in Virginia in which a GED curriculum is being developed that will include technology infused tracts for 18-25 year old students earning their GED (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qnMucv5H78). I was recently awarded a state grant for "Improving Educator Quality" in which 21st century skills will be embedded into middle school science content. I'm also working at the college level to infuse our teacher preparation programs at the University of Kentucky with these skills so our new teacher candidates are better prepared to pass these skills on to their students through the UK Teaching & Learning Studio. If anyone else is interested in collaborating on similar projects, I would love to have some conversations about what might be possible. Together we can provide our students with the skills they need to be successful in an increasingly global economy!
Hi, Dr. Henry... I find what you're doing very interesting.
I would certainly like to read more about it. However, although I tried, I couldn't get into your blog. You might want to check your sharing settings to fix it.
What's 21st century about the skills you list? If conducting research and engaging in scientific investigation is a 21st century skill then how come people in the 19th century like Darwin or Faraday were engaging in it? And what human society ever managed to function without solving problems or using technology? Let alone with no one presenting their ideas?
Shouldn't 21st century skills be something specific to the 21st century? Not that I have anything against the things you list, but it strikes me that calling them 21st century reveals an ignorance of history that the education sector should not be encouraging.
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