Thinking of the Future Part 2- A Need to Assess for the Future

Parents frequently ask school administrators questions like  “How is my child doing?” or “How is our school doing?” Both are important questions, but are they the right ones? Shouldn’t they be asking “Is our school providing my child with an educational background that will support him during the 21^st century?” This is the important question that needs to be answered. As educational reform is at a constant, we need to look to our schools for answers as to why children are falling behind in the 21st century global competition. The biggest theme for educating our students into the future will be assessing 21st century skills.

The challenge of assessing 21st century skills  was brought to me by my principal.       " Brendan you keep talking about these 21st century skills, I love the idea of  but besides standardized tests what do you use to assess them?" "Find me some assessments and I look into using it". I think he was just trying to brush me off, but I took it to heart. The question I needed to find out was  what can we do to measure our students to see if they can be globally competitive?

Standardized tests aren't even fair for everyone

Like my principal most look to the standardized test to see the results on how the school is doing, but does that assess a student of the future? With the connection between standardized tests and Race to the Top, Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and No Child left Behind (NCLB) principals and superintendents are under exorbitant amount of pressure to get students to perform on standardized tests. But by continually using the misconception that today’s standardized tests measure student growth to compete in a 21st century we create an educational falsehood.  This bureaucratic belief dominates educational forums so much so that we seem forget that helping our students learn is the top priority. Giving them the tools to compete in an ever advancing global society must become our objective.

As I researched the challenge of finding 21st century assessments I was astonished to find a plethora of assessments that do have different skill sets that incorporate 21st century skills. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Geography Assessment exams are designed to measure the geography knowledge and skills of fourth, eighth, and twelfth-graders. The assessment targets three categories of cognitive skills knowing, understanding, applying and three categories of content knowledge Space and Place, Environment and Society, and Spatial Dynamics and Connections. The Assessment of Civic Skills Acquisition among Adolescents is an elementary school exam that measures civic skills within four core public skill areas: communication, organization, collective decision-making, and critical thinking. NAEP Civics Test (grades 4, 8 and 12) Elementary, Middle and High school exam comprising of short constructed-response and extended-constructed response questions, organized into three main categories: civic knowledge, intellectual skills and civic dispositions. The Jump$tart Assessment of Financial Literacy targets middle school students. The items measure what Jump$tart Coalition members believe to be essential financial knowledge. This content includes income, money management, saving, and spending. NCEE Assessments: Basic EcTest, Test of Economic Knowledge, and Test of Economic Literacy elementary, middle and high school test of economics understanding for grades 5 and 6. The Test of Economics Knowledge (TEK) is a middle school test designed to measure economics knowledge in grades 7 through 9. The Test of Economic Literacy (TEL) is a high school level measure based on the national standards. The Assessment of Analytic Reasoning and Communication Skills, The Council on Aid to Education (CAE)’s assessment measures analytic reasoning, critical thinking, problem-solving, and applied written communication skills Test-takers address realistic problems across a range of contexts (e.g. arts and humanities, business, science, and social science) students analyze the validity of an argument and communicate their thinking effectively in writing. Cornell Critical Thinking Tests these tests developed by two Cornell University professors Robert Ennis and Jason Millman. The test is appropriate for assessing the critical thinking abilities of students in grades 4 through 14. It focuses on deduction, credibility, and identification of assumptions. It is open ended. Tasks in Critical Thinking this is elementary through high school exam that yields scores on inquiry, analysis, and communication. It contains nine essay and short answer tasks, three each in the humanities, social science, and natural science. Inquiry relates to how well test takers are able to plan a search, use methods of discovery, comprehend and extract, and sort and evaluate. Finally the NETS Online Technology Assessment  targets middle school students on a performance-based assessment that  focuses on the  twelve 30-minute activities  and requires  students to use a variety of Microsoft’s most commonly used Office applications Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer, Outlook, Access and FrontPage - to complete authentic, real-world tasks. 
 All of these assessments incorporate some 21st century skills. The main problem is the cost of these assessments.  Government statements say the cost to systematically test problem-solving, collaboration, and presentation skills across all U.S. schools is just too expensive.  It may be expensive now but having our students fall behind in the global competition will cost the US even more in the future.

       So, as I show my results to my principal I wonder whether he well actually look at my findings or just put them aside. The great part of this experience is that as I look forward into my administive career I'll know that these assessments are out there and i'll have the tools to assess my students for the future.