mission skills assessment

INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

Mission Skills Assessment

Assessing Character Traits in Middle School Students

Independent Schools Data Exchangewww.indexgroups.org617-413-83821

2INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

Mission Skills Assessment

 A Tool To Alter The Way Schools Think About Education

MSA measures character strengths that have proven essential for success in school and in life. The assessment gives each school a more scientific way to measure its curriculum’s success at meeting the goals outlined in its mission.

3INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

Who We Are

• INDEX Schools: Three national benchmarking and best practices groups of independent day schools:

• Elementary (400+) – 30 PK/8-9 schools – Initial Research Group

• Mid-Sized (500-1100) – 32 PK/K-12 schools

• Large (750+) – 50 PK/K-12 schools

• Center for Academic and Workforce Readiness and Success, Educational Testing Services (ETS).

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What is the Mission Skills Assessment?

A longitudinal assessment measuring and benchmarking student achievement and improvement in core mission skills. • Teamwork

• Creativity

• Ethics

• Resilience

• Curiosity

• Time Management

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The Assessment

• Web-based - approximately 60 minutes total. • Assess 6th, 7th, and 8th graders once per year.• Three components: student self-assessment,

situational judgment/performance-based questions, teacher-rater assessment

• Correlate with outcome data (test scores, grades, absences, etc.)

• Institutional focus. No tracking of individual performance.

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Noncognitive Skills Research

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What are Noncognitive skills?

• Not traditionally “tested” by standardized assessments

• Not new but newly important; “21st century skills”

• Essential capacities necessary for success in school and in life

• Often taught implicitly, but can be taught explicitly

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Academic Success

Noncognitive skills correlate positively with achievement on NAEP and PISA.

Noncognitive factors predict college grades as strongly as cognitive variables do.

ETS, (2008); Poropat, (2009)

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Life Trajectory

Early childhood interventions do not raise IQ, but improve noncognitive skills which affect education, employment, earnings, and crime.

Heckman et al. (2010)

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INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

Life Satisfaction

Noncognitive variables…have been demonstrated to predict happiness, health marital satisfaction and peer relationships.

Diener & Lucas (1999); Bogg & Roberts (2004); Watson, Hubbard, & Wiese, (2000); Jensen-Campbell et al. (2002)

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INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

Demographics

The benefits of higher noncognitive skills are demonstrable across IQ, socio-economic class, gender, and race.

Tough, Paul. How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character. (2012)

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INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

Ethics100%

Love of Learning73%

Resilience67%

Creativity67%

Teamwork40%

Analysis of mission statements of 30 independent schools

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INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

Intellectual Interpersonal Intrapersonal

Knowledge and mastery of general

principles

Appreciation for diversity

Social responsibility and citizenship

Continuous learning, intellectual interest

and curiosity

Leadership Physical and psychological health

Artistic and cultural appreciation

Interpersonal skills Career orientation

Adaptability and life skills

Perseverance

Ethics and integrity

Analysis of University Mission Statements (Oswald et. al., 2004)

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INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, Partnership for 21st Century Working Skills, and the Society for Human Resource Management.

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INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

The Character Imperative

1) Research shows that these skills lead to positive educational and life outcomes;

2) Colleges, universities, and employers are seeking these skills in students and workers; and

3) We must demonstrate the value we add.

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INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

Constructs in MSA

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INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

Teamwork

Models of teamwork include• Cooperation• Influence• Conflict resolution• Guiding others

In high school students, teacher reports of teamwork were correlated with grades across several subjects (Wang, MacCann, Zhuang, Liu, & Roberts, 2009)

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INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

Creativity predicts graduate school outcomes beyond GRE verbal and mathematics scores (Frederickson & Ward, 1975; Bennett & Rock, 1995; Bennett & Rock, 1998)

Creativity

• Originality, progressiveness, or imagination

• Tasks measuring creativity, “require examinees quickly to think of…a series of responses fitting the requirements of the task….”

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INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

Ethics

Defined in our study as cheating and concern for others

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INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

Resilience

• A level of adaptability that allows individuals to survive and thrive in adverse conditions • Dent and Cameron (2003)

• One way we measure resilience in the MSA is to measure core self-evaluation – or how capable, worthy, and effective a person feels.

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INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

Item Types

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Self-Report

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Situational Judgment Test

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Biographical Data

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Creativity Performance Test

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INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

Teacher Ratings

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INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

Next Steps

• Continual refinement of MSA assessment

• Assessing underserved populations with MSA – Horizons Student Enrichment Programs (NCCS, Rumson CDS)

• Expanding to all INDEX schools – 69 schools, 17,000 students fall 2013

• Gathering interest from additional schools, districts, organizations

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INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

Instruction

How can we teach these skills better and how will we know we are succeeding?

•Deliberate, explicit and implicit instruction and interventions

•Grade-level goals

•Articulated, spiraled, integrated noncognitive curriculum

•Updated and analyzed curriculum maps

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INDEX Mission Skills Assessment

Opportunities

• Shared vision, vocabulary, and resources

• Participation in regional and national teacher networks, character summits

• Shape report cards and parent conferences

• Ongoing education–school leaders, faculty, students, parents

Teacher Research and Development

Team18 Months

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Design Thinking

Sibley Rubric Development on Creativity and Innovation: Road Testing with Teachers

•Free Building/Tinkering

•Collaboration

•Empathy

•Storytelling

•Feedback/Iteration

•Problem Finding

•Risk-taking/Failing

•Embracing the Unknown

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Outside the Classroom: The Bridge to Parent Engagement

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MCDS Explores

http://bit.ly/16xKU6N

Parent Engagement

“Left Brain Schools in a Right Brain World.”http://bit.ly/10lwrdj

Goals

• Inventory - what’s working?

• Research - what are the best practices?

• Input from Experts in the Field - what do you do?

• Blueprint - where do we go?

• Isidor Rabi: Did you ask a good question today?

http://bit.ly/137eL9h

What motivates you to try to make the world a better place? What would be your mobilizing issue?

Who is someone in your profession that you hold up as a role model? Why? Specifically, what characteristics do you feel define that person’s expertise/proficiency/mastery/etc. in the field?

Name one obstacle you have encountered on your career path. How did it

impact you?

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“The smartest person in the room is the room.” -David Weinberger

Partnerships

Wonder Lab: MCDS and Laurel Dell

Skills and Habits of Mind

http://indexgroups.org/msa/

Capstone

http://f-l-o-a-t.com/

http://bit.ly/18erKHf

Science Curriculum Review Process

Teacher Training and Curriculum Development Coaching