C21 C21 AssessmentAssessment

R RedekoppR RedekoppUniversity of ManitobaUniversity of Manitoba

May 2013May 2013

C21 Assessment Based in primarily on Assessing 21st Century

Skills by Laura Greenstein

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” Albert Einstein

Education Faddism When times get complicated, people look for

simple answers – Ira Glass (p. xi)

Education policy makers and many educators are on the lookout for the quick fix or newest best thing – an oversimplified view.

But education is too complicated an enterprise for there to be a simple, ‘one size fits all’ solution

A Testing History 1960, 137,000 people took the SAT

Verbal – 534, Math – 509

2010, 1.5 million took the SAT Verbal – 497, Math – 514

Not a lot of change in results in 50 years of testing

Ponder this: What are the biggest challenges in education

today?

What might/should education look like in 20 years or 50 years?

Teachers starting their career today might retire on 2050 (really seems like sci-fi)

C21 Skills Partnership for 21C - Note the placement of

Standards and Assessment (but not reporting)

C21 Skills Habits of Mind - Can we include “responding

with wonderment and awe” on the report card?

C21 Skills Bloom’s new taxonomy - we have to be very

careful about how we use/define ‘create.’

Ponder this:Driver of Change Influences on Education

Instant access to information

Technology

Globalization

Reformulated workplace skills

Personalized learning

C21 Skills Standards (CCSS in the US), assessment and

technology are all driving change

The role of the teacher should be changing as they are no longer the keepers of information.

C21 Skills Does this relate to the book publishing

revolution when priests no longer held all the information? What did the role of the priest become?

Who had the best access to info in this new paradigm?

What happened to most people?

Chapter 2C21 Skills Synthesis

Three components of C21 skills: Thinking

Acting

Living

Thinking Critical thinking

Problem Solving

Creating

Metacognition

Acting Communicating

Collaborating

Digital Literacy

Technology Literacy

Flexibility and Adaptability

Initiative and Self-Direction

Ponder this: How do you enable initiative and self

direction?

Contrast digital and technological literacy.

Living in the World Civic Responsibility and Citizenship

Global Understanding

Leadership and Responsibility

College and Career Readiness

Ponder this: Is there really a difference between college

and career readiness?

How would you define ‘global understanding?”

Chris Dede At this point in history the primary barriers to

alternative curricular, pedagogical, and assessment practices are not conceptual, technical, or economic, but instead psychological, political and cultural. (p. 34)

Ponder this: Which C21 skills do we do best on in

classrooms?

Which C21 skills do we do poorest on?

Why?

Chapter 3Assessment

Fundamentals Procrustes and beds that fit?

Students and assessments that fit?

The greatest impact has been made by quiet men in grey suits in a suburb of New York City called Princeton, New Jersey. There, they developed and promoted the technology known as the standardized test, such as IQ tests, the SATs and the GREs. Their tests redefined what we mean by learning, and have resulted in our reorganizing the curriculum to accommodate the tests.

Neil Postman

Fundamental Principles

Criteria and requirements In practice

Student focused – monitors progress

Formative assessment

Ongoing and embedded Data for re-learning

Alignment among standards, curric, assessment and instruction

Lessons align with outcomes

Variety of measures; self-assess

Students have choices

Data for decision making Guides, exemplars and checklists

Complete reporting Report the formative

Fairness – targets are clear Clear indicators for students

Validity Align with student data

Reliability Collaborative assessment

Ponder this: Select one or two fundamentals and make

recommendations to improve your practice (schools or individual):

Assessment Fundamental

Improvement to Your Practice

Start at the End Standards

Goals

Objectives

Targets

C21 Assessment

FundamentalsQuality Indicator Formative Summative

Responsive Changes instructional practice

Scaffolds for those not at mastery

Flexible RWL choice of learning

Adaptive tests

Integrated Continuous Re-learning until final

Informative Self-reflection Connected to SLOs

Multiple Methods Ongoing during instruction

Variety on final test

Communicated Routine peer and teacher feedback

21C indicated on report

Technically Sound Work illuminates goals

Measures goals

Systemic Check for alignment with goals and objectives

Supports all stakeholders

My Own Inference? Train your teachers well and trust them to

promote learning

“Most teachers do not use alternative types of assessment routinely. They are hard to craft and difficult to measure in an objective and fair way.” p. 46

Teachers need good ways of recording and reporting in these alternative ways.

Ponder this: Select 3 quality indicators and think about

how you might adopt/adapt these in your classroom or school.

Indicator Adjustment for C21

First step to move on this

Assessment is integrated

Review curric for implied C21 skills

Ask your PLN

Chapter 4Assessment Strategies

Content is still important

‘Traditionally learning always took place in the real world’ p. 51 Home skills

Apprenticeships

Schools are needed to present and encourage learning abstract concepts and theoretical insights