2/5/2017 TheGlobalSearchforEducation:ANewModelforStudentAssessmentPart1

The Global Search for Education: A New Model for

Student Assessment Part 1
March 31, 2017 General No Comments

The Global Search for Education (GSE) is a regular contributor to the Edmodo Blog. Authored by
C.M. Rubin, GSE brings together distinguished thought leaders in education and innovation from
around the world to explore the key learning issues faced by todays nations. Look for a new
post every week and join the Global Search for Education Community on Edmodo to share your
perspectives with their editorial sta.

Its easier to create a statistically valid test for content or for content-related mental processes,
whereas it is dicult to measure something like critical thinking, and very dicult to measure
something like courage. In short, there is too much focus on Knowledge. Charles Fadel

Charles Fadel believes there are aws with the assessment system currently predominant in the
United States. Assessment boils down to evidence of learning, but the important outcomes we
should be evaluating in students are in fact the most hard to measure and subsequently these
qualities are simply not being assessed. Balanced assessment is not a new debate. The key
questions: Is there now a growing momentum for change, and if so, at what stage of the
education process should the assessment begin? Do we have evidence of successful case

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studies? What things should be prioritized for change and how can modern technologies help to
update an antiquated assessment system?

Today we begin a 2 part series on Assessment. Joining us in The Global Search for Education to
discuss a new model of assessment for a 21st century world is Charles Fadel, founder of the
Center for Curriculum Redesign (CCR). Fadel advocates for a holistic approach to 21st Century
education as outlined in his book, Four-Dimensional Education: The Competencies Learners
Need to Succeed.

The room for growth is in the technology of assessment, and in

attempts to measure what matters. Charles Fadel

Charles, what are we assessing that we shouldnt need to? What should we be assessing
instead?

Briey, there is assessment designed for sorting students, and assessment designed for
supporting students. The principal aw with assessment is that currently, there is too much of a
focus on sorting, and not enough on supporting (especially given that the sorting assessments
are not even that good at sorting!). This is education for the sake of universities and employers,
and not for the sake of students. Teachers and students time is wasted as they prepare and
take assessments that are just looking to rank students performance rather than spending time
engaged in authentic learning or working on socio-emotional and other competencies.

The qualities that are most hard-to-measure are often some of the most important. What ends
up getting measured is whats easiest to measure, and not necessarily whats most important.
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Namely, its easier to create a statistically valid test for content or for content-related mental
processes, whereas it is dicult to measure something like critical thinking, and very dicult to
measure something like courage. In short, there is too much focus on Knowledge (and not
particularly relevant knowledge!), and not enough on Skills, Character, and Meta-Learning.
Creating formal assessment of these hard-to-measure qualities would not only help to elucidate
whether students are making progress in these areas, but would help shift the attention back
onto whats important.

What are the key aspects of the assessment system that you believe it is realistic and
practical to prioritize for change? What is your organization and others in the US doing to
bring about change? Is there any broad momentum for change?

The room for growth is in the technology of assessment, and in attempts to measure what
matters. We have organized a pre-competitive R&D consortium so that assessment makers can
get onto the same (most cutting-edge) page about what the goals and technical possibilities are,
and subsequently can use that information to develop their own competitive assessments. This
follows a model used in many industries such as semiconductors, biotech, etc.; industry
resources are pooled for cooperation in research, and then competition fuels innovation in
this case, in creation of modern assessments.

Our rst paper has identied the key features that will likely be included in the kind of
transformation that needs to occur:

Deeper Competency Models stronger research-based models of the essential

components and common progressions of learning competence.

Richer Performance Evidence authentic, performance-based demonstrations of

capabilities, using diverse methods and media to capture insightful evidence of learning
progress.

Assessments FOR Learning all assessment and evaluative eorts including a focus on
supporting and motivating deeper and broader learning progress, beyond traditional
student sorting.

Assessments AS Learning embedded stealth assessments in online learning simulations

and games, and evaluative lifestream personal data captured by sensors monitoring daily
activities as authentic demonstrations of applied learning.

Integrating Multiple Methods more eective triangulation of multiple assessment

methods across the four educational dimensions, with deeper research on how these
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competency elements interact and can aect each other.

More Eective Assessment Use better alignment between assessment uses and
education goals, practices, improvement strategies, and education transformation.

It will require approaching assessment holistically, with the learner in

mind, and being innovative in methodologies. Charles Fadel

What will a new assessment vision/system require? How can new technologies now assist
in bringing about the needed change in assessment?

It will require approaching assessment holistically, with the learner in mind, and being
innovative in methodologies. Dierent types of assessments can be triangulated to give
students, parents, and teachers (as well as policy makers, program evaluators, and universities,
in some cases) a clearer, more psychologically valid, and more textured picture of learning and
aptitude along many dimensions. New technologies can help with experimentation and
development of more inherently useful tests. For example, imagine a videogame that teaches
learners content as well as character qualities such as resilience and courage, and
simultaneously assesses them based on a model of learning behind the scenes. The result is
that the experience was worthwhile (and fun!) for the student, and the assessment outcome is
useful as a diagnostic because it is psychologically valid.

At what stage of the education process should a changed assessment system start?

At the very beginning! We know that early interventions have the biggest eect, so from as early
as students are currently being tested, they should be allowed to experience better tests. If the
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tests themselves are still distracting or stressful, then younger students should be spared, and
allowed to focus on their learning. As the earlier grades provide the foundation for learning that
is built upon for the rest of education (and life), changes in assessment earlier would have the
most profound eects on students lives. Changing assessments later would be helpful for older
students, but it cannot rewrite what they learned in the earlier grades.

More qualitative data can now be stored and should be leveraged to

show evidence of learning that goes deeper than a letter grade or a
percentile score. Charles Fadel

Many educators believe we need both Big Data and Small Data in the student assessment
process? How do you see the strengths and weaknesses of these dierent data in your
new model for student assessment? What kinds of data have become more critical for
high school and college assessment?

Assessment boils down to evidence of learning. Each type of evidence should be used for its
strengths, and its weaknesses should be made up for by other types of evidence. Standardized
assessments (as they currently stand) are strong in certain types of reliability and validity, and
have some predictive power, but do not provide textured information about students
understanding, and are not authentic tasks with inherent value for the learner. They can be
complemented by Portfolio assessments, Rubrics, Self-Report surveys, and/or Performance
assessments which can provide more texture for better instruction and get at more qualitative
attributes that are important to measure.

Although the philosophy behind Balanced Assessment certainly is not new to education, the call
for a system that uses multiple and varied measures of student performance has grown louder
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in recent years. While the push for higher levels of academic achievement and accountability
continues to increase, more people have realized that a single test cannot provide a
comprehensive evaluation of student performance. The state of Colorado has even gone as far
as passing legislation that requires the inclusion of multiple student performance measures in
teacher evaluations as well as the Unied Improvement Planning process for both schools and
districts. More qualitative data can now be stored and should be leveraged to show evidence of
learning that goes deeper than a letter grade or a percentile score.

For More Information.

(All Photos are Courtesy of CMRubinWorld)

C. M. Rubin and Charles Fadel

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