21st-Century Skills & Assessment

Including 21st-Century Skills in a student’s curriculum could make a big difference in the education of many students, especially those who do not go on to pursue a higher degree. Teaching students how to think, create and collaborate is vital to their success later on, but how do we measure their progress in these subjective areas? How a student thinks, creates and works with other students would almost need to be based on where an individual starts and where he or she ends up. The assessment cannot be as regimented as a multiple-choice science test. Speaking of multiple-choice tests, is this really the way to know if a student has learned a piece of information rather than just memorized it? 21st-Century skills emphasize that a student will not just memorize, but use what they learn and apply it (Bond, L., 1995). Again, there are many ways to apply a single concept. Limiting students to one or two ways to apply a piece of information, as many rubrics do, is very stifling.

Last summer I graded the written part of state standardized tests in all subject areas. The rubrics we were given were very vague and this resulted in a grading system that seemed inconsistent. The rubrics always wanted me to look for one or two specific things but in some cases, like when I was grading an interpretation of a poem, this seemed to be detrimental to some students. If they had three main points, which was what was needed to receive the highest score, but one of them was not about the personification in the poem, then they were not given the highest score. In fact, if they only had two points but one was personification and both were really well developed, you could consider giving them the highest score. What was it about the personification that made it so much more important than the other aspects of the poem? Why did they all have to interpret the poem in exactly the same way? I think this is why I had always hated poetry. I was always asked to interpret what the author was saying but it was not up to me to interpret it, rather, it was up to me to figure out how others interpreted it.

One school that is making changes to the standard way of teaching and assessing is The King Center Charter School, in Buffalo, NY. This school caters to inner-city Buffalo students, many of whom are identified as being at risk– ninety-three percent of the students qualify for reduced or free lunch. It is a K-4 school with 105 students and each grade has a full-time teacher and assistant teacher. The school works with local colleges, museums and programs to offer the students unique opportunities. The board of the school works closely with teachers, students and parents to assure that all of the students’ needs are being met. There is a strong focus on each student’s social and emotional needs, as well as their personal academic needs. Social and emotional needs are monitored just as closely as learning needs. King’s School uses the most up-to-date technology to provide students with distance learning and hands-on learning opportunities, and there is a full-time technology coordinator to oversee the proper integration on technology into the curriculum. To remain open as a charter school, King’s School has to comply with state standards, meet a certain requirements on standardized tests and are evaluated intensely after three and five years. Even with their strong focus on all of these different needs of the students- social, emotional, hands-on opportunities etc., the school has significantly improved the test scores of the students from the first year they were open, 2002, to 2005 (Massey, C. P., Szente, P., & Stewart, C. A., 2005). This just goes to show that students can be successful on the current standardized tests and still have other needs met. When a school is able to focus on the student as an entire person, and meet the needs of the entire person, a student is likely to perform better academically and at the same time strengthen their 21st-Century Skills that are so necessary to develop.

References:

Bond, L. A. (1995). Critical issue: Rethinking assessment and its role in supporting educational reform. North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. Retrieved April 10, 2006, from http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/assment/as700.htm.

Massey, C. P., Szente, P., & Stewart, C. A. (2005). Creating a charter school to meet students’, teachers’ and parents’ needs. Childhood Education, 82, 1.