Linda Darling-Hammond TESTING TO, AND BEYONG—New Assessments
Can Support a Multiple-Measure Framework to Deepen Teaching & Learning (Featured article in the January/February 2014 Principal Magazine)
When I grow up I want to be an innovative academic
like Linda Darling-Hammond. She continues to demonstrate forward thinking with
what our students need to know and be able to do to be successful now and in
their future. “The push is now to implement the next-generation of learning
goals that encourage higher-order thinking skills,” and the Common Core State
Standards is the pioneering tool leading the way for all of us.
In order to truly measure student’s growth with
these new higher standards, Darling provides a valid argument on why our system
is in need of a dramatic change. We need to measure what matters most and use
the data to make instructional decisions to prepare our students for their
future in a completive global economy. “If we are to achieve 21st
century standards for learning, it is critical that these new assessments:
1. Measure higher
order thinking skills including:
Critical Thinking--apply
what you know
Communication—explain
how you know it
Collaboration—it’s
not just about you anymore
Social-Emotional Competence—others
matter too
Moral
Responsibility—you can make a difference
Citizenship—it’s a
global economy in a flat world
2. Measure it in multiple
ways considering:
Valued Outcomes for
Students
Teacher, Principal,
and School Evaluations
Combination of
Classroom & School Measures
Appropriate for the
Student and Curriculum
3. Measure to lead
instructional change and providing:
Information to
Guide Educational Improvement
My
role as an Instructional Lead Learner (Principal) is critical in facilitating
this necessary transformation to improve student learning, instruction, and
school improvement. Darling reminds me to reflect on the system and to continue
to ask myself the “How” questions to lead the change collaboratively as I work
and support teachers.
1. “How can we engage
students in assessments that measure higher order thinking and performance
skills—and use them to transform
practice?”
2. ”How
can these assessments be used to help students become independent learners, and help teachers learn about how their
students learn?”
3. ”How
can teachers be enabled to collect evidence of student learning that captures
the most important goals they are pursuing, and then to analyze and reflect on this evidence—individually and
collectively---to continually improve their teaching?”
4. With
multiple measures, “How could we use these to illustrate and extend our
progress and success as a school?”
Darling
has the growth mindset to lead the educational reform in the 21st century
standards for learning for students, teachers, and administrators to be
successful now and in our future. This transformation is going to require
deeper thinking from each of us.
