A better way to Achieve

More potentially good news on the policy front…

Governor Rendell's misguided proposal for Graduate Competency Assessments began several years ago with his attendance at an educational conference hosted by Achieve, Inc. It was at this conference that Rendell committed the Commonwealth - without consultation with other educational policy leaders, or the state legislature - to requiring ten subject area exit exams as a condition for a high school diploma.

In the interim, Achieve has thought about this issue a little more deeply. The result is a recently published policy agenda, entitled “Measures that Matter”, which I will summarize here.

In my opinion, Achieve has some good things to say around “aligning high school standards with the demands of college and career”; recommending that colleges and employers be more specific about what students need to know in order to be successful. But I will focus on what the report says about assessments.

For example, the report says that there are “too many tests in high school” that are often disconnected to one another, and seldom of any help to teachers who might want to use them to evaluate student progress or make mid-course corrections. Instead, “tests should be a tool for instructional improvement.”

The report also recognizes that “some essential skills … are difficult to measure via pencil-and-paper tests”. “States should supplement standard tests” with performance assessments for such things as “engaging in teamwork” or performing tasks that involve “extended analysis, research and communication.”

As a result, Achieve now recommends the “adoption of high school assessment systems that rely on a combination of state-wide and local measures” and “do not require students to pass a high-stakes test or tests in order to graduate.”

And finally: “states need a broader vision of accountability, one that empowers educators as much as it holds them accountable. Too often, accountability has been thought of as punitive … instead of a way to target assistance to schools in need, use data more effectively, and reward progress.”

Details on the report can be found at: www.achieve.org/MeasuresthatMatter

It’s exciting to think that we might all begin to push in the same direction.