Assessing 21st

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Assessing 21st Century Skills
Partnership for 21st Century Skills National
School Boards Association Orlando, Florida March
29, 2008
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Overview

• Who is the Partnership and what is the Framework
  for 21st Century Skills?
• Formative Assessment of 21st century skills
• Summative Assessment of 21st century skills
• The North Carolina Experience

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P21 Members
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Who is the Partnership?
A unique partnership between business, education
and policymakers
With support from the U.S. Department of
Education
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20th Century Education Model
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21st Century Skills Framework
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21st Century Skills Framework

• Core Subjects
• Economics
• English
• Government
• Arts
• History
• Geography
• Reading or Language
• Arts
• Mathematics
• Science
• World Languages
• Civics

• 21st Century Themes
• - Global Awareness
• - Financial, Economic, Business
• Entrepreneurship Literacy
• - Civic Literacy
• - Health Literacy

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21st Century Skills Framework

• Learning Innovation Skills
• Critical Thinking Problem Solving
• Creativity Innovation
• Communication Collaboration

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21st Century Skills Framework

• Information, Media Technology Skills
• Information Literacy
• Media Literacy
• ICT (Information, Communications
• Technology) Literacy

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21st Century Skills Framework

• Life Career Skills
• Flexibility Adaptability
• Initiative Self-Direction
• Social Cross-Cultural Skills
• Productivity Accountability
• Leadership Responsibility

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21st Century Skills Framework

How do I learn more about 21st century skills?
www.21stcenturyskills.org/route21
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Assessment

• Why is assessment so important?
• Importance of global benchmarking
• Importance of emerging skills

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Assessment
Source Levy F. and R.J. Murnane (2004) The New
Division of Labor How Computers are Creating the
Next Labor Market. Princeton, N.J. Princeton
University Press
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Overview

• Who is the Partnership and what is the Framework
  for 21st Century Skills?
• Formative Assessment of 21st century skills
• Summative Assessment of 21st century skills
• The North Carolina Experience

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Formative Assessment

• What is Formative Assessment?
• It is a process used by teachers and students
  during instruction that provides feedback to
  adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve
  students achievement of intended outcomes.
• -- CCSSO

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Formative Assessment
What does it look like in the classroom?

• Clarifying and sharing learning intentions and
  criteria for success
• Engineering effective classroom discussions,
  questions and learning tasks that elicit evidence
  of learning
• Providing feedback that moves learning forward
• Activating students as the owners of their own
  learning
• Activating students as instructional resources
  for one another
• Classroom Assessment Minute by Minute, Day by
  Day Leahy, Lyon, Thompson, Wiliam. 2005.

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Formative Assessment

• Issues
• Definitional Issues
• Gray areas
• Grading
• Teacher Time

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Formative Assessment

• Partnership for 21st Century Skills White Paper
  on Assessment

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Formative Assessment
Partnership for 21st Century Skills White Paper
on Assessment

• P21 Paper
• Focus on 21st century skills
• Make thinking visible,
• structured, real time, authentic
• Data used to inform instruction
• Build capacity of teachers
• and students

• F. A. Characteristics
• in Literature
• Clarifying learning intensions/
• criteria (standards)
• Rich information, elicit
• evidence of learning, during
• learning
• Feedback to advance
• learning
• Process used by teachers
• and students, activating
• students

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Formative Assessment

• What Teachers Need
• Good assessment skills
• Pedagogical content knowledge
• Professional development

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Formative Assessment

• Why is formative assessment so important for 21st
  century skills?
• Impact on performance
• Greater authenticity possible

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Formative Assessment

• Additional Comments
• External resources
• Tools in white paper
• Technology
• Capabilities for formative assessment
• 21st century technology skills

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Overview

• Who is the Partnership and what is the Framework
  for 21st Century Skills?
• Formative Assessment of 21st century skills
• Summative Assessment of 21st century skills
• The North Carolina Experience

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Summative Assessment

• What are they for?
• Program evaluation
• Classification/selection of students or schools
• Grades

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Summative Assessment
Examples

• External summative tests
• Large-scale assessments (international, national,
  state)
• General achievement measures (e.g. commercial
  NRTs, SAT, ACT)
• Interim/benchmark
• Classroom, school, district summative tests
• Unit, marking period tests/exams
• District accountability

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Summative Assessment

• Developing large scale 21st century assessments
  is challenging
• Expensive government investment in innovation
  is essential (enhanced assessment grants).
• Test development is bound by disciplinary
  conventions.
• The status quo tends to drive much of what is
  done.
• Philosophic viewpoints clash.

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Summative Assessment

• Assessment drives curriculum, instruction and
  learning
• The role and needs of standards for the
  assessment of 21st century skills.
• The characteristics of assessments of 21st
  century skills.

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Summative Assessment

• Models exist
• State authentic assessments from early 90s.
• External tests see P21 white paper and Route
  21.

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Summative Assessment

www.21stcenturyskills.org/Route21
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Overview

• Who is the Partnership and what is the Framework
  for 21st Century Skills?
• Formative Assessment of 21st century skills
• Summative Assessment of 21st century skills
• The North Carolina Experience

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The North Carolina Experience

• State Board of Educations
• new mission
• FUTURE-READY STUDENTS
• for the 21st Century

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The North Carolina Experience

• FUTURE-READY STUDENTS
• for the 21st Century
• The guiding mission of the North Carolina State
  Board of Education is that every public school
  student will graduate from high school, globally
  competitive for work and postsecondary education
  and prepared for life in the 21st century.

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The North Carolina Experience

• New Standards for a New Mission
• Principal Standards
• Teacher Standards

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The North Carolina Experience

• Graduation Project
• Paper
• Portfolio
• Product
• Presentation

www.ncpublicschools.org/graduationproject
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The North Carolina Experience

• ICT/ETS

http//www.ets.org/Media/Products/ICT_Literacy/ de
mo2/index.html
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The North Carolina Experience

• Biology Prototype Project

Dr. John Bransford International expert on
cognition and technology
LIFE Center Learning in Informal and Formal
Environments
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The North Carolina Experience
Blue Ribbon Accountability Commission
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Conclusion

• Are our students ready for the new global economy?

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Conclusion
Are our students critical thinkers and problem
solvers?
Are our students globally aware?
Are our students self-directed?
Are our students good collaborators?
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Conclusion
Are our students information and technology
literate?
Are our students flexible and adaptable?
Are our students innovative?
Are our students effective communicators?
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Contact Us
177 North Church Ave. Suite 305 Tucson, AZ
85701 [phone]
www.21stcenturyskills.org