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New technology-based assessments will replace standardized bubble tests.

Last September, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced: “Today is a great day! I have looked forward to this day for a long time–and so have America’s teachers, parents, students, and school leaders.”

Duncan was excited about a new way of testing students, one that goes “beyond the bubble test,” the standardized assessments students take every year that have long been criticized as not only useless in measuring any kind of real learning, but actually detrimental to the entire education system.

Ask most teachers, and you’ll hear a litany of reasons why they detest these assessments. They contend the current tests have no bearing on student learning. They waste time that could be better spent in class (the former president of United Teachers Los Angeles, “dismisses the weeks before spring testing as ‘Bubbling-In 101,’” according to a Los Angeles Times article.) They complain about having to teach to the tests, leaving them little time to try new ways of engaging students. And in some states, teachers are evaluated based on those very scores.

With stakes so high, teachers, parents, and school administrators are watching the developments of the new tests closely. The actual details of what these new assessments will look like is being revealed along the way– and it’s extremely complicated. In brief, two separate groups — Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, and SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium — are using the federal government’s Race to the Top Funds to come up with the new testing systems, which will be used by different states. (You can read much more about the details in this recent story in Education Week.)

Both groups will create tests using technology in both administering and scoring and will measure “performance-based tasks, designed to designed to mirror complex, real-world situations,” according to the New York Times.

“In performance-based tasks, which are increasingly common in tests administered by the military and in other fields, students are given a problem — they could be told, for example, to pretend they are a mayor who needs to reduce a city’s pollution — and must sift through a portfolio of tools and write analytically about how they would use them to solve the problem,” the article explains.

There are high expectations for the new tests. Last month, a who’s-who of educators and education experts published an open letter outlining what’s at stake:

If done correctly, the shift from pencil-and-paper to online assessments will build upon this opportunity to transform the nation’s education system and provide a platform for new approaches to learning and schooling, not just to testing. If done incorrectly, however, the adoption of these assessments also has the potential to lock our education system—for another decade or more—into its current factory-era model that has proved so inadequate to the task of meeting our nation’s education goals in the 21^st century.

Some schools across the country are already moving in this innovative direction, as they shift from focusing on obsolete inputs of the past like seat time to creating new, blended schooling models that combine the best of face-to-face and online learning. An assessment framework stuck in the factory-era relic of its predecessors would not only be orthogonal to innovative efforts like these, but could also serve to stifle further innovation—literally cutting it off at the knees.

The writers make three recommendations: to create a “dynamic testing ecosystem” that includes a variety of platforms rather than just one test; to integrate innovation like instant feedback and real-time, adaptive assessments; and one that supports “competency-based learning,” not based on the school calendar, but when the student learns the subject.

The letter has made the rounds in education circles and has been signed by hundreds so far.

BEYOND TESTING

Apart from those lobbying for reform in testing, there’s another movement afoot advocating that teachers, parents and students opt out of testing altogether. New York City educator Lisa Nielsen proposes that teachers boycott standardized tests for all the reasons outlined above, and then some. “Outdated assessments are driving outdated instruction,” she writes.

People have created Facebook groups for opting out, including one called Parents and Kids Against Standardized Testing, which has more than 1,000 fans. A recent CNN story describes a mother who refused to have her two kids take standardized tests, while another decided to have her kids take it “because she’s afraid that holding her daughter out could harm the school’s test results.”

Will these new high-tech assessments fulfill everyone’s high expectations? With so many ancillary issues tangled with it, as well as states’ different priorities and standards, that’s far from being determined.

Department of Education

Following last night’s State of the Union address by President Obama, the White House will host a State of the Union Education Roundtable on Thursday, Jan. 27.

PBS Teachers has been asked to solicit questions from teachers about the education issues the President raised. A sampling of popular questions will be posed to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan during the livestreamed Education Roundtable event on January 27th at 3:15pm. Submissions and voting for questions will close at 12pm on Thursday, January 27th.

Teachers can submit questions here.

Some samplings indicate this will be be a lively discussion.

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“To achieve our goal of transforming American education, we must rethink basic assumptions and redesign our education system.”

It’s a bold and broad statement, but it’s backed up with specifics in the Department of Education’s National Education Technology Plan.

With the goal of raising the proportion of college graduates from 41 to 60 percent in the U.S. and closing the achievement gap to prepare all students equally to start college or careers, the DOE today laid out its master plan on how to pull the American education system — by hook or by crook — to the 21st century.

I haven’t been able to scour the entire 124-page document yet, but just from reading the executive summary, it looks very promising. The DOE advocates for letting go of archaic practices and embracing technology to engage students, connect educators and learners, invest and build the crumbling infrastructure, and be fearless in redesigning traditional school models.

Some highlights below.

On student engagement:

The challenge for our education system is to leverage the learning sciences and modern technology to create engaging, relevant, and personalized learning experiences for all learners that mirror students’ daily lives and the reality of their futures. In contrast to traditional classroom instruction, this requires that we put students at the center and empower them to take control of their own learning by providing flexibility on several dimensions.

Professionals routinely use the Web and tools, such as wikis, blogs, and digital content for the research, collaboration, and communication demanded in their jobs. They gather data and analyze the data using inquiry and visualization tools. They use graphical and 3D modeling tools for design. For students, using these real-world tools creates learning opportunities that allow them to grapple with real-world problems—opportunities that prepare them to be more productive members of a globally competitive workforce.

And to meet this goal:

- States should continue to revise, create, and implement standards and learning objectives using technology for all content areas that reflect 21st-century expertise and the power of technology to improve learning.

- States, districts, and others should develop and implement learning resources that exploit the flexibility and power of technology to reach all learners anytime and anywhere.

On testing what matters:

Technology-based assessments can provide data to drive decisions on the basis of what is best for each and every student and that, in aggregate, will lead to continuous improvement across our entire education system.

Technology-based assessments can be used formatively to diagnose and modify the conditions of learning and instructional practices while at the same time determining what students have learned for grading and accountability purposes.

And to meet this goal:

- Design, develop, and implement assessments that give students, educators, and other stakeholders timely and actionable feedback about student learning to improve achievement and instructional practices. [Note: Some teachers are already on the case.]

- Conduct research and development that explores how embedded assessment technologies, such as simulations, collaboration environments, virtual worlds, games, and cognitive tutors, can be used to engage and motivate learners while assessing complex skills.

On connecting teachers to each other and to students:

Teams of connected educators replace solo practitioners, classrooms are fully connected to provide educators with 24/7 access to data and analytic tools, and educators have access to resources that help them act on the insights the data provide.

Individual educators build online learning communities consisting of their students and their students’ peers; fellow educators in their schools, libraries, and after-school programs; professional experts in various disciplines around the world; members of community organizations that serve students in the hours they are not in school; and parents who desire greater participation in their children’s education.

And how to meet this goal:

- Expand opportunities for educators to have access to technology-based content, resources, and tools where and when they need them.

- Leverage social networking technologies and platforms to create communities of practice that provide career-long personal learning opportunities for educators within and across schools, preservice preparation and in-service education institutions, and professional organizations.

- Use technology to provide all learners with online access to effective teaching and better learning opportunities and options especially in places where they are not otherwise available.

- Develop a teaching force skilled in online instruction.

On developing infrastructure:

Infrastructure includes people, processes, learning resources, policies, and sustainable models for continuous improvement in addition to broadband connectivity, servers, software, management systems, and administration tools.

And to meet this goal:

- Ensure students and educators have broadband access to the Internet and adequate wireless connectivity both in and out of school.

- Ensure that every student and educator has at least one Internet access device and appropriate software and resources for research, communication, multimedia content creation, and collaboration for use in and out of school.

- Support the development and use of open educational resources to promote innovative and creative opportunities for all learners and accelerate the development and adoption of new open technology-based learning tools and courses. [Take, for example, what they're doing in Alaska.]

On redesigning and transforming productivity: [This one deserves a post of its own, but I'll quote it here.]

One of the most basic assumptions in our education system is time-based or “seat-time” measures of educational attainment. These measures were created in the late 1800s and early 1900s to smooth transitions from K–12 into higher education…Another basic assumption is the way we organize students into age-determined groups, structure separate academic disciplines, organize learning into classes of roughly equal size with all the students in a particular class receiving the same content at the same pace, and keep these groups in place all year.

The last decade has seen the emergence of some radically redesigned schools, demonstrating the range of possibilities for structuring education. These include schools that organize around competence rather than seat time and others that enable more flexible scheduling that fits students’ individual needs rather than traditional academic periods and lockstep curriculum pacing. In addition, schools are beginning to incorporate online learning, which gives us the opportunity to extend the learning day, week, or year.

And to meet this goal:

- Rethink basic assumptions in our education system that inhibit leveraging technology to improve learning, starting with our current practice of organizing student and educator learning around seat time instead of the demonstration of competencies.

- Design, implement, and evaluate technology-powered programs and interventions to ensure that students progress seamlessly through our P–16 education system and emerge prepared for college and careers.

And here’s the best part: the document goes into how the DOE can instigate these changes step by step. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s vision writ large — and in small print too.

Teach.gov

Ifanyi Bell has been a classroom teacher, a filmmaker, and currently develops and produces educational media for web-based, digital asset repositories at KQED.

By Ifanyi Bell

The U.S. Department of Education just launched an interesting, eye-catching new website, Teach.gov, intended to spearhead the department’s push to support the teaching profession. All it took was a single glance for my brain to be set simultaneously at ease and to be titillated. Was this a government website? With Flash? And color? And Oprah?

This is exactly the kind of initiative that the DOE needs to undertake in order to make itself more present as an organization. It’s a simple idea: Be more visible. Make a statement about the vision of education in America. Be an accessible source of support and guidance for our nations’ educators, and those aspiring to the task. Use the color orange.

In an administration that has hung its hat on the concept of change, it behooves our representatives and leaders to better manage the education brand. Having been an educator working in Boston Public Schools, it was easy to recognize the inconsistency of vision and motivation among school administrators, teachers and parents.

In an environment where there are myriad stakeholders, perspectives and needs, what we need now is for the leaders of our educational system to lead with a distinctive presence. An initiative to let educators across the nation know that regardless of their perspective, or their diverse ideas about how to teach, that they are not alone out there fighting for the minds of our youth against materialism, violence, racism, shrinking budgets, sexism, homophobia and video games. This might just be that voice.

Recruiting qualified educators, and supporting, elevating, and giving incentives to teachers are his top priorities.

Anticipating that 1 million baby-boom generation teachers will be retiring in the next few years, Duncan announced the launch of Teach.gov, a full-scale national campaign on the part of the federal government to recruit teachers.

“This is about a call to service… Our ability to attract and retain teachers will shape the future of education in the next 25 to 30 years,” he said to Brokaw. “If you want to have an impact, this is the civil rights issue of our generation. I’m very optimistic because we know what works. We are the answers: Great teachers, great principals, great schools will strengthen our economy and give children the chance to fulfill their potential. If young kids can help us to fight for social justice, it’ll last for generations to come.”

According to Duncan, the site lists 2,000 teaching job openings as of today, and the department will be going around the country to recruit freshmen, sophomores, and seniors from colleges and universities.

Duncan also spoke on a number of different topics to journalists. Here’s a roundup of themes he touched on.

On What It Takes to be an Effective Teacher:

“It’s tough work. You need courage, tenacity, and have to believe in your heart that every student can learn. It’s the hardest professions that it exists. Great teachers are like Picasso and Michelangelo, inspiring students. It’s amazing to watch. It takes intellectual [knowledge] of the content. At the end of the day, the most important thing it takes is passion… And it takes time – there will be days when you actually take a step back, you cry and figure out what you did that… there’ll be a child who does phenomenally well, and mom would get beaten at home at night. Then you have to help the child deal with the sadness at home. You have to stay with this for the long haul.”

On the Teaching Profession:

“We have to elevate the status of a teacher. It’s a huge part of the solution. Countries that outperform us – Finland, South Korea – they’re getting the best and brightest going into education. In five years, I want to have best in the world. That’s my goal.”

On Teacher Layoffs:

“It’s tough right now, but we have to look over the horizon. We need to pay teachers more, and great teachers more on top of that. For those who are volunteering to go work in rural or urban areas, new math and science teachers, special education teachers. Anywhere we have more need. We have to reward excellence. In math and science, we’re usually around 21^st or 25^th. We have to pay math and science teachers more money — another $5000 or $10,000 a year – to make it better.”

On Teacher Incentives:

“Teach Grants offer $4,000 a year that can be applied to undergrad tuition, if they work in poor schools. And they can take off $16,000 from tuition. And we’ve increased incentives by $60 billion. There’s the Income-Based Repayment program, where after 10 years of public service, including teaching, all your college debt is gone.”

On Parental Involvement:

“The parental piece is huge. Parents are children’s first teachers and most important teachers. If parents aren’t part of the solution, we’ll never get to where we need to get as a country. The Department of Education has to change, and this is where we under-invested. We’re looking to double the investment to $270 million, investing in great programs to make difference. Great things will happen.”

On School as Community Center:

“For kids who go to underperforming schools, parents are sometimes working two jobs. [For those families,} academic enrichment should be at the heart of every school, after school. If we want parents to be engaged, we have to open up our doors. They have to have libraries, gyms, pools, rec center. Those things don’t belong to me or to schools, they belong to the community. Our schools have to be the heart of the neighborhood.”

On Teacher Support and Development:

“Teachers don’t get enough support or mentoring they need. They struggle with classroom management skills. Those master and mentor teachers helping them through rough days is hugely important. We have to build real career ladders. Teaching is a craft – it takes years to develop. So we can’t let those young teachers burnout in the first few years. Teachers have been beaten down, but they used to be revered. They have to be treated like doctors – they’re doing the most important work in our society. We have to elevate the profession.”