• Introduction

• Setting the context: Preparing students for the 21st century

• DVD One: The Case for 21st Century Learning and Assessment

• DVD Two: 21st Century Assessment Principles and Practices

• DVD Three: Transforming the 21st Century Learning Organization

• Suggestions for follow-up

Introduction

• Investigate the case for 21st century learning and its implications for schools and districts.

• Explore the principles and strategies associated with 21st century assessment, emphasizing ways in which it can promote successful learning for all students.

• Examine ways in which educators can collaboratively use 21st century assessment practices to transform schools as learning organizations.

Objectives

• Use your Question Collector handout to keep track of questions and issues that emerge for you.

• Use the Note-Taking Guide to track big ideas, examples, connections, and things you’d like to try.

• Take responsibility for your own learning.

• Participate actively.

• If something is not clear, ask questions.

• Listen to learn.

• Be respectful of participants and the presenter.

• Honor time limits.

• Silence cell phones.

Ground Rules

Almost 10 years into the 21st century, institutions from the post office to the auto industry, from newspapers to health care, are grappling with how they should adapt to major changes brought on by the global economy, consumer needs, government mandates, and, most assuredly, the technology revolution. Blamed by the general public for not changing fast enough, these institutions are also maligned for many specific changes they do make. ‘Everyone wants reform, but few like to change,’ is a frequent refrain.”

—Scherer, “21—Age of Change,” (p. 7), September 2009 Educational Leadership

Think-Pair-Share Warm-Up

• THINK: Write a definition for each term on the handout.

• PAIR: Find a partner and compare your definitions and reflections.

• SHARE: Share your conclusions and insights with the whole group.

“Many of the questions about how schools should change are the ones educators have asked for years: Are the proposed changes needed reforms or frivolous fads? Will the new practices take into account what we know about how students learn? Will they lead to higher achievement for more students, or will they leave more students—and educators—behind? Will they better prepare our students to become adults capable of effecting wise change? These questions are essential and timeless.”

—Scherer, “21—Age of Change,” (p. 7), September 2009 Educational Leadership

What is 21st century learning? How do students need to learn—and be taught and assessed—in order to succeed in post-secondaryeducation and the rapidly changing world of work?

Guiding Questions

What Challenges Do We Face in 21st Century Education?

• Achievement gaps between students’ mastery of basic skills and their capacity for critical, creative, and self-regulated thinking.

• The need to enhance students’ capacity for independent and higher-order reasoning.

• Accommodating the technology revolution throughout the world, including the breathtaking expansion of available information.

What Challenges Do We Face in 21st Century Education? (cont.)

• A growing perception that schools reflect an industrial design—with emphasis on one-size-fits-all curriculum, assessment, and instruction—rather than an information-age design.

• Seismic shifts in the world of work and post-secondary education, with a growing recognition of the need to equip students with 21st century skills and competencies.

• The growing need to address both equity and excellence to ensure the success of all learners.

• Great teaching and learning have been compared to great athletic coaching. Great coaches do not play the game for their athletes, and great teachers coach students toward guided and independent transfer. In your opinion, how valid is this analogy?

• What “game” are you preparing your students for as they move toward independence in the 21st century?

Warm-Up Questions for Viewing and Discussing This ASCD DVD Series

Essential Questions for Viewing DVD One

• Question 1: What are the key components of 21st century learning? What will our students need to know, do, and understand to succeed in our world today?

• Question 2: How well are we preparing every student for success in the 21st century?

• Question 3: What are the most pressing issues and gaps facing us in delivering a 21st century education for all learners?

As you consider the ideas and recommendations in DVD One, what are your reactions to the following research summaries?

Ideas for Follow-Up Discussion

Follow-Up Discussion Question One

21st Century Learning Goals:

What learning outcomes do major international reports suggest are the “building blocks” of 21st century learning?

The Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS)

The groundbreaking report by the U.S. Department of Labor, “What Work Requires of Schools: A SCANS Report for America 2000” (1991) on 21st century workplace competencies identifies the following skills domains:

•Basic skills: reading comprehension, writing, mathematics (especially mathematical problem solving), speaking, and listening

•People skills: social (e.g., demonstrating understanding and empathy), negotiation, leadership, teamwork, and cultural diversity

•Personal qualities: self-esteem, self-management, and responsibility

•Thinking skills: creative thinking, problem solving, decision making, and visualization

Since 2002, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills has advocated the need for 21st century learning to emphasize

•Core subjects and 21st century themes: language arts, mathematics, science, global awareness, and financial and civic literacy

•Learning and innovation skills: creativity, innovation, critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and collaboration

•Information, media, and technology skills: information and media literacy, applications of technology

•Life and career skills: flexibility, adaptability, initiative and self-direction, leadership and responsibility, social and cross-cultural skills, productivity, and accountability

The 21st Century Skills Movement

Follow-Up Discussion Question Two

21st Century Learning Theory:

What does research tell us works best in promoting 21st century learning for all students?

• Learners must be in charge of their own learning processes and experientially involved in active learning tasks.

• True learning involves a continuum in which the learner moves from initial acquisition of new information or skills toward alignment with prior learning (schema activation) and then guided and independent transfer.

• The most effective learning processes actively engage student interest and have a sense of authenticity.

• Students need support and coaching to develop a sense of efficacy, self-regulation, and responsibility.

• Learners must actively, and on an ongoing basis, monitor and adjust their own learning processes.

21st Century Learning Theory

• The learning goals for which the student is responsible must be comprehensible, transparent, and purposeful.

• Maximum learning occurs when the instructor diagnoses and pre-assesses students’ varying readiness levels, interests, and learning profiles—and adjusts the teaching-learning process to accommodate them.

• Assessment and instruction should be seamless, with students receiving ongoing, daily feedback that aligns with learning targets.

• Students need support to see the big picture, including the big ideas and recurrent themes of the content they are studying.

• 21st century learning is anchored on authentic culminating performance tasks and projects.

21st Century Learning Theory (cont.)

Considering the recommendations from DVD One, how would you rate your current school or district?

4 = We are addressing all of these recommendations and priorities successfully.

3 = We are addressing some of these recommendations and priorities successfully, but we still have work to do in a few areas.

2 = Ours is a work in progress, with much work to do in many of these areas.

1 = We have extensive work to do in all areas, especially in building consensus about 21st century learning competencies and how to teach them.

How can effective assessment practices promote 21st century learning? What can educators do to ensure that all students receive the feedback and support they need to develop proficiency in applying 21st century competencies?

Guiding Questions

Assessment Practices to Ensure 21st Century Learning

• Building staff consensus about key learning goals and related performance indicators aligned with 21st century learning competencies in core curriculum areas.

• Using a structured process to diagnose students’ readiness levels related to key 21st century learning targets.

• Aligning multiple assessment measures to ensure a cohesive approach to formative assessment and instruction, including tutorials and coaching resources to address students’ learning gaps and needs related to 21st century competencies.

• Anchoring summative assessment on cornerstone tasks that allow students to demonstrate authentic transfer of 21st century competencies.

The “Three P’s” of 21st Century Assessment

Jay McTighe, coauthor of Understanding by Design (2005) and Schooling by Design (2007), emphasizes three 21st century learning priorities:

Performance: Engaging students in authentic and transfer-based tasks that ensure they understand and use what they have learned with efficacy and independence.

Process: Ensuring that every student develops work habits and mental attitudes that reflect true understanding, including the ability to explain, interpret, apply, analyze perspectives, express empathy, and display self-knowledge.

Progress: Emphasizing the process of learning—not just its end-points—including helping students use rubrics and other scoring tools to self-assess and adjust their progress toward transfer-based understanding.

• To continue the sports metaphor we explored in DVD One, consider the assessment and feedback strategies of great coaches. In your opinion, what do great coaches in athletics and the arts do to monitor student progress, provide appropriate and timely feedback, and help individuals achieve their personal best?

• In your opinion, to what extent do educators use similar assessment techniques when working with their students?

Warm-Up Questions for DVD Two

Question 1: What is the relationship between assessment and learning?

Question 2: To what extent should assessment be a fundamental part of the teaching-learning process?

Question 3: Why is an integrated and holistic approach to assessment a critical part of 21st century learning?

Question 4: How can a balanced, photo-album approach to assessment ensure that all students gain proficiency in transferring 21st century learning skills to their daily lives?

Four Essential Questions for DVD Two

21st Century Assessment Priorities

• Building consensus about 21st century learning targets: What should successful graduates know, do, and understand to be prepared for postsecondary success and the world of work?

• Using multiple measures to diagnose students’ 21st century background knowledge and skills, provide formative assessment feedback to enhance student understanding, and use authentic summative assessment tasks and projects.

21st Century Assessment Priorities (cont.)

• Anchoring summative assessments around cornerstone assessment tasks and projects that are authentic, reality-based, allow for some degree of student choice, and require independent transfer.

• Enhancing grading and feedback practices through expanded focus upon the “Three P’s”: performance, process, and progress.

21st Century Assessment Priorities (cont.)

• Transforming data management and analysis by capitalizing on technological innovations, including a variety of online grading software applications, Web site updates, and electronic grade books.

Creating a 21st Century Assessment System

1. Pre-Assessment: Emphasize the pre-assessment of students’ background knowledge, skills, and understanding related to 21st century competencies.

2. Formative Assessment: Provide daily, on-the-spot feedback to coach students to improve their use of content-related 21st century competencies.

3. Summative Assessment: Use cornerstone assessment tasks and reinforce consensus with lesson study and collaborative scoring processes, such as 21st century rubrics and other scoring tools.

1. To what extent are we all in consensus about the 21st century knowledge, skills, and understandings students need?

2. To what extent do we determine students’ readiness (i.e., background knowledge and preparation) to use content-related 21st century competencies?

3. How do we design formative and summative assessments to monitor student growth, based on an initial pre-assessment?

Pre-Assessment Self-Reflection

Key Elements of Effective Formative Assessment to

Promote 21st Century Learning

1. Understand the learning targets: Clearly articulating 21st century learning goals and what constitutes good work.

2. Produce target-driven work: Giving students assignments that match 21st century learning targets and helping them identify next steps in learning and improvement.

3. Compare performance with the learning targets: Using rubrics and other tools to communicate student levels of proficiency and areas for improvement in using 21st century competencies.

Key Elements of Effective Formative Assessment to

Promote 21st Century Learning (cont.)

4. Evaluate strengths and weaknesses: Giving on-the-spot feedback to students, reteaching as needed, and engaging students in self-assessment and self-regulation in response to 21st century learning goals.

5. Give feedback for improvement: Providing informational, not judgmental, feedback to students so that they know how to improve their achievement of 21st century learning goals.

6. Close the gap: Working with students to close the gap between 21st century performance goals and current performance and work products.

Formative Assessment to Promote 21st Century Learning

Formative assessment is a key element for promoting student learning, according to Susan Brookhart in How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students (ASCD 2008). It allows educators to

•Focus on learning goals.

•Take stock of current student work in relation to learning goals.

•Take action to help students move closer to learning goals.

Characteristics of Effective Feedback to Promote 21st Century Learning

• Timing: as immediate and on-the-spot as possible

• Amount: prioritized, criterion-based, and student-specific

• Focus: describing, not judging, work products and processes

• Criteria: comparing performance with criteria for good work

Characteristics of Effective Feedback to Promote

21st Century Learning (cont.)

• Valence: using positive comments and suggestions

• Clarity: using specific, student-focused language

• Specificity: helping students know what to do next to improve

• Tone: communicating respect from teacher to student

21st Century Summative Assessment: The Power of Cornerstone Tasks

• Effective 21st century assessment is anchored on culminating performance assessment tasks and projects.

• Culminating tasks and projects require genuine transfer of key competencies and require students to engage in authentic, real-world performances.

• Typically, a great cornerstone assessment task should have − Real-world goals aligned with 21st century competencies. − An authentic set of roles and responsibilities. − A real-world audience. − An authentic scenario or situation involving decision making and

problem solving. − Authentic culminating performances and work products.− Clearly articulated evaluation standards aligned with 21st century

competencies and articulated via scoring rubrics.

Considering the recommendations from DVD Two, how would you rate your current school or district?

4 = We are addressing all of these 21st century assessment practices successfully.

3 = We are addressing some of these 21st century assessment practices successfully, but there is still some work to do in a few areas.

2 = Ours is a work in progress, with much work to do in many of these areas.

1 = We have extensive work to do in all areas, especially in providing a cohesive process for diagnosis, formative assessment, and summative assessment aligned with 21st century learning competencies.

What are the characteristics of a school or district that effectively promotes 21st century learning? How can stakeholders work collaboratively to transform their learning organizations so that they promote genuine 21st century learning for all students?

Guiding Questions

• Continuing our exploration of the team metaphor, consider the characteristics of a 21st century learning organization: What does a successful 21st century team look and act like? How is a 21st century school or district like a successful athletic team or performing arts group?

• In your opinion, what are the strengths of your 21st century learning team? What areas are in need of improvement?

Warm-Up Questions for DVD Three

• Question 1: What are the key elements of a school or district that promotes genuine 21st century learning?

• Question 2: How should curriculum, assessment, instruction, professional development, and strategic planning function in a 21st century learning organization?

• Question 3: Why are collaboration and team-building critical elements in effective 21st century learning organizations?

• Question 4: How can all stakeholders be encouraged to support and become involved in promoting 21st century learning for all students?

Essential Questions for DVD Three

To what extent have you and your team

• Achieved consensus about what all students should know, be able to do, and understand by key juncture points in your curriculum?

• Ensured that every instructor teaching the same content area and grade level understands and supports this consensus-driven core curriculum?

Working Collaboratively to Support 21st Century Learning: Curriculum

Key Elements of an Effective Core Curriculum

According to Robert J. Marzano in What Works in Schools™ (2003):

•Effective curriculum is guaranteed and viable.

•It is organized around a manageable number of key content and performance standards.

•Students learn and are assessed on no more than 20 measurement topics per year in a single subject area.

•Staff members design and use rubrics that show levels of proficiency associated with each measurement topic (e.g., advanced, proficient, basic, developing, absent).

•Grading and assessment are standards-driven.

To what extent have you and your team

• Committed to a balanced, photo-album approach to assessing student progress in relationship to curriculum goals, including effective pre-assessment, formative assessment, and summative assessment?

• Ensured that returning students are assessed to determine their re-entry readiness levels and related interventions they may require?

Working Collaboratively to Support 21st Century Learning: Assessment

Does Your Assessment Program Promote 21st Century Learning?

• Assessment targets should be clear and consensus-driven.

• Assessment should be informative, promoting learning via effective and sustained feedback.

• Tests should comprise only one aspect of a viable assessment program; culminating performance tasks and projects, as well as student self-assessment and self-reflection, are vital.

• Authentic assessment tasks should reinforce standards-driven rigor and relevance, promoting standards without mechanical standardization.

• Rubrics or related scoring guides should help both staff and students monitor their progress.

To what extent have you and your team

• Ensured that assessment informs instruction in your school or district?

• Integrated assessment and instruction, ensuring that individual students’ readiness levels, interests, and learning profiles are accommodated?

Working Collaboratively to Support 21st Century Learning: Instruction

Differentiating Instruction to Promote 21st Century Learning

• Everyone teaching the same grade level content or course is in consensus about what all students should know, be able to do, and understand.

• Pre-assessment is standards-driven and ongoing in all lessons and units.

• Content, process, and products are modified based upon pre-assessment data analysis.

• All students are engaged in respectful tasks that engage and challenge them.

To what extent have you and your team

• Prepared yourselves to address student needs related to 21st century skills via collaborative planning, problem solving, and decision making?

• Ensured that all key stakeholders—educators, community groups, business leaders, parents, and guardians—are involved in the process of determining 21st century learning priorities and processes?

Working Collaboratively to Support 21st Century Learning:

Building a Successful Professional Learning Community

• All stakeholders need immediate access to relevant information to understand 21st century learning and necessary program components and modifications.

• Decision making and problem solving about 21st century learning should be guided by a consensus-driven process with clearly articulated norms and procedures.

• All participants should collaborate on assessing the value added by interventions related to 21st century learning, with a feedback-adjustment process that allows for necessary modifications.

Implications of Collaborative Planning

To what extent have you and your team

• Ensured that all staff members are professionally equipped to deal with the needs of students relative to 21st century learning priorities?

• Integrated job-embedded learning processes into your plans for meeting student learning needs and strengths relative to 21st century learning targets?

Working Collaboratively to Support 21st Century Learning:Job-Embedded Professional Development

Effective Job-Embedded Professional Development

• Extends from site-specific issues and concerns.• Actively involves key stakeholders.• Collaboratively develops classroom-based pre-assessment and

formative assessment based on assigned curriculum goals.• Collaboratively examines formative assessment results.• Collaboratively plans to adjust instruction based on results.• Uses protocols to examine resulting student work.• Continues to adjust instruction using agreed-upon instructional

practices.

Which area do you think requires the greatest level of improvement in your school or district ?

1 = A consensus-driven core curriculum emphasizing 21st century knowledge, skills and procedures, and habits of mind.2 = A balanced system of diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment to promote student understanding and transfer of key 21st century competencies.3 = Instruction designed to clearly and continually address assessed student learning needs relative to priority targets aligned with 21st century learning.4 = A professional learning community equipped to handle the curriculum, instruction, and assessment needs of students engaged in 21st century learning.5 = Professional development that is job-embedded and focused on improving all students’ 21st century learning.

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