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 * A Framework for Assessing 21st Century Skills** (from Reeves, D. in __21st Century Skills: Rethinking How Students Learn__. Bellanca & Brandt (Ed.), 2010, pg. 304-325)
 * < //Many thoughtful writers such as Hargreaves and Shirley (2009), have suggested that standardized tests provide an insufficient answer to the question, “What is the evidence of student learning?” The question itself is flawed. Developing better tests of student learning in the 21st century is as futile as attempting to find a faster horse and buggy would have been in the 20th century. No amount of training or discipline would make the horse competitive with the automobile, airplane, or space shuttle. The nature of testing – with its standardized conditions, secrecy, and individual results – is antithetical to the understanding, exploration, creativity and sharing that are the hallmarks of a new framework for assessment.//

//Thus, teachers and school leaders need a different set of tools to determine whether or not students are learning in light of 21st century essential skills. In particular, we need practical ways to assess students in the following three ways://
 * 1) //In variable rather than standardized conditions.//
 * 2) //As teams rather than as individuals.//
 * 3) //With assessments that are public rather than secret.// ||

Over the next five weeks, we will use a form of inquiry called Challenge-based Learning to better understand the big idea of assessment and how educators might re-imagine it in the context of a digital world. Our challenge will be to develop and publish an online resource that advocates for digital alternatives to traditional test preparation (a sort of “test prep +”), sharing our thinking and work on a global scale. I imagine this resource will consist of a variety of persuasive multimedia writings, collected resources and original “alternatives” developed by you around your interests and teaching responsibilities. In addition, you will collectively (or individually) develop an article to submit to a practitioner journal such as NCTE or ISTE. The sharing of our work will be a key component in the course and one that is significant within challenge-based learning.

There are two essential questions that need to be addressed if teachers and school leaders are to rethink assessment in the 21st century:
 * 1) //Does the current standardized testing model (in states such as Pennsylvania and New Jersey) have an effect on educational quality in the 21st century?// What are the effects, positive or negative? Does the current model meet the needs of 21st century learning?
 * 2) //How might educators re-imagine the big idea of assessment to benefit the learning needs of students// and //the public/political need of accountability?// What frameworks exist that educators can utilize to balance accountability and learning needs? Does it have to be one or the other? Can both needs of assessment be met? How can educators be persuaded to take the risk and break from the test preparation cycle?

This course consists of several components to allow us to address these key questions.
 * 1) We will study the current role of standardized assessments in school and how they are compatible/incompatible with learning in the 21st century.
 * 2) We will experience a form of inquiry called challenge-based learning and learn about this as an alternative framework for assessment.
 * 3) We will investigate project-based learning as another framework educators can use to approach preparation for standardized testing.
 * 4) We will create a series of persuasive articles, challenging ourselves and other educators to think differently about assessment and test preparation.
 * 5) We will collect and annotate already existing examples of CBL, PBL and other frameworks of interest to you (such as games in education).
 * 6) Each of you will create your own out-of-the-box example of an alternative to test preparation that you can implement in your own classroom come September.
 * 7) All of our work will be shared globally with the larger educational community, persuading teachers and leaders that there are alternatives to traditional test preparation activities.
 * 8) Collectively (or individually), we will submit an article to a practitioner journal, sharing our work with the field in a more formal way.
 * 9) We will discuss ways we can “broadcast” our work and keep it as an ever-evolving document useful to others beyond our course.

Boss, W. & Krauss, J. (2007). //Reinventing project-based learning: Your field guide to real-world projects in the digital age//. Washington, DC: ISTE.
 * Texts**

Popham, W.J. (2001). //The truth about testing: An educator’s call to action//. Alexandria, VA: ASCD

Zander, R. S. & Zander, B. (2002). //The art of possibility: Transforming professional and personal life//. New York: Penguin Press.