A Broader Lens for Assessing Student Success

EXECUTIVE PERSPECTIVE

The question keeping me up at night is this: What must school leaders put in place today to set our kids up to thrive tomorrow?

Our framework for assessing student success is outdated and no longer meets the demands of our rapidly changing world, much less the future needs of our students. As society faces unprecedented existential challenges alongside unprecedented technological advances, we urgently need a model that expands and evolves as our world changes.

A salve for sleep, thankfully, is this month’s School Administrator. Our colleagues are transforming how they assess student success and embracing innovations like standards-based grading and competency-based education. But even with these advances, our assessment system still falls short. We need to ensure we’re preparing students not just for tests, but for life.

Defining Success

A recent conversation with a superintendent brought this need into sharp focus. In the same week, he encountered two memorable former students. José was an all-star athlete, a top student and a popular teenager who was by all metrics destined for success. It came as no surprise to his former teacher that José was fulfilled as a father of four and enjoyed a challenging career as an emergency room doctor.

The other student was Henry. In high school, he was an unruly, unsociable and underachieving student who spent more time in detention than in the classroom. Yet 18 years later, Henry was thriving in a government job and had a family. Somewhere along the way, he had received the support he needed to carve out a different version of success for himself than what our school systems are set up to recognize and reward. And we’re all better off for that.

So then … how might we create a better model?

Beyond Literacy

We must broaden our narrow framework for success in school to encompass literacy and numeracy plus the new essentials. The world our students are stepping into requires a broader set of abilities than that of 100 years ago when our current framework was developed. Many of the abilities employers tell us are essential we don’t measure.

Too often, we focus on “mastery” at the expense of self-confidence. We must cultivate and measure the durable skills we know lead to success in life for all students in our classrooms — skills like self-efficacy, executive functioning, critical thinking and creativity.

These skills are strong predictors of future success. Students who develop these traits are more likely to take risks, persist through setbacks and adapt to new situations. These are the skills today’s employers seek, and they are vital in a rapidly changing world. Yet our assessments rarely capture them.

The Road Ahead

I’m deeply encouraged by how many AASA members are leading the way on innovations in student assessment. Many are adopting social-emotional learning frameworks to help students build self-awareness, emotional regulation and relationship skills. Schools are also experimenting with project- and competency-based assessments and portfolios that showcase student learning in more holistic ways.

These approaches recognize that learning is not a one-size-fits-all journey. They help create a fuller picture of a student’s abilities and potential. Still, we need to push further. We must develop tools and systems that better assess skills like resilience, problem solving, hope, self-confidence and adaptability. These durable skills will prepare students not just for their next test, but for the next stage of life.

See It, Believe It

Our students can’t dream of doing — or becoming — what they can’t see. It’s our job as leaders and educators to plant and nurture the seeds of those dreams and help our students grow the strengths that will help them thrive in the future.

At AASA, we are committed to helping school leaders rethink how we assess and report student progress. We believe in a system that measures the whole student. Our work must ensure every student has the opportunity to develop the full range of skills they’ll need to succeed in an ever-changing, uncertain future.

Together, we must commit to moving beyond traditional metrics by creating a system that is reflective of the complex world we live and work in and that has the flexibility to recognize — and celebrate — the Henrys and Josés in every classroom. The future of public education and the strength of our democracy depend on our ability to get this right, and I’m confident that with our incredible AASA members we will do just that.

Be well, my colleagues and friends!

David Schuler is AASA executive director. Twitter: @AASA_ED