Transform education by measuring what matters. Hint: It's not test scores.

There’s been a lot of talk about the ethics behind corporations running schools and thus profiting off students. But if we’re really concerned about folks profiting off our kids why aren’t we spending more time focusing on assessment? If we do away with measuring success with test scores the result would be billions saved that could go toward resources and personnel dedicated to support students.

Let’s face it: Teachers know and parents are waking up to the fact that these tests are one of the most expensive and least effective ways to measure student or teacher success. So why are we willing to let policymakers forcibly impose this corporate-driven assessment from companies like Pearson upon our children even if it makes them sick???

What if instead we measured success in things that really mattered to students, parents and teachers.  

For example...

Students have:

• A plan to find and develop their passion(s).
• A team of mentors, guidance, and/or advisors to help guide them in discovery and development of their passions.
• Customized success plans that they help design.
• Advisors who are deeply involved in and responsible for their lives and their success.
• An opportunity to learn about what they are interested in the world with real world experts.
• Reported they are satisfied with support they receive from the school.
• An authentic portfolio that can be used for career, academic, or civic pursuits.

Teachers and schools are measured by:

• Success is moving students along to
• Career
• College and/or
• Civic endeavors

that enable them to achieve their plans and goals for personal success.

Pie in the sky?

Live Tonight! 2/2 - Panel on Personal Learning Profiles

Join me tonight, Thursday, February 2nd, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com panel discussion on "Personal Learning Profiles," also referred to as "personal success plans," "learner profiles," or "personalized learning paths."  The discussion will be hosted by Steven Hargadon. Joining me on the panel are Barbara Bray, Kathleen McClaskey, and Shannon Miller.

We'll discuss be discussing topics, issues and questions such as:

• With a growing sense of the value of personalized, customized, and student-driven learning, what is the best way to capture and communicate students' learning plans and goals?
• Who should "own" these profiles/plans, both in terms of responsibility and ultimate control?
• How can and should personal learning profiles interact with student portfolios?
• And Steve Hargadon's perennial question...In a vision of teachers as lead-learners, what provisions are being made to bring personal learning profiles to the profession itself?

Session details:
Date: Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 1am (next day) GMT (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate).
Log in: Go to http://futureofed.info.
The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event at the event page.
Recordings:
The full Blackboard Collaborate recording and a portable .mp3 recording will be available soon after the show athttp://www.futureofeducation.com.

Panelists (listed alphabetically):

Barbara Bray is a Creative Learning Strategist who believes that anyone at any age can learn. She has worked with schools, districts, individuals, businesses, and non-profit agencies around the world. Her dream has been to create an online place that was safe and secure with all the tools and resources all in one place. She did it with My eCoach as early as 1999 — way before there were blogs, wikis, Twitter or Facebook. Barbara is what you call a “Digital Pioneer.”

Barbara is a teacher, writer, change agent, risk-taker, instructional designer, connector, and visionary. Whenever anyone told Barbara she couldn’t do something, she took it more like a challenge. Barbara knows that teachers need support with the shift to 21st Century Skills. New and veteran teachers are overwhelmed with day-to-day tasks plus being asked to teach and integrate technology. The big question even today is “how do you fit everything in that is expected of you and meet the needs of all students?”

Barbara writes a regular column on professional development for OnCUE (Computer Using Educators) as well as regularly posts helpful materials and resources on her blog. She works tirelessly to find and research new tools and methods that help educators. Now with multiple opportunities to network using social media and join various online communities, teachers and learners are confused. Barbara makes it her job to determine what is authentic, valid, cost-effective, safe, user-friendly, and relevant for her clients.

Kathleen H. McClaskey, resident of Ed Tech Associates, is a recognized UDL and Digital Learning Consultant with 28 years experience in using technology in the classroom. Kathleen is a frequent international, national and regional workshop presenter on topics that include Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Technology for Diverse Learners, Math and Technology: Bringing Research to Practice, Built in Moodle: The Universally Designed Digital Learning Environment and most recently, Personalized Learning Toolkit with Barbara Bray. In the last decade, she directed and designed the professional development in technology-based projects in math, science, literacy and autism. She currently curates four topics in Scoop.it:  Personalized Learning, Universal Design for Learning, Leveling the Playing Field with Apps and Math, Technology and UDL:  Closing the Achievement Gap.  Twitter: @khmmc

Shannon McClintock Miller is the district teacher librarian and technology specialist at Van Meter Community School in Van Meter, Iowa. She encourages her students to have a voice while learning, creating, collaborating, and connecting to others within their school and around the world. Shannon is the author of the award winning Van Meter Library Voice blog and enjoys writing for ISTE's Leading & Learning journal, various blogs, and in other forums. She has had the opportunity to speak in Iowa and around the country about advocacy, technology, social media, and making a difference in education and the lives of others. She is a member of ISTE, SIGMS, ALA, AASL, and ILA (Iowa Library Association). Shannon serves as the advocacy chair on the Iowa Association of School Librarians and on the Iowa Center for the Book Advisory Council as the public school students and libraries representation. Shannon also serves on the School Library Month advisory board. She is a StudyBlue Teacher Advocate and FableVision Learning Ambassador. In 2010, she was also chosen to be part of the Cengage Learning/School Library Journal New Leaders Program. In March 2011, Shannon was awarded the Connecting People Shorty Award. Shannon can be found at @shannonmmiller on Twitter and online atshannonmmiller.com.

Lisa Nielsen writes for and speaks to audiences across the globe about learning innovatively and is frequently covered by local and national media for her views on “Passion (not data) Driven Learning,” "Thinking Outside the Ban" to harness the power of technology for learning, and using the power of social media to provide a voice to educators and students. Ms. Nielsen has worked for more than a decade in various capacities to support learning in real and innovative ways that will prepare students for success. In addition to her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator, Ms. Nielsen’s writing is featured in places such as Huffington Post, Tech and Learning, ISTE Connects, ASCD Wholechild, MindShift, Leading and Learning, The Unplugged Mom, and is the author the book Teaching Generation Text.

What should every citizen know? My Answer.

What should every citizen know? That was the topic of a conversation that passionate educators were grappling with at this year’s Educon. Educators got to work quickly to make their case for what they felt must absolutely, positively be included (visit this link to see some of the thinking). Some educators went as far as to outline when each person should acquire the knowledge they believed was most important.

Could The Key to Teacher Effectiveness Mean Dropping Certification Requirements?

Marcus A. Winters explained that there is no correlation between certification and teacher effectiveness at a recent Manhattan Institute for Policy Research event held to announce the publication of his new book, “Teachers Matter.” Winters went on to propose the idea of  removing the barriers to becoming a teacher, suggesting that since there is no correlation between certification and teacher effectiveness, anyone with a college degree should be given the opportunity to teach if they are able to find someone to hire them. The fact is that many of us who went through teacher preparation and certification programs know they were not very helpful when it comes to the realities of the classroom. It is no surprise then that such certification has little impact on student success.

I think Winter’s idea deserves some attention, particularly in the case of secondary studies, but I wonder why he believes that a college degree should be required. If you are an expert in your field, chances are you may have reached this success without such a degree. Especially, if we consider experts who may be interested in taking up teaching upon retirement from their career. Academic inflation is only a recent phenomenon. Historically the majority of careers i.e. business, programming, entertainment casting or directing, writing, advertising, photography, art, etc. did not require such certification for success.

Preparing Students for Life-Long Success is Not Preparing Students for Long Bubble Tests

Unfortunately, in the 21st century education reform has equated to measuring a school’s ability to produce good test takers. But think about it. In real life there are few if any tests to be taken. More than a decade into the 21st century and I have yet to take a test and I don’t envision any being in my future either. How did we get to a point in America where we’re measuring schools by their success in forcing students to waste their time being good at something few will ever need to do in real life?  Could it be that this meaningless time waster is doing exactly what it was designed to do?  

1. Line the pockets of testing companies and publishers who are good at following the money, but know this does little to prepare students for success.
2. Produce compliant young consumers who are good at believing, memorizing, and regurgitating what they are told without questioning authority.

For some it is hard to imagine anything different or better.  There are tools however, like Personal Success Plans or Project Foundry that help schools provide a personalized, learner-centered approach that tracks performance-based assessment and values real world skills.  There are also tools like OurLearningfolio that help home learners and their families do this.  What these tools do is help learners identify their passions and interests and help them engage in real-world, authentic activities to develop them while also providing a framework for measuring success. Completion of an activity doesn’t simply result in a letter grade. Instead it becomes part of an authentic online portfolio that can be used to attain academic or career goals.  

iCould Should Be Essential Component of Your Personal Success Plan

icould should become an essential component to every student's personal success plan.  The site gives visitors the inside story of how careers work. The icould storytellers relate, in their own words, their real life career journeys. There are over a thousand easy to search,varied and unique career videos as well as hundreds of written articles. From telecoms engineers to police officers, from landscape gardeners to web designers, from engine drivers to zookeepers; they talk about what they do, what it’s like, how they came to be where they are and their hopes for the future. They also share the times they’ve messed up, had difficulties and set-backs as well as their opportunities and experience of achievement and success. The video stories – as well as articles – talk about real issues, such as problems at home, taking a year out, failing exams and coping with redundancy. In addition to being able to look at people via careers, visitors can also look by searching life themes like Making a difference, Apprenticeship, Passion, School stories -negative.

An essential component of personal success plans is finding heroes and helpers.  Heroes and Helpers are people that students believe inspire them, either the heroes who may be famous and/or helpers in their own lives that they may know personally.  This site provides a treasure-trove of real potential heroes and helpers that they may very well be able to relate to and who may expose them to ideas and possibilities they never knew existed.

State Regulations Get In the Way of Teen's Learning

I recently was at an inner city school in Harlem where students were empowered to work independently making podcasts about topics of deep personal interest.  Stations were set up around the room and students knew what to do and could move through the stations at their own pace.  The children were very proud of their work and the work of their classmates.  I spoke to a student and asked her what she thought about learning this way. She said that she loved working at her own pace because she was no longer slowed down by the teacher and/or class.

Brycen R. R. Couture, a teen who has opted not to go to school and instead achieve success in the world, expressed a similar sentiment in a recent post on his blog where he complains about state requirements that are holding him back sharing this.  

When I have to stop living in order to please the State, I don’t feel good about it. It doesn’t feel right. Why should I have to stop living because you tell me I have to prepare for a future that I am living now? I’ve released my first CD at 17 years old, now. I perform my music now. I’ve written a book which is in the editing stage now. I’ve been interviewed for a movie now. I do children’s rights work now. I’ve booked myself on the radio, now. I’m part of NH Media Makers now. I started a club and ran my own business from ages 12-15. I’ve been speaking to the public full of professionals since I was 12. I can’t count how many times I’ve been in the newspaper for my community activism, now. I like to bike, socialize with friends, make chain mail, calculate dice probabilities, invent games, build forts, cook, play Dungeons and Dragons and I have a close relationship with my Mom, all now. I am writing this to New Hampshire now; I’m not waiting around for the future!

One-size-fits-all assessments work well for easily checking off compliance boxes, but they don't work well for people.  Whether learning from school or learning from life, personal success plans, not standardized compliance tools are what best serve our children.  

Read Brycen R. R. Couture's Blog at http://brycenrrcouture.blogspot.com

Teen Takes Control of Her Own Learning and Opts Out of High School

Editor's note:  Here is the story of a teen who left school to take control of her learning.  If you're a teen or know a teen interested in opting out, check out The Teen's Guide to Opting Out of School for Success.


Co-authored by 16-year-old Leah Miller and Lisa Nielsen


In a world where it seems most every teen is in school, making the decision to opt out can be very difficult. After all, this is an age when most adolescents are trying to do what they can to fit in. Additionally, most people perceive students who leave school as “drop outs” and society has labeled them as lazy, unmotivated, not bright, etc. Students who have taken charge of their learning know this is not true, but the reality is that they will be spending a lot of time convincing others of this. 16-year-old Leah Miller is one such former student who has chosen to opt out of high school so she could acquire an education that was best was personalized to her learning goals.  To follow is her story complete with the presentation she put together to convince her parents she was making the right decision.

"As a school principal I have one job and that is to expose kids to a whole lot of different things and help them to get their light bulb to go on.”

--Barbara Slatin, Schoolwide Enrichment Model Principal (read more here)

Leah Miller - School was dimming my bright light
I am an unusual case. I hope one day, what I did will be commonplace, but with my circumstances, for now, I remain unusual. I have always been a “good student”. I got straight-A’s, I did my homework without being bribed, I actually enjoyed going to class most days.


I left school because my inner light was being slowly, but surely, being dimmed. I started dreading school and losing all my motivation for the mundane daily homework I was assigned. It was hell to put myself through the day-to-day activities that I didn’t care a whit about.

6 Ideas to Prepare Students for Success & Assess Teachers without Standardized Testing

Just type the word “test” into the search box on Facebook and you’ll find thousands of parents distraught over the standardized tests their children are being forced to take despite the fact that these parents know it is not in the best interests for their children who in many cases are becoming physically ill and emotionally traumatized by the experience of sitting for up to two weeks straight filling out bubble sheets and answering prompts.  Schools are reluctant and even misleading when it comes to informing parents they can simply opt out often arguing that although they acknowledge that it might not be in the best interest of the child, without standardized tests, everything will fall apart.  


For many there is no alternative imaginable as in this comment from a student studying to be a teacher.

I can't STAND standardized tests. Every professor (and grad student) at my teaching college hates them. And yet, I have not heard a single responsible alternative to them. How do we assess if students are learning the curriculum without them? If teachers are teaching? If entire schools are failing? Yes, they are undeniably hideous, and "teaching to the test" is an awful, unavoidable consequence of them, but if we take them away...then what?

Isn’t it odd
Isn’t it odd that in PK - 12 school life we think we can’t measure success without one-size-fits all government imposed tests, yet, once we leave school and enter college or the real world, this magically is no longer true?  For those unable to imagine a world where we can assess without standardized tests, I bequeath upon you these ideas. 

Creating a Personal Success Plan - A Sensible Alternative to Standardized Tests

Though people are very different, each with their own passions, talents, interests, and abilities, in traditional school settings, most students are all given the same path and grouped with others by date of manufacture. At the age where youth are entering college or the workforce, many have never been given the opportunity to find what they love. This is because for many students, school fosters dependency learning and a false sense that if you just keep doing as you’re told, it will eventually pay off...even though there may never be time to figure out where it is you actually want to go. This holds true not only for students dissatisfied with school, but also for students with high achievement like Amy, Carlie, Jessica, Maria  and this insightful Valedictorian who felt high school robbed her of this opportunity. Upon graduation, she took her diploma and hit the road literally and went on an adventure to make up for lost time and explore who she really is and what she loves. You can follow her adventures on her blog America Via Erica. You’ll notice that once she left school behind, Erica had the opportunity to set her own personal goals which she can change and update as she learns and as she pleases. 

Currently her goals are:

• attend survival course
• buy survival gear
• buy a van
• learn Korean
• avoid arrest

“School is torture because I am required to spend all my time doing menial tasks, worksheets, and rote memorization.

This takes too much time away from being able to discover my hobbies, interests, or passions. I’m in 10th grade and I don’t foresee having the ability to do that before I graduate high school."

-Adam Ritter, Valedictorian track honors student

Making goals for personal success is something that is often overlooked in school. Your goals are usually defined by the school and look something like this.

Have schools forgotten they were supposed to prepare kids for success in the world?

I’m helping passion-driven high school student Armond McFadden put together a resume, cover letter, and ePortfolio website so he can secure an internship, apprenticeship, and/or part-time job this summer in his area of expertise which is photography, videography, and transportation.  You can see some of his photos here and his video series on YouTube at this link.  While I am happy to assist this talented teen, I’m concerned that this is completely absent from the curriculum of most high schools and many colleges. Instead politicians like this one and places like the board of regents believe the key to getting students ready for the world is more school, longer days, more tests, harder tests, increased graduation requirements.  

Why is it that artificial, meaningless-to-real-world tests and grades are the way we think we prepare students???  How about preparing students by providing real-world opportunities to explore careers through internships, apprenticeships, and/or part-time jobs?  Why not assess students on their experience and what they learned rather than test them in their ability to memorize and regurgitate facts which in many cases don’t matter and aren’t remembered?

School is torture because I am required to spend all my time doing menial tasks, worksheets, and rote memorization. This takes too much time away from being able to discover my hobbies, interests, or passions. I’m in 10th grade and I don’t foresee having the ability to do that before I graduate high school.

Honors society student . #1 in his class.

On the path to becoming valedictorian