Here We Go Again: High Schools Falling Short. But...

_{Mayfield High School junior Laura Cruz, 18, looks up at the sign she is holding on Monday, March, 2, 2015, during a student-organized walkout to protest the PARCC exams in Las Cruces, N.M. Students frustrated over the new standardized test planned school walkouts across New Mexico to protest the requirement. (AP Photo/Las Cruces Sun-News, Robin Zielinski)}

RCEd Commentary

It’s not just flat-lined, high school ACT and SAT standardized test scores and the continued high proportion of students – particularly those in subgroups – performing below college ready levels. It’s the persistent large percentage of first-year college students who must take remediation courses. And it’s the fact that even a significant share of college graduates aren’t career ready and that the skills employers seek – extending beyond content knowledge – are often where they’re weakest. The bottom line: too many high school graduates are neither college nor career ready.

This isn’t surprising. As I’ll explain below, a key reason is that we haven’t yet witnessed widespread, fundamental changes in how students and teachers spend their time, without which outcomes won’t improve. Performance-based instruction and assessment require such changes, helping prepare students for the challenges of life after high school. There’s never been a better time to implement them.

With all the talk about readiness and despite the development of the Common Core State Standards and the Common Career Technical Core, universally adopted definitions of college and career readiness don’t exist. Yet, well before the current readiness craze such highly recognized educators as David T. Conley and Robert J. Sternberg proposed frameworks for college/life success that encompass skills extending beyond those typically focused upon in high school and traditional high-stakes tests. More recent definitions, such as by CCSSO and individual states, are similarly broad.

These definitions share a common trait: several components are performance-oriented and can’t be measured even by the new consortia assessments. Unfortunately, the definitions aren’t yet having a widespread impact. For example, a recent survey of California teachers found that only 30% worked in districts with clearly defined and well-publicized readiness definitions. The absence of such definitions makes it impossible not only to provide all students with the educational experiences needed to succeed after high school but also to measure their progress toward this goal.

In light of the above, to succeed in realizing readiness goals educators’ targets must go beyond current standards and accountability tests. Single, on-demand, end-of-year tests by their nature only sample content domains. And tests that have been shortened by cutting back on performance-based components, as we’ve seen with individual state exams and consortia tests, can’t possibly measure all elements of readiness, let alone provide a complete picture of students’ content knowledge and skills. Neither can they prompt the changes required throughout the year to help students be fully ready. This is why I’m concerned about efforts to have higher education solely use consortia test results to determine college readiness and the need for remediation.

So, what can high schools do? They can follow the example of a growing number of schools across the country that place performance-based instruction and assessment at their core. They know that requiring students to perform – and providing appropriate support – helps them build the range of capacities needed to succeed after high school. In short, the approach requires students and teachers to spend their time differently. And it works – engaging students, fostering their growth and maturation, and providing benefits that last well beyond graduation.

Performance assessment asks students to demonstrate knowledge and skills through some form of product or presentation, applying them in authentic (meaningful, real-world) tasks that can vary in length from on-demand test items to extended projects. Doing this well involves covering the range of readiness elements (content knowledge, skills, dispositions, etc.) over time and includes embedding extended individual and group tasks in curricula and offering students some choice. Performance-based instruction prepares students for this work, ideally incorporating the full suite of formative assessment practices, which help students take ownership of their learning. Performance assessment results provide direct, insightful evidence of what students know and can do, providing information that parents want and teachers can use to foster student growth. Even extended curriculum-embedded tasks can serve accountability purposes, adding a meaningful dimension to measuring what matters, supporting continuous improvement, and prompting transformative educational changes during the year.

Is this challenging? Definitely. Implementing just the more limited scope of the Common Core State Standards has been difficult and is still extremely uneven. But there has never been more help available for schools interested in providing students with performance-rich educations. Multiple foundations support efforts in this area and a growing body of resources exists – both online and in person.

States such as Ohio and New Hampshire are getting on board. And numerous school networks across the country have successfully used performance assessment/project-based learning for years. The New York Performance Standards Consortium, with 28 high schools across the state and founded in 1997, is probably the grand-daddy of performance-based schools. Having a student mix that is comparable and perhaps more challenging than New York City as a whole, Consortium schools help their students achieve, far surpassing the city’s overall outcomes. The Center for Collaborative Education, which works with states, districts, and schools across the country, created Quality Performance Assessment in 2008, a set of processes and tools that enable educators to effectively embed high quality performance assessment throughout their curricula. Students’ enthusiasm for the approach is inspiring. Other networks include Big Picture Learning,  Envision Education, High Tech High, and New Tech Network. They’re getting results: improving outcomes and successfully preparing their students for life after high school. And most networks are helping other schools make the transition.

The bottom line is high schools need no longer fall short in helping all their students be ready for college/careers and engaged citizenship. Our students deserve nothing less, and our nation needs nothing less.