Something happened recently that not only surprised me, but gave me hope about the potential impact the next generation of assessments will have on our schools. The principal of a school slated for closure reviewed one of Teaching Matters’ project-based civics programs and said to me, “I need this, it will help our kids pass these new tests!” Normally, I’d take his comment as an insult — Our civics program reduced to a test prep tool?! But this particular principal has been involved in a pilot program where teachers are designing performance tasks to assess student learning, in preparation for the adoption of the new Common Core Standards.  His school is one of approximately 100 pilot schools that are among the first to address the cultural shift, as schools grapple with what it means to measure student performance beyond the multiple choice test.

In September 2010, the U.S. Department of Education awarded $330 million in grants to help states develop better ways to measure student learning. According to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, “[…] this new generation of state assessments will be an absolute game-changer in public education.” In theory, the “new generation” of assessments will be a combination of traditional tests and performance-based tasks designed to evaluate whether or not students have developed the higher-order analytic and critical-thinking skills they will need to succeed in the world beyond twelfth grade. Yet the reality of implementing these assessments nationwide remains to be seen. What we do know is that new assessments will necessarily require new ways of teaching. As a result, test prep or “teaching to the test” will take on an entirely new meaning when the test itself changes.

In a 21st century economy, we must ensure students cannot only recall information, but actually develop new ideas, create multi-tiered solutions and think informatively. Frankly, I do not know if we have the technology to truly and deeply assess students’ skills at the level we need to, but I’m encouraged by the movement toward more authentic teaching, learning and assessment. And if a principal thinks our civics program – in which students research an issue, gather evidence, write persuasively and collaboratively present their positions before an audience of students and experts – could make for good test prep, we just might have a test that we can teach to, without selling our kids’ intellect out in the process.