District Administration - October 2012 - (Page 49)

A third-grade class in Robious Elementary School in the Chesterfield County (Va.) Public Schools planted seeds and sprouts in the school community garden as a lesson in the plant unit. is not as crystal clear in terms of assessment. People are wondering, ‘What’s coming? And in the interim, what evidence should we focus on?’ There’s this tension.” Answers with One Model Answers are emerging from both practice and research. On the practice side, BIE emphasizes effective assessment strategies during its popular three-day professional development workshop, PBL 101, which it offers to teachers and instructional leaders in participating districts across the country. During the workshop, teachers develop rubrics to assess students’ final projects according to multiple measures. Students are assessed on mastery of significant academic content plus development of specific 21st-century skills, such as collaboration or critical thinking. The BIE model also emphasizes using formative assessment strategies throughout a project to check on student understanding and to make just-in-time adjustments in instruction. (Samples of summative and formative tools are available at www.bie.org/ tools/freebies.) their instructional model to PBL. “We’re trying to stand with a foot in both worlds,” Baker says. “Everyone’s talking about what the new assessments will be like, but no one has shown them to us yet. When assessment changes, it’s a whole new game.” “We know that students can do more than what’s assessed by current state tests,” adds Allison Rowland, a former principal in California who is now an assessment specialist for New Tech Network. She welcomes the new generation of assessments, calling them “a means to drive students toward deeper learning and stronger preparation for college.” As administrators, she says, “we pay attention to what we measure. If we can shift the measurement so that students are better prepared and more engaged learners, then let’s do it.” Overcoming Anxiety Not all administrators are so eager for the changes ahead. “Leaders at the district and state levels are feeling some anxiety about moving to an assessment system that’s more open-ended,” acknowledges Rosanna Mucetti. A former principal, Mucetti is the director of district and state initiatives for BIE, which has been promoting best practices in PBL for 25 years. Under No Child Left Behind, districts across the country have kept a laserlike focus on standardized test results. “Administrators have spent a decade getting up in front of their organizations, emphasizing data and meeting targets,” Mucetti says. “We’ve all been conditioned to pay close attention to that. The future horizon www.DistrictAdministration.com On the research side, evidence of the value of PBL for rigorous coursework is emerging from an ongoing multiyear study called Knowledge in Action, designed by University of Washington researchers and implemented by Advanced Placement teachers in three states. Funded by an alliance that includes the George Lucas Educational Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the study shows that AP pass rates increased by as much as 30 percent during the 20112012 school year when students engaged in a project-based curriculum rather than more traditional instruction. Researchers emphasize that projects need to be the “spine” of the curriculum rather than addons. (Read more at education.washington. edu/research/rtm_11/knowledge-in-action.html.) Rethinking Assessments To paint a clearer picture of assessment in PBL, 20 teachers (still being selected as of early August) from New Tech schools in several states are starting a yearlong research project on performance assessment. Robious Middle School students in the Chesterfield County schools work with volunteers from the nearby James River Park system to learn about geocaching. During this activity, students incorporate multiple skills, like map reading and learning concepts of interconnectedness to the watershed. October 2012 49 http://www.bie.org/tools/freebies http://www.bie.org/tools/freebies http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - October 2012

District Administration - October 2012
Contents
From the Editor
News Update
Facilities
The Democrats and Republicans’ National Education Platforms
District Profile
Administrator Profile
The Challenge of Assessing Project-Based Learning
Why Teaching Civic Engagement Is Essential
Superintendents’ Frustration Grows, but Intangible Rewards Remain High
Not Your Grandparents’ Vocational School
CIO News
Keeping Pace with Technology Innovation
Managing BYOD Effectively
New Products
Noteworthy Books
Professional Opinion
Professional Opinion
Problem Solution
Going Mobile

District Administration - October 2012