Volume 10, Number 2 The Coalition of Essential Schools November 1993

ORACE

Eveyone agrees we

need high standarrig

for school improve-ment. But who

should set them,

and how? How will

we tell ifschoolsare meeting them?What part canEssential schools

play in this crucialpubfic debate?

HY KA']'111.HEN CUS! IMAN

Howthe National Standards DebateAffects the Essential School

GOINGTOSCHOOLANDTAKING

tests has lots in common with an

airline pilot' s job, Harvard educationprofess,or Dick Elmore has observed:long periods of excruciatingboredom punctuated by intervalsof stark terror." Essential school

teachers have been working for yearsto dispei the "excruciating boredom"by engaging students actively inmeaningful work, and to replacethe "stark terror" of perjodic orirrelevant testing with authenticexhibitions of mastery.

Bu t as G,alition member schools

try tc) make assessment integral toevery classroom action, policyefforts to create and enforce higherstandards in education are going onin their state capitals, in the U.S.Congress and Cabinet, and in themeeting rooms of professional andscholarly organizations. How willthis often confusing array of activityaffect the daily routines of schooling?What can Essential schools do to

understand and influence the

policies that may shape their future?Beginning in the Bush Adminis-

tration and now continuing underPresident Clinton, state and federal

policymakers alarmed by U.S.students' poor standing againsttheir global competitors have pushedfor new accountability measures.The 1989 "education summit" in

Charlottesville, Virginia gathered50 governors who agreed on broadgi}als fcir schix,1 improvement by theyear 2000, and a number of stateslaunched ambitious restructuring

efforts in its wake. Now an Adminis-

tration peopled by former gover-nors-from Bill Clinton to Education

Secretary Richard W. Riley andRiley's deputy, Madeline Kunin-isfollowing hard upon state heels witha plan to define national standardsand goals, measure progress towardthem, and reward those states that

align their policies with them.Known as the "Goals 2000:

Educate America Act" the current

bill creates a structure in whjch the

federal government authorizes majordiscipl inary groups to articulatecontent standards in their fields fora National Education Standards and

Improvement Council. It urges statesand districts voluntarily to developtheir own student performancestandards and assessments-and

later, standards governing "opportu-nity to learn"-which that Councilwould approve and certify. And itsupplies an unspecified amount ofmoney to support state and localschool reform efforts.

Goals 2000 will most likely notwithhold other federal educationalfunds (which fuel much of state

education departments' budgets)if states choose not to go along. Butits national education goals gainmuscle indirectly as the Elementaryand Secondary Education Act(E.RE.A.) comes simultaneouslybefore Congress for reauthorization,linking distribution of Chapter 1funds to whether states have alignedtheir standards for all students with

the goals.

Clarifying a School's Aims and StandardsAn Interactive Exercise

California's Center for School Restructuring is workingon an "accountability, leaming, and support" system tohelp the state's demonstration schools that have receivedspecial funding for restructuring. The long-range goals ofthe demonstration schools and districts are to "providepowerful learning outcomes for all students" and to invent"an authentic system of accountability." To help schoolsgive an honest accounting of their restructuring work,the Center has devised a "School Change Portfolio" thatwould contain documents, artifacts, student and adultwork, videotapes, and other materials that representchanges in student learning,

The first step in the process, California educationofficials say, is for schools to "translate their vision ofsuccessful students into measurable, holistic outcomeswhich capture what matters most-what knowledge, skills,capacities, habits, and attitudes ought to reside in everystudent as a result of their expedence in public schools."These "holistic learning outcomes" then become a tool forguiding the restructuring efforts. As they follow the formalprotocol for together examining their own student works,schools say, it becomes a powerful way to discover whethertheir restructuring innovations are having an impact onstudent learning.

What follows is a 50-minute exercise that takes placeearly in that process, in which school people begin thediscussion of their school's aims and standards for studentperformance. It is included in the materials schools receiveunder the title "Assessment: TheTrojan Horse ofRestructuring."

Introduction (5 minutes):

Assessment specialist Grant Wiggins refers to assessmentas the Trojan Horse of restructuring. Wiggins believes thatassessment should be the opening gambit and driving forceshaping school and district restructuring efforts. Assess-ment must be reconceived as not only measuring, butevoking quality student work. This is a major shift in thetraditional role of assessment in education.

Rethinking assessment along these lines means develop·ing clarity about aims. Clarity does not come from missionstatements, but rather from elaboration of (1) the essentialareasof skill, knowledge, and capacity we want from allour students; and (2) the level of performance we want atthese capacities. Restructuring is simply building the schoolaround the Trojan Horse--that is, around essential tasksdone tuen.

The following interactive exercise is a start atbuilding the Trojan Horse--namely, building clarityabout the aims of education and the standards for studentperformance.

HORACE 10

1. Individuals (5 minutes):

List three things you would like all kids to know or be ableto do before leaving high school. What are the three mostcrucisil skills or areas of knowledge? Write these threedown.

1 Small Groups (10 minutes):

Share your three items with members of your group.Discuss, argue, and come to consensus as a group about threediscrete skills, capacities, or areas of knowledge you all feelare crucial for all students before they leave high schooL

3. Large Group (10-15 minutes):

a. Elicit from the group a list (to be projected overhead orwritten on the board). Add only new items.

b. Which of these are covered by current standardizedtests, grades, or traditional methods of assessment?(Mark with a check.)

c. Which are not covered by traditional assessmentmethods? (Mark with an arrow.)

4. Small Groups (10 minutes):

a. Select from the main listoneitem thathasan arrowby it.b. How would you convince students and adults in your

community who are interested-teachers, parents,board members, business leaders, and so on-thatstudents do in fact know and are able to do the crucialitem you picked. What would students need to do toprove they have reached that capacity?

5. Table Groups (10 minutes):

Join with rwoother groups (three groups in all) and sharethe assessments you designed.

Closing (2 minutes):

The crucial aims of schooling-and the pedomance standardswe require-must drive the design of school structures.Restructuring means designing curricula, pedagogy, andformative assessments that prepare students to meet clearand challenging exit4evel requirements. Further, restructur-ing requires focusing decisions about deployment ofresources-staff, time, student grouping patterns, budgetpriorities, decision-making patterns, and so forth-oncreating the conditions that elicit quality student work.

November 1993

accountability as a positive thing,not a big stick from the outside."

Instead of putt:ing federal andstate money into developing newtests, Sizer contends, governmentshould help school people byexposing them to many examples ofrigorous student work that couldinfluence their own thinking-whatassessment expert Grant Wiggins hascalled "standards without standard-

ization." One proposed Coalitionproject aims to develop a nationalelectronic communications network

that would link teachers with

colleagues from other schools,professional organizations, employ-ers, higher education professionals,and outside stakeholders to share

and critique (using a specific "tuningprotocol") what they are asking Already in the midst ofstudents to do. The Exhibitions

Collection database already under substantive dialogueway at CES would be a part of this; about their expecin#ionsso would innovations like a multime- and experimentntinndia "digital portfolio," which keeps

with new methods oftrack of student progress towardgraduation requirements through not assessment, Essentialonly written work but audiovisual schools occupy a keypresentations on line. (A future issueof HORACE will explore further the position to a#ect theuses of technology for assessment decisions being madeand other Essential School purposes.) at higher levels.

Reorienting the conversationabout rigorous standards so that itsprimary locus is the school andcommunity, Sizer suggests, gives it achance to influence the real problems

HORACE'S MAILBOX

To the Editor:

As someone working with the Coalition and with the National Networkfor Education Renewal (NNER), 1 was pleased to see your attention to thecritical issue of teacher education ISeptember 19931. I applaud your choice ofthe University of Southern Maine and the University of Louisville efforts asexemplars.

While you made important points concerning the professional preparationof prospective teachers, you missed what may be the most important pointof all. Teachers for Essential schools must have an initial education that ismore than an apprenticeship to their craft. Perhaps the most critical elementis the general education they receive-including their study of the academicdisciplines they will be teaching, which develops them as educated persons.From this they need to develop the broad scope of knowledge that willtetthem function as generalists (as envisioned by the eighth Common Principle)rather than as the specialists found most commonly in secondary schools.They need to understand the nature of our democratic society, whether theyare teaching elementary or secondary students. The nine Common Principleswill not guide their work if they do not understand, for example, why theschool's goals should apply to all students.

You quote Lynne Miller as saying that "Goodlad emphasizes teachereducation as the lever for school renewal," while Southern Maine sees "schoolrenewal as the lever for teacher education." More accurately, Goodlad and theNNER want to engage Arts and Sciences faculty, College of Education people,and school-based faculty simultaneously in the renewal of schools and theeducation of educators. All three parties are needed and the action has to goon in both school and university settings.

Unfortunately, some of the programs that emphasize the field-basedportion of a teacher's education seem unable or unwilling to demand highstandards for the candidate's general education. They seem to believe that ifthe person entering their program has a degree with an academic major, nomatter how old the degree or how weak the program, they can do nothing buthope that any academic weakness will be overcome by the initiative of thecandidate once hired. In order to strengthen teacher education, one has to alsoexamine ways that Arts and Sciences faculty can be engaged in improvingtheir portion of the total effort.

Richard W. Clark

Bellevue, Washington

HORACE 11

schools struggle with-too littledepth in the curriculum, not enoughtime for meaningful learning, scarceresources to help teachers developtheir craft. 'The discussion can't take

place in a vacuum," he says. "It willbe influenced by state requirements,by subject-area people, and perhapsmore than anything by the expecta-tions of colleges." But the federalgovernment, he believes, should playthe role of persuader, not dictator.The current movement runs the risk,

one recent commentator noted, ofbecoming a conversation amonggovernments-another dictumfrom on high, complete with newcurricula, new tests, new red tape,and a whole new set of hazards.

Unquestionably, Essential schoolsoccupy a key position right now toaffect the decisions being made athigher levels. Already in the midstof substantive dialogue about theirexpectations and experimentationwith new methods of assessment

when successful they can stand aspowerful examples of a differentparadigm of schooling. "If there areplaces where local assessments canwork, your chances are more thandoubled to put them into placesystem-wide," observes Judy Bray,a systems coordinator at the Educa-tion Commission for the States. '1

believe that our dedicated network of

school folk can change the system iftheywilltakeapublicstand, insupportof or dissent to the standards under

development in their own state." 0

November 1993

What Employers Say Students Should Know and Be Able to DoThe US. Department of 1-abor's Secretary's Commissionon Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) report, issued in1991 on the heels of the Bush Administration's nationalgoals statement, placed student learning objectives withinthe context of a real environment-the competencies andcapacities that "today's high-performance employer seeksin tomorrow'semployee."

Teaching and learning the following competencies, thereport argued, must become the tasks of US. schools andstudents. Students should become skilled at managing orusing:

1. Resources. Workers schedule time, budget funds,arrange space, or assign staff.

1 Interpersonal skills. Competent employees are skilledteam members and teachers of new workers; they servedients directly and persuade co-workers either individuallyor in groups; they negotiate with others to solve problemsor reach decisions; they work comfortably with colleaguesfrom diverse backgrounds; and they responsibly challengeexisting procedures and policies.

3. Information. Workers are expected to identify,assimilate, and integrate information from diverse sources;they prepare, maintain, and interpret quantitative andqualitative records; they convert information from oneform to another and are comfortable conveying informationorally and in writing as the need arises.

4. Systems. Effective workers understand their own workin the context of the work of those around them; they

f£/ 1-Z I

HORACE Coalition of Essential Schools

Box 1969, Brown UniversityProvidence, RI 02912

understand how parts of systems are connected, antidpateconsequences, and mnitor and correct their own perfor-mance; they canidentify trends and anomalies in systemperformance, integrate muldple displays of data, and linksymbols (eg., displays on a computer screen) with realphenomena (e. e., machine performance).

5. Technology. Technology today is everywnere,demanding high levels of competence in selecting andusing appropliate technology, visualizing operauons,using technology to monitor tasks, and maintaining andtroubleshooting complex equipment.

In addition, SCANS identifed a three-part foundationof intellectual skills and personal qualifies they consideredpart of each of the above five competencies:

1. Basic skills. Reading, writing, mathematics (arithmeticalcomputation and mathemalicil reasoning),listening, andspeng.

1 Thinking skills. Creative thinking, makmg decisions,solving problems, seeing things in the mind's eye, knowinghow to learn, and reasoning.

3. Personal qualities. Individual responsibility as well asself-esteem, sociability, self-management, and integrity.

For a copy of the SCANS report contact the U.S. Depart-ment of Labor, 220 Constitution Ave. NW, Room C-2318,Washington, DC 20210, or call 1-800-788-SKILL.

Now schools that have been

struggling to keep up with theirstates' new curriculum frameworks

and accountability requirementsmay for the first time find thosepolicies reinforced by the federalgovernment. At the same time, thepolitical scramble to define "whatstudents should know and be able

to do" gets ever more complex andcontradictory.

Over a dozen national subject-area associations huddle separatelyover content standards that outdo

each other in sweeping goals; but nomechanism exists to integrate thesegoals so a teacher can realisticallyattempt to meet them in the crowdedschool day. State legislatures andeducation departments debate"performance outcomes" that definethe thinking skills students mustmaster acrc,ss the disciplines, butfew assessments of such sk11[s exist,so schools and students are still rated

and selected by the multiple-choicemeasures of the past.

Essential schools havea head start on the

accountability iggue,because they emphasizepublic exhibitions ofstudent work b€forethe local community.

And many school people expressfury at the hypocrisy of a systemthat holds them accountable forimproving student performancewithout holding political authoritiesaccountable for providing adequatesupport for schools.

Ispik khe bberent contrade-tions in the current political dis-course, however, Essential Schoolleaders recognize the importance ofworking with policymakers to reachtheir shared objective of morerigorous standards for all Americanstudents. 'Just as we ask schools

HORACE

to stay with the hard work of doinghonest and meaningful studentassessment," says CES ChairmanTheodore Sizer, "we must work forthe best possible resolution at thenational policy level. We may notagree on all the means by whichthese standards are achieved, butwe are committed to staying in theconversation."

Coalition member schools have a

crucial role to play in this discussion,Sizer points out. To start with, theyare already engaged in askingthemselves what they want of theirstudents and how they will knowwhen they have it. As they pioneernew strategies of curriculum andpedagogy that challenge all studentsto master essential thinking skills,and as they exhibit the results in newforms of assessment, all eyes will beon them.

"We have a head start on the

accountability issue in many ways,"Sizer observes, "because of ourlong-standing emphasis on publicexhibitions of student work before

the local community." And becausethe Essential School principles stressassessment as a key step in learning,not an ad hoc event that occurs after

teaching and learning are done, theybring an important perspective to thenational discussion about testing.

Instead of worrying aboutwhether their actions will fit what-ever new policy shoe is poised tofall, Coalition leaders say, Essentialschools should lobby hard for theirstates to give them latitude, support,and a significant voice in the settingof state standards. If they succeed,the state can help them take a giantstep forward, out of isolation andinto a network of shared resources,shared philosophy, and substantiverewards from college admissions tofunding partnerships.

"The time has never been more

ripe for Essential schools," declaresSherg King, superintendent of theCroton-Harmon school district in

New York's Hudson River Valley."A lot of legislation out there issupporting what we believe in."New York's educational Board of

2

Regents, indeed, has approved a"New Compact for Learning"that embraces the Essenbl School

philosophy in virtually all itsaspeds,

But as other education depart-ments write their own prescriptionsfor state-by-state reform, Coalitionmember schools might look hard atthe assumptions that underlie thosestandard-setting procedures. The bigissue now is not whether but howstate and national standards andassessments will drive the schools

of the future. The critical questionsaffecting evegone from the first-yearteacher through the highest levelof policymakers revolve aroundwho defines and develops thosestandards, by what means studentprogress toward them is assessed,and how the resulting informationis to be used.

Who Will Set Standards?

Tensions are already evident be-tween teacher-generated and "topdown" efforts to define standards

and between subject-area emphases

3=5i 0-

i HORACEI HORACE is published

five times yearly at BrownUniversity by the Coalitionof Essential Schools, Box1969, Brown University,Providence, RI 02912.

Beginning with Volume 10,individual subscriptionsare $20 a year (payable toBrown University); back

1 copies are $1.50 each. , Publication of HORACEis supported in part byagrant from the Geraldine R.Dodge Foundation.Editor:

Kathleen Cushman

Managing Editor:Susan Fisher

Novennber 1993

As education depart-ments write state-blkstate prescriptionsfor rfform, schoolsshould look hard atwhat underlies those

standard-settingprocedures.

and cross-disciplinary ones. in aflagship effort at standard-settingthat won high praise for its participa-tory prcxcess, the National Council ofTeachers of Mathematics (NCI'M)

recast its K-12 curriculum, puttinginquiry and problem-solving at thecenter of how students learn math.

Schoolteachers worked closely withuniversity professors and mathemati-cjans on developing the curricularstandards and providing practicalguidelines for teachers on how to putthem into place. Actual classroomchange has been creaky and labori-ous, mostly because the NCTMstandards represent a dramatic shiftfrom how almost every US. student(though not those in other countries)has learned math in this century.'rhe new standards literally require afundamental re>education of teachers

and parents--an early warning,many critics believe, to those whothink new standards can changeschools without substantial invest-ment of time and resources.

In eight other subject areas-science, history, geography, civics,English, foreign languages, the arts,and physical education-profes-sional and scholarly organizationsare currently at work on standardsof their own. Many of these effortsare funded at varying levels by theU.S. Department of Education, andthey will probably define the federalgovernment's approved "contentarea standards." Some of them

include teachers in their prcross;others keep their distance froin themessy realities of the classroom.

HORACE

New York's New Compact for LearningReflects Essential School Principles

New York was once heavily committed to largealp testing on two tiers(standardka Regents Competency Tests and more challenging subject-areatests that led to a Regents Diploma). But the state's New Compact for 12arn-ing,adopted by its Board of Regents in 1991, has galvanized state policy-makers into a new push that will ultimately give responsibility for individualstudent assessments to localities.

The state's major role would be to assess programs, using samplingtechniques and state-of-the-art performance assessments to test whetherstudents have achieved thestate's learning outcomes in keyareasand at keypoints in their development. The state would work closely with schools tosupport local development of assessment programs that fit each school's goatsand curriculum, and to provide access to a bank of assessment tasks andinstruments. And it would evaluate and approve school-level assessment sothat it aligns with state goals for teaching and learning, and so the dataobtained is cumulative, coherent, and comparable.

Certain uses of tests (such as mass-administered standardized placementtests for young children and tests to separate or track "talented" students)would be proscribed. Instead, the state wants local assessments to identifystudents' talents and shape instruction to make the most of them across thecurriculum.

If the new system takes effect, all students will work toward a unitaryRegents Diploma, which provides for three levels of distinction. Graduationwould follow completion of a "Regents Portfolio" that exhibits competencyacross the curriculum as defined in the state's learning outcomes. If a schoolso chose, it could include state-developed performance assessments to satisfycertain requirements. The Regents Competency Tests (RCT) would bereplaced by such new assessments, which would allow for different levels,but not different kinds, of performance.

Finally, the state aims to report student performance according tocriterion-referenced information, not norm-referenced percentile rankings.Rather than averaging their data, it aims to aggregate longitudinal data abouteach student over time, so the state can analyze actual growth in performancerather than average data from a shifting student population. And it wouldrevise its current Comprehensive Assessment Report (CAR) to emphasize theschool's program, practices, funding, and other resources that affect itsstudents' opportunity to learn.

Also at the federal level, a

very different set of standards hasbeen put forward by the LaborDepartmenfs Secretary's Commis-sion on Achieving Necessary Skills(SCANS) report. This document,which takes a cross-disciplinaryperspective, defines the workplaceskills high school graduates need tosLicceed in the new economy, and itreflects on means to assess those

skills. Though not technically part ofthe Goals 2000 initiative, it has

already played a substantial role inthe national discourse on standard-

setting. (See sidebar, page 12.)The same tensions inherent in

3

these few examples show up as statedepartments of education struggle tocome up with their own new defini-tions of student success and waysto measure it. Some states include

teachers early on; others start withhigh-level task forces and lobby forgeneral acceptance later on. Somestates start by defining subject-area"curriculum frameworks"; others

cross tlie disciplines to describe"learning outcomes" in terms ofthinking skills. All the while, thestates and the federal education

department are eyeing each otherwarily, wondering if the plans ofone may pose a threat to the other.

November 1993

How to Assess Students?

The answers may hang, in the end,on what means those intent on

school accountability use to assessstudent progress. Again, an array ofpossibilities presents itself, from thetop to thebottom of the educationalbureaucracy.

The original Bush plan to includea national test in the legislation(which was then dubbed "America

2000") met with somuch protest thatit was dropped; but many policy-makers still hope that test-makerswill invent a way to "calibrate" statetests so that student scores will be

comparable across the country. Anumber of states are putting theirmc,ney into developing or buyingnew tests that emphasize open-endedquesticins, problem-solving strate-gies, essays, and other "perfor-mance" tasks. This, reformers hope,will encourage teachers to spendmore class time on practicing thehigher-order skills that old-style testsignore-in-depth reading anddiscussion, research and invention,

solving complex problems, initiatingprojects, and creating original work.

California, for instance, recentlystarted giving all students in grades4,8, and 10 in several subjects itsCalifornia Learning AssessmentSystem (CLAS) tests, a combinationof open-ended, in-depth questionsand "enhanced multiple-choice"questions that require more complexthinking. The tests, which are

CORRECTION

HORACE 10:1 (September 1993)gave incorrect contact informationfor two of the programs listed onpage 8. The correct information is:

University of Southern Maine:207·780-5499

University of Hartford(Connecticut)

School of Education, Nursing andHealth Professions: 203-7684649

We apologize for any inconvenience.

HORACE

teacher-scored, rate students on

a criterion-referenced proficiencyscale rather than using the old-stylenorm-referenced system.

In addition, California is encour-

aging teachers to use portfolios asan ongoing classroom-basedperformance assessment. One pilotprogram has teachers in gradesK-12 learning to document studentprogress across the curriculum bymeans of the California LearningRecord, an adaptation of the observa-tion-based British Primaiy LanguageRecord that has won high praise forits us;efulness with multilingualpopulations and its involvementof parents and students.

New York's New Compact forLearning calls for a combination ofclassroom-based and state-assisted

assessment that uniquely reflectsEssential School thinking. (Seesidebar, page 3.) The state wouldwork closely with schools to supportlocal development of assessmentprograms that fit each school's goalsand curriculum and to provide accessto a bank of assessment tasks andinstruments. Graduation would

follow completion of a "RegentsPortfolio" that exhibits competencyacross the curriculum as defined in

the state'slist of desired "learningoutcomes." AIong with CentralPark East Secondary School, UrbanAcademy, and University HeightsHigh School in New York, six new"Coalition Campus" high schoolsbegun in New York City this yearalready specify "graduation byexhibition" of specific cross-disciplin-ary tasks. (See sidebar, page 5.)

The Kentucky InstructionalResults Information System (KIRIS)concentrates on assessing sixinstructional goals: basic skills, coreconcepts, self-sufficiency, groupmembership, problem solving, andintegration of knowledge. Each yearall students in grades 4,8, and 12must take conventional multiple-choice tests; but they are alsoassessed using classroom-basedperformance tasks and portfoliosof their best work. In addition,teachers of students in other grades

4

Afeiu states are

combining portfolioassessment withstandardized tests

to get a broader anddeeper picture ofstudent achievement.

are urged to incorporate continuousperformance assessments intodaily activities.

Connecticut's Common Core of

Learning outlines what the state'shigh school graduates should knowand be able to do, and since 1989

its education department has beenworking on math and scienceperformance assessments that reflectthese goals. They rely largely ontasks embedded in the curriculum,

which last from a few days to a weekor more; students design and carryout investigations including gather-ing data, solving problems, andpresenting their work orally and inwriting. Teachers are coached in howto prepare and score students, andthe state also annually evaluates arandom sample of eleventh gradersagainst the goals of the CommonCore of Learning.

Vermonfs ambitious new assess-

ment system requires all teachers ingrades 4 and 8 to keep portfolios ofstudents' best work in mathematics

and writing. Teacher-run regionalnetworks train them in selectingappropriate tasks and scoring themaccording to a finely tuned rubric;visiting committees validate eachschool's scores by rescoring randomportfolios. The state supplementsthis information with a conventional

test with which to compare districts'progress.

Meanwhile, whether or not their

state is involved in redrafting itsstandards and expectations, manyreform-minded districts and schools

have taken the lead in experimentingwith classroom-based alternative

assessments like portfolios, projects,

Novernber 1993

-

Another Way of Measuring Up:One SchooFs Graduation Requirements

Asstudents prepare for graduation at Central Park EastSecondary School (CPESS), a high school of 450 students inan East Harlem neighborhood in New York City, they workintensively to prepare a portfolio of their work that will revealtheir competence and performance in fourteen curricularareas. This portfolio willbeevaluated by a graduationcommittee composed of teachers from different subjects andgrade levels, an outside examiner, and a student peer. Recommittee members examineallof theentries and hear thestudents' oral defense of their work to determine when each

student is ready tograduate.Of the fourteen portfolio items, seven are presented

orally before the graduation committee, four from the coresubjects (asterisked below), The other seven entries areevaluated independently, and the student may be asked aboutthem during the graduation committee hearing. While thefinal review is based on the individual student's accomplish-ments, certain portfolio requiremenls can be met with groupwork.

1. Post-graduate plan. Each student outlines his or her purpose forearning a diploma. This section includes long· and short-rangecareer and life goals, financial concerns, living arrangements, andindicators of progress such as examinations, interviews, and lettersof reference.

2. Autoblography. This reflective project mayexamine familyhbtory, special events or relationships, values or beliefs in any ofa variety of form,

3. School/community service and internship. Opportunitiesfor working and serving others are part of student experiencesstarting in seventh grade. Students develop a formal resume oftheir work experiences along with a project demonstrating whatthey have learned from one or more of them; this may includeessays, videos, work samples, reference lettens, and the like.

4. Ethics and social issues. Students demonstrate their capacityto see multiple perspectives, weigh and use evidence. and reasonabout social and moral issues by staging a debate, writing aneditorial, discussing important issues raised by a novel or film,or another project

5. Fine arts and aesthetics. Creative expression and creativeappreciation are both evaluated, Students must create a hands-onexhibition of performance in any of the arts and also showunderstanding or knowledge of an aesthetic area by studying orcritiquing a work, an artist, or a field of artistic expression.

6. Mass media. Through a project or activity that includes arelevant bibliography, students must demonstrate understandingof how different forms of media work and how they affect peopleand their thinkilig.

7, Practical skills. Students must show evidence of workingknowledge in a number of areas (health and medical care,employment, citizenship, independent living, computers andtechnology, legal rights) in a variety of ways (securing a driver'slice,ise, registering to vcite, operating a computer).

& Geography. A teacher-made test and a student-designedperformance are used to evaluate geographical knowledge andthe ability to use geographical tools such as maps and globes.

HORACE 5

9. Second language and/or duallang.g, Students mustdemonstrate competence in a language other than English asaspeaker, listener, reader, and writer. (This can be done via theNew York state language profidency exam or a College Boardexam.) In addition, allstudents must describe their personalexperence with dual language issues and be prepared to discussa key sodal or cultural issue assodated with language use.

10.kience and technology.' Students must demonstrateknowledge in traditional ways--a summary of the work they havecompleted in high school and passage of a teacher-made or statecompetency test-as well as in performances that demonstrate useof scientific methodology (e.g., conducting and documenting anexperiment) and awareness of how science is used in the modemworld (e.g., by staging a debate or conducting research on ascientific development analyzing social costs and benefits).

11. Mathematics.' Students must demonstrate basic skills

knowledge by passing a state competency test and a teacher-madetest. In addition, they mustdemonstrate higher-order thinkingabilities by developing a project using mathematics for political,civic, or consumer purposes Ce.g., social science statistics orpolling; architectural blueprints) and either scientific or "pure"mathematics (e.g., using mathematics in a scientific applicationand/orstudying a theoretical problem.)

12, Literature,' Students prepare a list of texts they have read in awide range o f genres to serve as the basis for discussion with thegraduation committee. They also submit samples of their ownessays about literary works or figures, demonstrating theircapacity to refiect on and communicate effectively about literaryproducts and ideas.

13. History.' In addition to passing a state competency test orfaculty-designed test in history, students must prepare anoverview of the areas of history they have studied in secondaryschool and a timeline of major significant events and persons.They must also demonstrate understanding of historical work byconducting historical research using primary and secondarysources and developing a bibliography. Their work must drawconnections between and among past and present events, weighand use evidence, speculate on other possibilities, and evaluatehow history is used or abused in current debates.

14. Physical challenge. Students demonstrate and/or documenttheir participation and profidency in any team or individual sportcir activity over the past four years. The goal is to encourage thedevelopmentoflifelonghealthhabitsandattitudesofindependence,interdependence, personal responsibility, and sportsmanship.

A more extensive final senior project is also required in an areaof particular interest to the student, which may be one of theportfolio items explored in greater depth.

Portfolio items are evaluated for quality and demonstratedmastery using a grid that reflects five major criteria: a viewpointthat encompasses ¥Adeknodedgeand deep understandmg;an ability to draw connections among information and ideas;appropdate use of evidence; an engaging voice and awareness ofaudience; and use of proper conventions. When students havecompleted the portfolio, they have learned to inquire, critique,analyze, present, and defend their ideas. They have also learnedto manage long-range tasks that require invention, planning,perseverance, initiative. reflection, and revision. In short, they areready for the world outside of school,

November 1993

In many Essentialschool classrooms,teachers have begunembedding ongoingassessment tasks in

the curriculum itse[Lrather than treatingthem as separate -fromthe rest of teachingand learning.

and exhibitions,

in Pittsburgh, the ARTS PROPELportfolio program, which is linkedwith the Performance AssessmentCollaboratives for Education (PACE)

gri,up at Fiarvard University,assesses student progress in writingand the arts by means of "process-folios," as Harvard's Dennie PalmerWolf has dubbed them. These

include riot only a studenfs bestwork but the dra fts that led up tothem, adding to the folder the criticalelement of student self-reflection.

Another pioneer of district-levelperformance assessment is SanDiego, where the CES-affiliatedO'Farrell Community School is aleader.

And in many individual Essentialsclic)01 classrooms, teachers have

similarly begun embedding ongoingassessment tasks in the curriculum

itself, rather than treating them asseparate from the rest of teaching andlearning. Projects, exhibitions, anddemonstrations all offer windows

into student progress that can informcurricular decisions on an individual

and a program level.

Which Tests Do What

Amid all this experimentation, statesare continually looking for bettermethods of holding their schoolsaccountable to the larger commu-liity-ranking and comparing onie tothe other within the state and evenacross the nation. And even states

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in the midst of reform, it seems, liketo get their data for such comparisonsfrom standardized tests (either

conventional or "performance-based") that they give either to everystudent or to a statistical sampleselected at random. At the heart of

any decision to use one kind ofassessment instrument over anotherjs how the results are scored.

Conventional standardized tests

are commonly scored usjng a norm-referenced system, jn which scorescompare how one student did on thetest compared to some other groupof test-takers answering the samequestions. The point is to provide ageneral gauge-usually in the areaof basic skills-of individualachievement and school success.

Conventional testing continues tobe widespread in many places. Suchtests as the Metropolitan Achieve-ment Test, the Iowa Test of BasicSkills, and the Stanford Achievement'rest are required for Chapter 1funding. School districts in manystates use them for other sorting andselecting purposes as well, and alsoas their principal accountabilitydevice; local newspapers often reportschools' average scores, for example.

An important disadvantage ofnorm-referenced tests is that the

data are often ambiguous or evenmeaningless when one tries tointerpret them. For example, usingaverage test scores to decide whethera school is showing improvementin its program has a fundamentalflaw, as Columbia's Linda Darling-Hammond and others point out. Aschool's average overall performancecan "improve" simply by jugglingwho takes the test-by labelingmore students for special educationto count them out, for instance.And it can "decline" if a school has asudden influx of children who need

help the most-non-English speak-ers, for example-no matter howgood a job it may be doing.

A still more serious disadvantageis that teaching to such tests inorder to boost scores can actuallyhurt students' real intellectual

actiievement, since the test format

6

emphasizes isolated low-level skills.Advocates of performance-based

testing call instead for criterion-referenced scoring, which measureshow individual students do on

specific tasks. Instead of reporting,for example, that the average eighthgrader scored 60 percent on astandard test of written English, acriterion-referenced test might revealthat 60 percent of eighth gradersdid not use evidence well in writingan explanatory essay.

One proponent of this approachis the New Standards Project, aheavily funded research effortinvolving eighteen states and headedby Lauren Resnick at the Universityof Pittsburgh and Marc Tucker at theNational Center on Education and

the Economy. Working with thenational disciplinary organizations,the project aims to fashion a nationalexamination system that allows forsignificant flexibility and discretionat the state and local level.

What Is at Stake

Once student performance can bequantified, the results can be usedin many ways, not all of themconsistent with the original goalsof performance-based assessment.Some states reward teachers andschools when their students meet

performance standards and imposesanctions when they don't. In manystates, test scores still serve as a

means to track students into abilitygroups they will stay in for years.In Kentucky, teachers can lose theirjobs and schools can lose fundingwhen they don't come up to snuff.

Some states rewardteachens and schoolswhen their students

meet performancestandards and imposesanctions when theydon't.

November 1993

7

Sizer on National Standards:

'A wise division of labor and separate spheres of influence'In Horace's School: Redesigning the American High School(Boston: Houghion Mifftin, 1992) Ted Siuy uses the efforts of thefictitious HOTOCe Smith and the faculty of Franklin High Schoolas a frantework for considering rATious aspects of school refonnThe following is an excerpt from the book.

Di#erences acrossschools may be

not only the priceof.#eedom but anexcelient vehicle to

maintain opennesswithin American

education.

[Onel obligation of the state is to solicit, assert, and assessthe standards for students and for schools. This obligationarises at the simplest level from state constitutions-therequirement for "thorough and efficient" schools-butmoreisrequired,especiallyina world farmorecomplexthanitwaswhenthe"thor-ough and efficient" doctrine was firstexpressed. In the last decade, most stategovemmentshavegreatlyexpandedtheirtestingprograms-thepreferred methodof"settingstandards"-becausetheyarerelatively inexpensive and can be keptneatly away from the hurly-burly of ac-tual school operation. Mostof theexami-nati)ns prrigrams swirl in politics. Feware properly funded, and they garnerpaltry academic results and rouse pro-found disrespect from the individualsinvolved, of all ages.

Not surprisingly, many politicalleadersare looking for some means otherthan standardized testing as a qualitative yardstick and asan jnstrument to encourage students and schools to meetthat standard. They seek tests that are valid in the sensethat they "measure" qualities we desire rather than itemsthat are but tokens of those qualities. These leaders are alsoconcerned that what is measured should be the real powerof a child, that child's enduring habits, not just what he hasprepped for pasising a test.

Questions abound. How can a school simplify anddeepen its curriculum if the tests continue to reflect thedescription of the course of study as English-mathematics-science-social studies-language-physical education, eachpresented in isolation from every other? How is the schoolto press students to show us that they can resourcefullyuse knowledge, and to display the habit of that use, if thereare on the horizon few tests of habit and, in many quarters,even now still little interest in pursuing them?

Most important, who is the state to tell families thesubstance and standard of everything provided by aschool? When so many thoughtful people disagree aboutthe shape and substance of key ideas in several of the areasof the high school curriculum, what group can properlyclaim that it speaks for us all, setting a national standard.-.?1 f schools are to be measured by that national standard,what does this Bay about the state's respect for communitystai,dards? Do not families have some rights of control of apublic service? To put it most bluntly, are there not properlimits to state power over the minds of adolescents?

Franklin High School's plan suggests a wise divisionof labor and a separation of spheres of influence. The

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four-part system of accountability safeguards the properinterests of the larger oommunity--the state--and thoseof the parent ard student. There will be some limitedstandardized testing in certain areas. Portfolios maintainedby and for each student will be accessible to teachers, thestudenfs parents, and representatives of the state, whowill conduct "audits" of the students' progress and, thus,of the school's effectiveness. Horace's committee desiresassistance from the state's staff-friends who know the

school well enough to describe, criticize, and defend iton its own merits. In this respect, itimplicitly suggests an American versionof Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schoolsin the United Kingdom, at least in theirrole as outsiders supportive, critical, andabove all informed about a particularschool. Franklin will make substantial

annual reports to the community andwill discuss them in public session.Added to this local accounting is theinfluence of accreditation by regionalauthorities; their decennial reviews,if thoughtfully conducted, inform acommunity about its school's merit andchallenge individual schools to sharpenand defend what they believe and howthey act upon those beliefs.

Also implicit in the report, however, is the convictionthat matters such as the literature assignments, the shape ofhistory and science curricula, and the very culture of theschool are all of such importance, delicacy, and sensitivityto reasonable debate that they must be left to local discre-tion. Families must feel welcome to address their concernsdirectly to the people who have the powerto make or change decisions affecting their children.

Of course, local discretion will always be and alwayshas been affected, however obliquely, by a host of influ-ences pressing toward "national standards"-by regionalaccrediting associations, by competitive scholarship pro-grams, by specific requirements for admission to individualcolleges, by employers who insist on evidence of seriouspreparation, by the ebb and flow of scholarship, by choicesmade in the textbook-publishing industry, by prevalentnotions, whether sensible or nonsensical. Serious people atthe local level are no more or less smart about these mattersthan people at the state or national level; they are influ-enced by no fewer or greater political pressures than foundat higher levels of government. Differences across schoolsmay be not only the price of freedom but an excellentvehicle to maintain openness within American education.

The changes will be messy. Democracy is messy. Thosewho want an orderly solution toy with democracy, thatform of government beset with flaws but better than anyof the alternatives. Those who assert that "the people" cannever be trusted with setting standards sing an arrogant,dangerous tune.

November 1993

1

This "high-stakes" reasoning istantamount, Darling-Hammondcharges, to ranking hospitals by theirmortality rates. "They would get ridof their AIDS units, they would getrid of their cardiac care units, andeveryone would go into pediatricsin order to get their statistics up,"she says.

One antidote to possible abuses ofthis kind, critics suggest, would be toinclude other factors with any reportsof Fichox,1 wid e scores. Rhode Island,for example, has begun reporting aschool profile that includes extensive

information about the school budget,the teaching staffs experience, thecommunity's socio-economic status,and other influential educational

inputs. (This practice can be danger-ous, however, observes CES's BobMcCarthy, because it appears tocondone and perpetuate lowerexpectations for disadvantagedschools.)

Vermonfs portfolios in writingand mathematics, as well asConnecticufs performance tasks,are meant chiefly to provide instantfeedback to their teacher-scorers

on what areas require additionalclassroom emphasis. How wellanindividual student does on these'low-stakes" assessments will notdetermine the future success orfailure of the student or the school,but only what direction his or herclassroom work will take.

Back in the classroom, however,many wonder whether any stan-dards and assessments generatedhigher up the line can really helplocal teachers design effectiveinstruction. "Any state's frameworkis impotent to affect practice unless it

Do-It-Yourself Accountability:How One School Took Stock of Its Standards

"Half our life is spent on internal accountability-talkingabout whether this or that piece of student work is goodenough," says Paul Schwarz, co-principal of Central ParkEast Secondary School (CPESS) in New York City. "Butbecause we gave up using standardized tests and theaccumulation of Carnegie units in favor of exhibitions andportfolios asa way to graduate kids from school, we had toworry about external accountability, too." The school hassolved that problem in the most direct way possible-byopening its doors to well-informed outsiders, who lookat student work and judge whether it meets their owngraduation standards.

"Schools and teachers are not used to doing this,"Schwarz says. "lfs very frightening, to hand over a piece ofwork and say, 'Would you have passed this in your school?How would you grade it?"'

CPESS started by asking nine professors from localcolleges and universities to visit the school and review thewriting quality of five portfolio items in the presence ofthe staff. "Their ratings and ours were very much in sync."Schawrz says. "We've done jt now in history and math aswell, and we've found the same thing." More important,the discussion among visitors and staff afterward alwaysturned to curriculum-why certain papers were assigned,how to narrow topics usefully, the role of students inchoosing work they cared about.

Next the school decided to look at the entire body of astudenf s work. "Just because a kid was strong in math orwriting didn't necessarily mean they were strong in otherareas," Schwarz says. "Together the staff and perhaps acouple of outsiders put all fourteen graduatioii portfolioson the table and asked what it told us. Were we proud tohave graduated this kid? Did we have enough evidence?"The process was incomplete, Schwarz says, because itlacked a key element of CPESS's "graduation by exhibi-tion"-=seeing the actual student present and defend theportfolio work before a graduation committee.

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Finally, in May 1993 the staff invited some fifteenoutside "critical friends" for a day of graduation portfolioreview. Schwarz lists them off: "Three teachers fromtraditional public schools in New York City, three stateeducation department people, some principals of compre-hensive high schools, some principals and teachers fromour sister schools, a couple of foundation people, and a fewoutside experts like Columbia's Linda Darling-Hammond,Harvard's Dennie Wolf, and Brown's Joe McDonald."

In a complicated round robin, the visitors inspectedthree or four complete graduation portfolios ("one whobarely passed, one in the middle, one very strong"),interviewed students of comparable achievement (twoseniors and one recent graduate) about their skills, andwatched videotapes of students defending their work.They talked to teachers about academic requirements andto co-principals Schwarz and Deborah Meier about thestructure of the school, and finally they offered their owncritique and recommendations.

"The group agreed that our graduation process gener-ated plenty of evidence on which to grant diplomas in NewYork State," Schwarz says. 'ghey raised some importantissues about quality: for instance, should we require onepaper to be perfect in form? Different people had differentperspectives-the principal of a comprehensive high schoolin Brooklyn would react one way, and someone whosedaughter goes a private school another way."

The whole event served. this principal says, to satisfythe school's obligation to share its curriculum and assess-ment with others and get critical feedback. "We want toopen the process of standard setting to the outside world-to let people look at what kids are really doing," he says."As one of the pioneers in performance assessment, we'veembarked on a serious accountability process."

(The school has produced a 30-minute film on theCPESS graduation exhibition process; it will be available forviewing at the annual CES Fall Forum in November 1993.)

November 1993

4

is designed as a continuous learningopportunity for teachers, not justfor kids," says Joe McDonald, whodirects the Coalition's Exhibitions

Project. 'The main purpose of allassessment systems has to be togenerate local energy and inventionin the interests of all kids' achieve-

ment."

On this side of the philosophicalfence are Theodore Sizer and other

Coalition leaders, who questjonboth the cost and the effectiveness of

standardized testing, which removesthe classroom teacher from the work

of perfc,rmance assessments."Do we need to create a teacher-

pr(x,f assessment system?" asksCroton-Harmon superintendentSherry King. "For one thing, thesethings are horrendously expensiveto develop. And whenever teachersget packets of performance-basedassessments fry,m ,somewhere else,

they're in danger of teaching in aformulaic way, just like they did tothe old-style tests. You might aswell give them workbooks!"

Ted Sizer frames his objectionalong different lines. Every commu-nity, he argues, has its own deep-rooted values that show up in itsschool curriculum, reflecting whatlocal people want their graduates toknow and be able to do. The tradi-

tion of local authority over schoolingrests on the principle, he says, thattliose most affected-parents,

community members, and the likv-can influence what their children

are taught and tested on. Except inthree areas he calls relatively free ofthe "value clash"--clear writing,resourceful reading, and everydaymathematical reasoning-he believesthe state should steer clear of the

testing and curriculum business.instead, states could insist that

schools maintain good files on everystudent and could regularly auditthose filess against state standards,providing richerand fairerdata atfar less expense than inass testingentails. And they could oblige everyschool lo present its own assessmelitsto public scrutiny every year,publishing an annual report and

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What to Look for In Your State's Reform Plan

State education department efforts to draft n£w standards and assessmentplans van, widely, influencedbyavariety ofpressuregroups. To help sortthrough the important differences among plans, the following questions mayprove useful.

1/ Will the state test every student for comparison and selection purposes?07 will it sample landom studentsusing matrix sampling methods for thepurpose of assessing school and district programs?

4 Will the state use assessment results to reward and punish schools andteachers financially? Or will ituse data to identify where schools needextrahelp?

1/ Has the education department authored statewide curriculum frameworksdescribing what studentsshouldknow and beable todo? Hasitcalled onteachers to develop and share those standards? Through what avenues ofinfluence are teachers explicitly invited to share in the discussion?

4 Will the state rely on one or two tests with which to measure studentperformance? Or willit provide banks of alternative assessment practicesand instruments for schools to use?

4 Do state guidelines echo subject-area-based curTicutum standardsdeveloped by professional disciplinary organizations? Or do they crossdisciplinary lines to describe broader thinking skills and performanceoutcomes that can be demonstrated in a variety of areas?

1/ Does the state dictate the curriculum and assessment materials to which

teachers must shape their classroom practice? Or does its plan indudetime, money, and resources to help teachers renew their practice andgenerate their own new instruction and assessment methods?

1 ls the rating system intended to sort and select students againsta highstandard of performance, with some failing in the inevitable bell curve?Or are all students expected to meet the goal, with the system takingresponsibility for shaping strategies to get them there?

holding a public meeting to defend it.(See sidebar, page 7.)

A few states are trying to incorpo-rate such attitudes into their efforts

to define standards and test student

performance. New York's NewCompact for Learning, for instance,favors teacher ownership of theassessinent process -what officialsterm "top-down support for bottom-up reform." Policies lean towardthe most individual of evaluation

pnicesses-getting the schoolcommunity to review its ownstandards by opening itself to thescrutiny of its key stakeholders.Central Park East Secondary School,for instance, last year invited acommittee of local college and

9

university professors, businesspeople, and others to review itsgraduation portfolios and answerwhether the school's standards

lived up to their expectations. (Seesidebar, page 8.)

California's school restructuringmovement has devised a protocolthat asks each school's teachers to

scrutinize its student work and

discuss together whether it meetstheir own standards. "We ask the

school to use what they learn inassessing their own students' work todrive change in their own curriculumand pedagogy," says Maggie Szabo,a former Coalition regional coordina-tor who now heads the state's school

restructuring effort. "It recasts

November 1993