Performance Assessment for Competency Education

Further, one must address all three to increase student learning.  So our emphasis is to increase accountability so we might deliver in these three areas.  One way to do this is to build a system that enhances student engagement with direct teacher support and pedagogy while simultaneously increasing academic challenge.  Of course, much of Dr. Elmore’s work in this area has been through direct professional development with teachers regarding instructional practice through “instructional rounds.”² Another way we believe this can be done is by putting standards in the hands of students and involving students and teachers deeply in complex projects and performance.  These are foundational principles of competency education, where standards are written in bite sized chunks that students can understand, and they are engaged via wise and skilled educators as they connect with learning paths passionately in on-going efforts to demonstrate their mastery of those competencies. Educators who have seen the power of this model first hand also become passionate in this work.  We have seen this all around the country.  Here in NH, educational leaders from the four districts assembled last Monday, are now building out an accountability model to support this work.

Tuesday through Friday, August 12-15, teachers K-12 from three of the four districts, Sanborn, Epping, and Rochester, held an Assessment Summit with core teams of educators from the districts, focused on work completed in the last year in building and validating performance assessments tied to student competencies, as well as planning for the coming year’s pilot.  Much of the work at this point is focused on stretching NH’s graduation level state competencies in English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Work-Study Practices into developmental progressions tied to teaching and learning, K-12, consistent with accepted national standards.  This work is being aligned with a performance assessments at all levels, creating a taxonomy of competencies and assessments in and across content areas.  Calibration and moderation work is also a major part of the planning and professional development activities.

For further information regarding NH’s plan to build this pilot and scale this system, the “New Hampshire Department of Education College and Career-Ready Accountability Options” document can be found on the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education website. With time allowable, I hope to update you periodically on the work in progress!