Beyond test scores, what we really value in students

I've been musing on this topic for a while, for most of the year actually, and, I confess, selfishly primarily from the perspective of how does technology fit into that equation, how can we leverage technology to promote this type of learning.  And with all the discussion happening around TeachPoint, it has kept this topic on the front burner.

I've attended two conferences this year, the MassCUE Fall conference in October and the Technology in Education (TiE) in January.  In both cases, the keynote addresses focused on how and in what ways our management and measurement of education doesn't always align nicely to what our stated goals are.

And I follow several education blogs that, among other topics, focus on this issue and I've shared some of the articles on this blog.  So I was thinking, maybe there's some good outcomes to be found in TeachPoint (and I am consciously and specifically sidestepping any issues related to contracts and agreements).  Perhaps this is an opportunity to document and demonstrate all those activities, plans, projects, field trips, etc. we do that promote and foster these skills we talk about, say we care about.

One of the blogs I follow, occasionally, is Jackie Gerstein's User Generated Education.  She's an education thinker who is widely published, a keynote speaker at a lot of education conferences in the US and Canada.  Most of her posts are pretty interesting and thought provoking; not to mention the number of comments that readers contribute.  A lot of her focus is teaching and promoting the, so called, 21st Century Skills and how to realistically and effectively do that.  The graphic above, taken from her blog, sort of capsulizes the overall content.  

Another blog worth reading is the KQED's Mind/Shift.  Here's a post referring to Jackie's blog.  What's really interesting and useful about it are the numerous comments.