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  • >>Narrator: They are dueling with robots in Florida,

  • and study microorganisms in New York, designing future schools in Seattle,

  • and racing electric cars in Hawaii.

  • All across the country students are being called upon

  • to show what they know in challenging tests of their abilities.

  • >>Man: Here we go!

  • The national championship on the line.

  • >>Narrator: These are the fun tests.

  • >>Teacher: Today we're going to take SAT I, the reasoning test.

  • >>Narrator: But today's students face other kinds of exams and their score

  • on one of them can determine their future.

  • With pressures mounting and stakes on the rise,

  • some educators believe we are asking the wrong questions

  • with standardized tests.

  • >>Linda: There's an irony in testing in American schools.

  • We probably have kids who are the most tested and under examined

  • of any kids in the world.

  • Take New York State for example.

  • Even before they get to the Regents examinations,

  • students will have taken 20 batteries of tests

  • over the course of their school careers.

  • So there are thousands and thousands of hours spent on taking these tests

  • and preparing for these tests which give very little indication

  • of what kids can actually do in real-world situations.

  • >>Howard: People may be good test takers but once you leave the world

  • of testing you have to think for yourself

  • because the world doesn't come organized in four choices

  • with the fourth one being "None of the above".

  • >>Hugh: As I was mulling all these issues about the SAT I was struck

  • by the fact that there are all sorts of other attributes like drive

  • and grit and determination, ability to problem-solve,

  • communication skills, leadership skills.

  • These intangibles that were critically important.

  • >>Student: So we could get 120 points just for getting our robots

  • in the end zone without scoring any balls...

  • >>Hugh: And that by virtue of excessive reliance on SAT scores,

  • you're ruling out large numbers of youngsters of all races

  • and all complexions who may not have stratospheric SAT scores,

  • but who have these other kinds of attributes

  • that experience shows contribute to high-level success in the real world.

  • >>Eeva: Is this what the science wing would look like?

  • >>Narrator: Teachers like Eeva Reeder believe that measuring performance

  • on projects is a better way to gauge a student's potential

  • for real world success.

  • >>Student: Open inviting area...

  • >>Narrator: So instead of memorizing geometrical abstractions,

  • her students spend the last six weeks

  • of their sophomore year designing schools for the year 2050.

  • >>Student: Why not have the whole side like wall open,

  • be glass facing the water.

  • >>Eeva: To assess a student's deep understanding of a subject

  • and their ability to apply a concept you cannot test those kinds

  • of abilities through a traditional paper and pencil kind of assessment.

  • It has to be what we call a performance-based assessment

  • and that's why I do these projects

  • because the project requires these students

  • to create products or performances.

  • >>Student: In the beginning we decided to start

  • with the floor plans and the designs.

  • Our school has one main building.

  • >>Eeva: I have to come up with ways to assess those products

  • and performances so I look at the site plan and look

  • at the perspective drawing.

  • I read the proposal.

  • And I have a scoring guide developed for each one of those.

  • But I think that the most powerful assessment for this project is

  • that provided by the architects.

  • >>Man: When I first saw your drawings I thought

  • to myself this is a real consistent idea.

  • >>Narrator: While performance-based assessment requires a significant

  • investment of time and energy,

  • proponents insist it is time well spent.

  • >>Linda: The students have to develop the performances.

  • The teachers have to evaluate them.

  • But the time is not lost to teaching and learning.

  • The time is teaching and learning.

  • Because the actual conduct of the assessment is a learning experience

  • for the students as well as the teacher.

  • It informs teaching.

  • It actually gives teachers feedback immediately about what they need

  • to do to meet students' needs so it's actually productive time.

  • >>Narrator: The Urban Academy in New York City is part of a consortium

  • of 32 schools that has rejected tests like the state's Regents exam

  • and replaced it with a series of performance assessments.

  • >>This thesis isn't clear.

  • It seems as though he jumps from-

  • >>Ann: We're very interested in students developing certain skills.

  • We re interested in them developing an ability to work

  • with multiple perspectives to be able

  • to analyze evidence, to be able to critique.

  • >>We want them to be able to take text and talk about it,

  • be able to understand to compare different texts

  • and to read whole books, not just little snippets of books.

  • And we've set them up with an external assessor.

  • Someone who has agreed to spend an hour with that student who has agreed

  • to read the book, and who then sites sown with that student and discusses

  • that book for 45 minutes or an hour.

  • >>Student: She's going to him to see whether

  • or not he saw what she had done.

  • >>Right.

  • >>Ann: What we're really trying to see is can that student take

  • that reading and go and talk to somebody they don't know,

  • a perfect stranger, about the book and have a conversation about it.

  • That's one way that we can tell whether a student is ready to go on

  • and do college-level work.

  • >>Student: Is that about a 26.

  • How come it's so low?

  • >>Narrator: Critics of performance-based assessment worry

  • that if students are free to pursue projects

  • of their choice standards will suffer.

  • But some assessment experts say

  • that independent study projects should meet the highest standards.

  • >>Grant: What we have to do is realize that even

  • if we give the kid free reign to do really cool projects it's still got

  • to fit within the context of some objectives and some standards

  • and some criteria that we bring to it.

  • >>Student: For those of you

  • who aren't sure what [inaudible] pools are, they're-

  • >>Grant: So that we can say by the end I have evidence,

  • I can make the case that you learn something substantial and significant

  • that relates to school objectives.

  • >>Teacher: As far as listening and speaking and writing,

  • you're making steady progress.

  • >>Narrator: One school the Key Learning Community in Indianapolis

  • in Indiana has a clear and unique objective.

  • Established in 1987 the school is dedicated to the cultivation

  • of multiple intelligences and to developing new methods of assessment.

  • >>Teacher: Ours represent that these are his strength areas

  • and also anytime that you see a the shape

  • of a triangle those also represent the strengths.

  • >>Pat: We're interesting in how students apply knowledge

  • and so students are required through their high school

  • to do major projects each semester.

  • At the end of high school they should have eight major projects

  • that they would have developed and all of this is put together

  • on a multimedia portfolio to document what it is they're capable of doing.

  • >>Student: I've been working with the Egyptians because they had

  • so many symbols and hieroglyphics and things like that.

  • >>Pat: I think that what we're doing here is going to be needed very soon

  • because people are going to realize how shortsighted all of this effort

  • on standardized tests is.

  • It's going to crash.

  • It has crashed in the past.

  • It will crash and people will need something else to replace it

  • and maybe we might help in that effort.

  • >>Narrator: For schools that are challenging the high-stakes testing

  • movement, the goal is to put less emphasis on cramming, drills,

  • and test taking strategies and focus on in-depth learning.

  • >>Ann: I'm all for high standards.

  • I don't know of anybody who is for low standards.

  • The question is do we get

  • at what we're saying we want using the tests to drive this?

  • That's the real crux of it and I would argue that we don't.

  • >>Grant: A lot of teachers and administrators

  • in their understandable concern

  • about these high-stakes tests are making a mistake when they say "Teach

  • to the test, teach to the test.

  • That's what we have to do."

  • There's no evidence to show that you raise test scores by teaching worse.

  • There's no evidence to show that when you teach

  • for an in-depth robust performance

  • where you have high-quality local assessment

  • that your test scores suffer.

  • In fact the evidence is to the contrary.

  • High quality local assessment is what we need to pay attention to.

  • >>Narrator: For more information on what works

  • in public education go to edutopia.org.

>>Narrator: They are dueling with robots in Florida,

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