This document discusses challenges in assessing 21st century skills like collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving. It acknowledges that there is no consensus on which skills should be taught or measured. It proposes beginning with skills that are agreed upon, incorporating them into teaching basic subjects, and using project-based and formative assessments. Summative assessments can still have a place, like PISA which measures reading, math, and science literacy in an international context.

1. Shelley Wright was able to turn her
classroom into one where her
students decided what and how they
were going to learn. They also
collaborated to raise over $20,000 for
Schools for Schools. An awesome
feat for a small town school class of
25 kids and a great way to learn skills
imperative for them to be successful
for the rest of their lives.
The question becomes:
“How do you set standards and measure success
of 21st century skills in our schools?”

2. Click here Click here
Problem #1
There is no consensus on which 21st century skills should
be taught and measured.
National Council on
Measurement in Education
• Critical Thinking
• Creativity
• Collaboration
• Metacognition
• Motivation
Education Sector
• Creative Thinking
• Evaluate
• Analyze Information
Johnson & Wales University
• Communication
• Organizational
• Computer
• Interpersonal
• Critical Thinking
• Leadership
• Time Management
For example
We can’t wait for everyone to agree!
Click here

3. Problem #2
Today’s standardized assessments which are
typically multiple-choice questions meant to
measure lower-level skills in reading and
math and are primarily useful for meeting the
proficiency goals of the No Child Left Behind
Act (Silva,2008), do not assess the 21st
century skills our kids need to be successful
in today’s workplace. Our world has become
“flat,” a term coined by Thomas Friedman in
2005. “Flat” to describe our world where
more people interact across international
boundaries. We can chat with someone in
London while playing a game or get a
response from a colleague in China almost
instantaneously. Because of this, there is
more competition than ever for jobs. If we’re
going to teach these “soft skills” our kids
need to be successful we have to be able to
measure our level of success, for the sake of
the child, the community, teachers, and
governments.

4. COST
Time to Develop
Time to Score
Subjective Evaluations
Quantifying Skills
Problems #3-7
(Silva, 2008)

5. Where do we begin?
With something we know…

6. Bloom’s Taxonomy
In 1956 Benjamin Bloom his taxonomy for learning, teaching and
assessing. In 2001 a new version was developed based on
studies that skills can be developed at the same time. So a
learner can understand something as she works to apply it in
context (Silva, 20O8). The U.S. Department of Education also
released a report that supports the concept that learning is
most effective when students learn basic concepts at the same
time thy learn to think and solve problems.
Click on the diagram to
access an interactive
version.

7. Bloom’s Taxonomy
Click on the diagram to
access an interactive
version.
21st century skills require the higher
levels of thinking
Evaluating
• Developing a hypothesis
• Experimenting
• Judging & Evaluating
• Critiquing, Reviewing and
Creating
Testing
• Planning
• Designing
• Producing and Making
• Refining
• Mixing and Re-Mixing
Educational origami, 21St Century Assessment

8. Next, we should work to assess skills
we already agree on…
National Council on
Measurement in Education
• Critical Thinking
• Creativity
• Collaboration
• Metacognition
• Motivation
Education Sector
• Creative Thinking
• Evaluate
• Analyze Information
Johnson & Wales University
• Communication
• Organizational
• Computer
• Interpersonal
• Critical Thinking
• Leadership
• Time Management

9. Incorporate them into teaching basic
skills
Classrooms should more closely reflect the real
world. In a work environment problems arise
everyday and we have to figure them out. Why
not create an environment in the classroom that
teaches students to do the same? Develop
assessments that require a demonstration of the
learning objectives, but allow students to figure
out how to “prove” they met the objective
(Marcinek, 2010). Encourage feedback and
discussion around the topic and have students
“grade” each other according to a specified
rubric. Refer back to Shelley Wright’s TED talk
(slide 1), one student who rarely spoke in class
was the one who asked for donations for the
project allowing a more real world assessment
to be made (Wright, 2013).

10. Project-Based Learning
(PBL)
1 Real World Connection
2 Core to Learning
3 Structured Collaboration
4 Student Driven
5 Multifaceted Assessment
(Edutopia,2014)
Click here to
watch Edutopia’s
5-part video
series on PBL
Project based learning is the instructional model for an
expedition. It is a different way of teaching important standards-aligned
basic skills within an interdisciplinary unit that takes
student learning well beyond the basics (Bremer & Laliberte,
2014). In project-based learning the assessment is not a test at
the end of the unit, it’s embedded in the instruction
(Edutopia,2014). Embedded assessment may include checking in
with students to confirm understanding, presentation to outside
participants, the development of portfolios, or defending a
project (Woolfolk, 2013). The project Assessment and Teaching
of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S) has proposed to include
technology in assessments to measure collaboration and other
hard-to-quantify skills (Futures, 2012). While this is more costly
than most schools can consider, it is a move in the right
direction. With Microsoft’s initiative to provide technology to all
this may, someday, be a viable option for assessments.

11. Develop Formative Evaluations
A typical classroom assessment consists of a test at
the end of a unit, final exams, and occasionally a
project and/or a presentation, all for an individual
grade. This is summative assessment and focuses on
the individual and an end grade (Woolfolk, 2013). A
formative assessment, by comparison, focus on
improvement. They are used for a student to guide
their own learning, to realize what works and what
doesn’t and make adjustments accordingly,
metacognition. They are also to improve and
instructor’s teaching. “Any teacher who uses test
dominantly to determine whether students get high
or low grades should receive a solid F in classroom
assessment” (Woolfolk, p. 549). According to
Edutopia, peer feedback is the most beneficial and
important form of formative assessment (Edutopia,
2014) and encourages collaboration and
improvements in learning and comprehension.

12. Summative Evaluations still have a
place
The Program for International Student
Assessment (PISA) is an international
assessment that measures reading, math,
and science literacy. It also includes
measures of general or cross-curricular
competencies, such as problem solving.
It emphasizes functional skills students
acquired as they end the end of
compulsory schooling. It was first
administered in 2000 and is conducted
every three years. PISA is widely used
across the globe; however, it’s use is
limited in the U.S. (National Center for
Education Statistics)
The CWRA is an assessment that requires
students to respond to a 90-minute task
using information provided in a variety of
formats. It incorporates real-world
situations which require students to make
decisions and judgments that have
economic, social, and environmental
implications and articulate a solution in
writing (Silva, 2008)

13. Transparent schema
+Self & Peer Assessment
+Timely appropriate feedback/reflection
21st Century Assessment
Educational origami

14. References
Bremer, E. and Laiberte, L. (2014) Using PBL Assessments to Develop 21st Century Citizenship.
Partnership for 21st Century Skills. July 28, 2014, V.1, issue 6, No. 15 retrieved from:
http://www.p21.org/news-events/p21blog/1467
educational origami, 21st Century Assessment. Retrieved from:
http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/21st+Century+Assessment
Friedman, T.L. (2005). The World is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century, New York, NY:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Futures. (2012) Finding and Measuring 21st Century Skills. Microsoft Europe. Retrieved from:
http://www.microsoft.eu/2012/09/14/finding-and-measuring-21st-century-skills/
Marcinek, A. (2010) Reinventing Assessment for the 21st Century. Retrieved from Edutopia
http://www.edutopia.org/reinvent-assessment-21st-century
National Center for Education Statistics Frequently Asked Questions
http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/faq.asp#3
Partnership for 21st Century Skills http://www.p21.org/
Resnick,L.B. (1999) Making America Smarter, Education Week Century Series 18(40) (June16,1999),
38-40.
Silva, E. Measuring Skills for the 21st Century. Education Sector Reports. November 2008.
Washington, D.C.
Zhao,Y. 2010. Preparing Globally Competent Teachers: A Ne Imperative for Teacher Education.
Journal of Teacher Education November 10, 2010. http://jte.sagepub.com/content/61/5/422