One Idea to Enhance High School Learning Experiences for Students
A few weeks ago I sat on an ed-tech panel at a well respected business summit, you know, one of those gatherings where company CEOs, investors, and “thought leaders” all gather to figure out the future. (Insert requisite eye-rolling and snarky response here.)
My panel was simply titled “Future of Ed-Tech: From Personalization to Machine Learning” — as you can see, a pretty narrow and easy topic to cover in 40 minutes. (Insert wry sarcastic smile here.) I was joined by 4 other esteemed education company panelists, including our moderator. With just a few mins left in our session we were asked a real brain twister in a lightning round format:
“What’s one suggestion you have that would improve education?”
Wow, a question big enough to, as they say, “drive a truck through it”. And of course we each had like 90 seconds to come up with an answer. So what did I do? I cheated a bit and focused my answer on high school education given the role this stage in a young person’s life plays in determining lifelong success. Further, I couldn’t stick to one idea — I offered up two ideas, but tried to tie them together into one neat package.
Now, one disclaimer: the two ideas I came up with are truly ideals and I fully recognize the complexities inherent in today’s education system that make implementing these ideas a challenge for all involved. But the panel moderator didn’t ask for us to temper our ideas so below is the first of the two brainstorms I came up with on the spot. (I’ll share the second idea in next week’s post)
What popped into my head was a vision for how high school education could evolve to speak to the types of learning experiences that students gravitate to today, and how these experiences could more equitably help students find the best path for them to succeed as they make their way to the modern workplace.
My first idea would be to do away with — or at least dramatically reduce the reliance on — standardized testing. While some level of evaluation might be needed to screen for specialized programs (i.e. portfolios for architecture or mathematics competency for engineering) as one of the metrics for post-high school matriculation, let’s remove the requirement that the SAT or ACT dictate a high schooler’s path after graduation. Beyond the fact that there’s no definitive link between test scores and post-college success — and the fact some colleges now make these tests optional, including most recently the University of Chicago — there are at least three reasons to consider removing them as a requirement:
Given the intense competition for limited seats in prestigious colleges and universities, a subset of families are able to hire tutors to focus exclusively on test prep for their kids. These resources aren’t available to all and therefore equitable access to achieving optimal test scores doesn’t apply to every student. Ultimately, testing for college entrance only widens the gulf between socioeconomic classes: those who “have” prep for the tests, while those who “have not” don’t receive test prep support. Allowing students to showcase their talents in ways that go beyond the “linear cognition” metric tests measure is a an important step in ensuring our higher education institutions represent a diverse student body.
One of the elements that creates stress — and oftentimes introduces rifts between school administrators, parents, and teachers — is the emphasis on SAT and ACT scores as the arbiter of student success. In large part the mantra “teaching to the test” stems from the pressure teachers feel to deliver academic results that can be easily recorded in the form of a sufficiently high SAT score. Might we create more alignment around educational success if educators were granted other paths through which they could define and deliver student success?
Finally, perhaps the most enticing benefit to reducing our reliance on test scores is how it could enable educators to redirect in large part their emphasis on curriculum development. This doesn’t mean math, science, reading, or writing go away. Instead, it means that these subjects could be woven into a curriculum that becomes more project based — an effort that would introduce more self-directed student learning. Through an approach like this, student engagement may very well increase when kids are given more opportunity to apply STEAM subjects (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) towards topics and passions that move them towards the passions they want to pursue after high school.
These are just a few reasons to abandon standardized testing as gatekeepers to higher education opportunities. Next week I’ll share thoughts on the second idea to support a more modern approach to high school learning that I offered in response to the aforementioned panel question. Spoiler alert, this one is less about what happens in the classroom, and is more focused on experiences beyond the school building environment.
Originally published on Medium on July 8, 2018. This Substack version is maintained as the canonical archive.