News

District Adds 21st Century Skills to Report Cards

April 18th, 2009

Ithaca, NY - A group of forty educators from two elementary schools attended a one-day workshop on how to teach and assess thinking skills in their classrooms. The workshop is part of one large school district’s pioneering effort to align their progress reports to the demands of the 21st Century.

Teachers at participating schools will pilot test a new report card next year that measures not only students’ progress in academic subjects like math and reading, but also their development of thinking skills. The academic criteria follow state standards, while the quantifiable thinking skills are determined by the four patterns of thinking. Parents, administrators, and teachers will provide feedback on the report card throughout the year.

“This pilot project is rather unique,” said Dr. Derek Cabrera, Founder of ThinkWorks and Senior Fellow at the Research Institute for Thinking in Education. “Most school districts are content to teach and assess an array of standards and hope that students implicitly learn to think along the way. Because this pilot progress report balances content knowledge and thinking skills, it's a bold innovation.”

ThinkWorks Vice President and assessment expert Dr. Laura Colosi characterized the workshop on assessment as part of a natural progression. “Talking with educators about how to teach thinking skills has been great. This workshop gives us a chance to look at how to measure the acquisition of those skills,” she said.  “Assessment drives what happens in the classroom, so this is a big step forward.”