Cisco/Intel/MS Education Sync Meeting

1. Cisco/Intel/MS Education Sync Meeting The Need to Assess 21st Century Skills: The Rationale for the Cisco-Intel-Microsoft 21st Century Skills Assessment Project Robert Kozma, Kozmalone Consulting Project Consultant Barry McGaw, University of Melbourne Executive Director

2. Why must assessments change? • A major restructuring of the global economy • Shift of manufacturing from developed to emerging countries • Increased amount and proportion of GDP in developed countries based on generation, distribution, and use of information and creative products • Major shift in business practices toward distributed design, production and distribution supported by networked ICT • Systemic reform is needed in education to provide students with skills needed to be highly productive and creative workers and citizens (i.e., 21st Century Skills). • Assessments hold systems accountable . At the same time they are a gate to any systemic change in education. • Traditional assessments do not measure 21st century student skills effectively, nor do they incorporate the use of ICT.

3. Why is this project needed? • Initiatives have focused on 21st Century skills but: • There is not a sufficient connection between 21st C classroom practices and national and international assessments. • While there is a common agreement on the needs of the 21st century skills and growing consensus on what these skills are, there is yet agreement on measurable definitions. • There are a variety of methodological and technological issues that have been encountered and need to be addressed. • The issues are of the magnitude that a private-public, international, multi-stake collaboration is needed: • Major national and international assessment agencies that include OECD/PISA and IEA. • National Education Departments and Ministries • Education reform organizations and projects • Corporations

4. Goals of the project • Build a collaboration to leverage ongoing work. • Identify and address issues in four areas: • Connection of assessments to 21st century classroom practices and environments to increase scalability. • Definition of 21st Century skills and competencies in measurable ways. • Methodological issues that address rigor and validity. • Technological barriers related to networking, security, scale, software applications. • Indicators of success • Acceptance, recognition, and participation by stakeholders • Problems identified, solutions developed, and widely available. • ICT-based assessment of 21st c skills incorporated into national and international assessments.

5. Project structure • Executive Director: Barry McGaw, University of Melbourne • Management Team and Working Groups • John Bransford (University of Washington) and Marlene Scardamalia (University of Toronto), Connection with learning environments and formative assessment. • Senta Raizen (WestEd), 21st Century skills definition in measurable form. • Mark Wilson (University of California, Berkeley), Methodological and analytic issues. • Beno Csapo (University of Szeged), Technological issues and opportunities. • Linda Darling-Hammond (Stanford University), Policy issues.

6. Governance model Exec Board Research Alliance Company Leads Research Alliance Exec Director Cohort Country Leads Advisory Panel Research Alliance Exec Director Government Leads PISA Director* TIMSS Director* Independent Consultant (Roberto Carneiro) Project Leadership Group Research Alliance Executive Director 5 Working Group Leads Working Group 1 Learning Environment & Formative Assessment Working Group 2 Methodology Working Group 3 Technology Working Group 4 Measurable 21st Century Skills Working Group 5 Policy Issues * Confirmed support and andorsement,

7. Action Plan • Phase 1 Planning, April-September 2008 • Project conceptualization • Action plan drafted • Corporate commitment • Phase 2 Organization, October 2008-January 2009 • Exec Director on board. Introduced to working groups • Management Team in place • Call to Action and Action Plan finalized • Project announcement at Learning and Technology World Forum, London • Phase 3 Implementation, February 2009-2011 • Building working group teams • Identifying participating countries • First annual working conference: San Diego April 17-19 (80 participants from around the world) • Draft white papers (Summer 2009); Final (Fall 2009) • Fund and implement solutions (2010-2011) • Annual conferences • Implement in national and international pilot tests (target optional studies for TIMSS 2011, PISA 2012, SITES 2013, PISA 2015)

8. 21st Century Assessments • 21st Century Skills (tentative list) • Creativity and innovation • Critical thinking • Problem solving • Communication • Collaboration • Information fluency • Technological literacy • 21st Century Technologies • Worldwide Web • Social networks • Handheld devices, probes, sensors, etc. • Simulations and games • Multimedia tools • Data analysis tools and visualizations • Artificial intelligence • Language processing and semi-automated scoring

9. Anticipated Results • Problem analysis and prioritizing, solution specification • White papers • Solution development • Assessment frameworks, scoring rubrics, sample items, item collections • Analytic approaches and methods • Software tools, network architectures • Pilot tests, sample data, proofs of concept • Policy coordination • Subsequent implementation • Implement in national and international pilot tests • Primary data analysis and policy formation • Secondary analysis and research

10. How to get involved http://www.atc21s.org/