The Measure of Success

by Mary Ellen Daneels, Lead Teacher Mentor

In an article I wrote last year for Social Education, called, “Thermometers to Thermostats: Designing and Assessing Informed Action”, I made reference to the viral TED talk “The Power of Vulnerability” by best-selling author Brene’ Brown in which she struggled with the sentiment, “If you cannot measure it, it does not exist.” Many social studies teachers in Illinois are wrestling with the same premise as they work to assess the new inquiry standards. How do you measure informed action? Is it a test? Is it a portfolio? I have come to look at these questions in a different way. I do not see informed action as something additional to assess. I see informed action as the assessment of how students apply disciplinary content and proficiencies to address essential questions investigated in the classroom.

As noted in previous blog posts, the new Illinois Social Studies Standards are a paradigm shift for many educators in that they prescribe not only “what” classrooms should be teaching but “how” it should be taught. While many educators are fairly comfortable with measuring disciplinary content, or the “what” of civic education, there is ambiguity in measurement of the “how”- the acquisition of civic skills and dispositions leading to informed action.

Because there is no prescribed, “high stakes” test in Illinois, assessment is a local control issue. While the Illinois School Code prescribes that there be instruction and successful examination on such topics as the Flag Code, the United States and Illinois Constitutions the Declaration of Independence as well as Voting and Elections (105 ILCS 5/27-3), there is no mandate as to what these “examinations” should look like. Local districts have autonomy to choose the method of assessment. In my observations, most districts assess civic knowledge through the use of multiple choice tests. The new Illinois Social Studies Standards and civic education requirement provide an opportunity to think “Beyond the Bubble” and investigate assessments that allow students to communicate conclusions and take informed action, a.k.a. the proven practice of service learning.

Informed action projects can be the truest measurement of how students can apply the knowledge, skills and dispositions that they have practiced in class. Because they are the culmination of the inquiry cycle prescribed by the Illinois social studies standards, these projects are thoroughly embedded in both the content and process of student learning, and are an exercise that enhances and consolidates student learning, rather than taking time out to measure it. They can take the good work that we do in social studies and explicitly prepare students for civic life as students see they can be agents of change in their community.

Do you have ideas for how to authentically assess the new Illinois Social Studies standards? Please comment below. Together, we can prepare ALL students in Illinois for college, career and civic life.

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