Assessing to Mastery

Mastery means that learners have developed and can demonstrate an explicit set of skills and knowledge. Coined by Benjamin Bloom in 1968, Learning for Mastery was soon rebranded Mastery Learning (Bloom, 1971). Bloom’s original intent was to build expertise through feedback and correction; similar to the idea of assessment for learning. But, over time, mastery has morphed into demonstrations of achievement of learning targets through rigorous and uniform testing.

Backtracking to its original intent, it becomes clear that assessment is at the heart of mastery. With so many ways to learn and so much to learn, it is virtually impossible to teach every student every thing. Knowing what students know and can do in the present and where they are headed next, is the first step towards educational success. This is achieved through ongoing formative assessment.

The Common Core provides a foundation in literacy and numeracy, but today’s learners must be prepared to meet the challenges of the 21^st century. Students must be engaged in meaningful learning that they can adapt to their own capabilities. Edward Deci (1996) found that carrots and sticks only motivate in the short term. Carol Dweck (2006) explained that real learning is related to a growth mindset. This mindset is a direct result of personal mastery. And this personal mastery comes from continuous growth built on feedback and correction that is descriptive and comprehensible, specific to task and process, guides next steps, and monitors self-regulation.

Mastery is more than finding the one right answer based on formulas and rules. Large scale standards lead to local targets that lead to assessments of day by day progress. It is formative assessment that supports this growth and guides this process of continuous improvement.

Bloom, B. S. (1968). Learning for mastery. Evaluation Comment, 1(2), 1–12. 
Bloom, B. S. (1971). Mastery learning. In J. H. Block (Ed.), Mastery learning: Theory and practice (pp. 47–63). New York:
     Holt, Rinehart & Winston. 
Deci, E. (1996). Why we do what we do: Understanding self-motivation. Penguin Books. 
Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Ballantine Books

Reflections on ASCD 2013

Like a kid in a candy shop, the annual ASCD conference offers something for everyone’s tastes, and I tried an assortment. The complexity of issues in education was evidenced by the array of themes and topics from common core to bold changes in schools. Here are some of my take-aways from the 2013 conference.

Educators from all over the world: Singapore, Oman, Finland, Australia, and more shared ideas and common concerns regarding the future of education. (I even received an invitation to visit Oman)

Freeman Hrabowski (“One of the ten most influential people in the world”) asked “How can we turn frustration into fascination?” His answer: Combining high expectations with student-centered engaged learning and necessary supports.

Many of the conversations about assessment emphasized the Common Core and preparing students to pass the literacy and numeracy tests. The big emphasis being on modifying curriculum and instruction to incorporate the standards for speaking and listening, reading, writing, and language skills in all content areas.

What students know is not based on simply finding the right answer by following directions, rules, and step-by step procedures but rather based on complex interdisciplinary performance tasks with multiple outcomes and solutions.

My workshops on Assessing 21^st Century Skills and Using Formative Assessment to Support the Common Core were well attended with many questions and insights on integrating these ideas with teaching and learning.

I was especially inspired by:

Maya Angelou who, at 85, used personal stories and poetry to encourage educators to  find their rainbow in the clouds.

Will Richardson, whose out of the box thinking inspires educators to always think about learning for the future.

Rick Wormeli on building student’s critical thinking skills, Michael Fullan on continuous improvement of one’s own teaching, Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey on structured teaching for the Common Core while gradually releasing responsibility for learning to students, and many, many other leaders of ideas and practice.