Assessing 21st Century Skills with Service-Learning as the Instructional Approach

Shelley H. Billig, RMC ResearchKay Davenport, Smyrna West Alternative

School, TNSally Broughton, Project Citizen, Bozeman, MT

Stuart Kahl, Measured ProgressJoAnn Henderson, ECS

Agenda

• Welcome and overview• Service-learning and 21st Century skills• Common outcomes and measures• Examples of promising practice• Taking on the service-learning critics• Pillars of success• Ideas for performance measures• Creating political will• Q/A• Wrap-up

Framing: What are 21st Century Skills?

• Many definitions but most have the following in common:– Learning and innovation skills/inventive thinking– Effective communication– Digital-age literacy/technology skills– Productivity– Critical thinking/reasoning– Academic knowledge and skills– Contextual skills and awareness– Teamwork/collaboration

Sample Indicators (21stcenturyskills.org)

• Learning and Innovation– Uses a wide range of idea creation

techniques (such as brainstorming)– Creates new and worthwhile ideas (both

incremental and “radical” concepts)– Elaborates, refines, analyzes and

evaluates own ideas to improve and maximize creative efforts

Sample indicators (21stcenturyskills.org)

• Works creatively with others– Develops, implements, and communicates new

ideas to others effectively– Is open and responsive to new and diverse

perspectives; incorporates group input and feedback into the work

– Demonstrates originality and inventiveness in work and understands the real world limits to adopting new ideas

– Views failure as an opportunity to learn; understands that creativity and innovation is a long-term, cyclical process of small successes and frequent mistakes

Sample indicators (21stcenturyskills.org)

• Critical thinking and problem solving– Reasons effectively using various types of reasoning

appropriate to the situation (inductive, deductive, etc.)

– Uses systems thinking, analyzing parts of the whole and their interactions

– Makes judgments and decisions based on the best analysis and reflects critically on learning processes

– Solves problems, including nonfamiliar problems, in conventional and non-conventional ways

– Identifies and asks significant questions that clarify various points of view and lead to better solutions

Service-learning and 21st Century Skills

• There is great promise in examining service-learning as an approach to helping students acquire 21st Century skills

• ACTIVITY: – What is the difference between service-

learning and community service?– How does service-learning relate to 21st

Century skill acquisition?

Common Outcomes of Service-Learning

• Prevalence• Academic outcomes• Civic outcomes• Social-emotional learning outcomes• Career-related outcomes• Other links to 21st Century skills

Examples from the Field: Smyrna West Alternative

School• Smyrna West offers an option to expulsion. 

• The school serves grades 6-12, enrollment ranging from 70-150 students.

• Students participate in a level system, a positive motivational system for behavioral improvement.

• Service-learning and a level system support SWA school goals and are used to make positive changes.

Service Learning at Smyrna West

• Service-learning methodology is implemented throughout the curricular

• Teachers are TN Highly Qualified and trained in

Lions Quest: Skills In Action

• Service-learning has positive impact on student achievement, attitude, attendance, and civic efficacy

• Smyrna West works closely with community partners

Rotary Partnership• The Rotary Club of

Smyrna has adopted SWA.

• Students job shadow and interview Rotarians.

• Careers and community needs are discussed.

• Rotary meetings provide a platform to present service-learning projects.

Action Plan

• SWA Action Plan•• Date Started______Date Completed______• Need:• Plan:• Action: • Who Will Do What -By When -Resources

Needed• Reflection/Comments:

SWA 2009 State Test Results

Smyrna West Alternative 2009 Read To Succeed School of the Year

Click for Video and Rap

Commercial Commercial

Service Learning Compilation

Examples from the Field

• Project Citizen

The Potential of Service-Learning

• If it is so good, why doesn’t everyone implement it?– ACTIVITY– Debrief

The Need for New Measures

Potential to raise student achievement significantly

• formative assessment• 21st century skills

For either of these to be effectively addressed, many big changes have to take place in our schools.

The Need for New Measures

A little history – performance assessment• authentic assessment of the ‘90s• criticisms

technical content-related

The Need for New Measures

Must haves:• close connection to content standards• good measurement• rigor with respect to both

The Need for New Measures

Service learning• is• is a form of• is part of

project-based learning.

The Need for New Measures

Some more (recent) history – Core Knowledge

vs.21st Century

Skills

The Need for New Measures

One Core Knowledge rep on project-based learning:

“… such methods … are difficult for teachers to put into place …. There’s a reason teachers have been taught for 75 years to do projects and they don’t do them.”

The Need for New Measures

Another Core Knowledge rep:

“You don’t want to waste a lot of time, particularly for disadvantaged kids, on teaching things they already know and omitting things they don’t know.”

The Need for New Measures

We’re creating another “either/or” situation in education, when we have to choose both – and not just the easiest one.

The Need for New Measures

What a “merger” might look like:• in the classroom• in accountability testing

How to Create Political Will

• How do we create the political will to promote the idea that all schools should adopt service-learning and change their orientation to 21st Century skills and their assessment?– Panel– Audience

Q and A

• Other questions/issues that you would like to discuss