Posting for Carmen Coleman

Friends,

Most of you are familiar with the work of the NY Performance Consortium. As you might know, this is a group of public schools in NY who, several years ago, developed their own performance assessment system. As we started to focus on deeper learning in my former district, we quickly realized that we needed assessments very different from traditional measures. As luck would have it, I met Consortium leaders Phyllis Tashlik and Ann Cook at a meeting right around the same time we were looking for a way to better assess a deeper kind of learning.

Since then, many of our teachers and principals in Danville have been to NY to spend time with Phyllis, Ann and many other teachers and leaders who are part of the Consortium. They’ve had the opportunity to take part in both scoring and assessment design, and beginning last year, we implemented our own system, beginning with grades 6-8, based on what we learned from our friends in NY.

Although we hoped we might obtain a waiver that would allow us in Danville to use this system rather than the state system in KY as it currently stands, we didn’t. However, the teachers so believe in the importance of this work because of the tremendous benefits for students that they’ve chosen to continue even though they still have to take part in the state assessments like everyone else. It is powerful.

On Monday, February 2, the NY Performance Consortium will hold a day-long conference. This will be an opportunity to learn about many aspects of their system and the assessments themselves. I am going along with one of my colleagues from UK. In addition, we are taking both a principal and a supt from KY.

I wanted to be sure you knew about the opportunity because the work they are doing (and most importantly, the work their students are doing!) is just incredible. I thought you might like to learn more about it. And, as I shared, probably the best reflection of that is the fact that Danville has chosen to continue this process even though an exemption wasn’t granted. It’s just that good for kids.

If you are interested, I am copying Phyllis here. She will be glad to share more with you. Also, if you know of others who would be interested in learning, please share with them as well.