AEE Policy Brief Points to Deeper Learning Assessments With Technology

“Assessing Deeper Learning,” a new policy brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE), points to new assessments that measure a broader range of knowledge and skills to indicate students’ understanding of challenging content, critical thinking, problem solving and success for the future.
The new assessments call for an evaluation of deeper learning, creating concrete expectations for student learning and signals for student performance standards. The brief compares learning and assessment strategies to other countries that routinely employ testing for deeper learning abilities.
“All students need these deeper learning competencies in an increasingly complex society,” said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia. “New assessments are needed not only to show whether students are developing those abilities but also to foster deeper learning in the classroom.”
The brief also states that technology can help to employ critical thinking and problem solving skills, which support the shift to assessments of deeper learning. Technology, state funding and federal policy can make the shift feasible and support the implementation of these new assessments.
Click here to read the full policy brief. For more information, view the edReformer post on “State Edu-Leaders: Please Don’t Screw Up the Next Decade of Testing.”