Information overload. It happens to the best of us, with the best intentions, slogging our way through loads of leads and attractively colored links embedded in our online texts, articles and whitepapers. The rabbit holes and tangents turn to wormhole-like adventures, bending time and space, leaving me bleary-eyed and blurry-brained. I fall asleep thinking about my research topic. I wake up thinking about my research topic. While washing my hair in the shower I’m shouting ‘Hey Siri’ to record the scrap of an idea or connection I can’t afford to forget because I’m thinking about my research topic. I carry post-it notes in my pocket around school in case something during the day sparks an idea. And at least once daily I open my unfinished (and overdue) blog post, feeling as though everything on the page is essential, or I could scrap it all and start again.

From ‘The Messy Middle’ by Scott Belsky

And then… synthesis. You never really know when it’s going to happen. For me it’s typically at the 11th hour, at the very moment I’m on the threshold between throwing in the towel completely and knowing after all these years that I can trust the right idea to float to the top.

Hallelujah!

As my last blog post outlined, I’ve read the lit. Nearly ALL the lit, it seems, on everything from assessment to EdTech, privilege to process and the future of work. It matters. It all matters when it comes to my research focus, but I knew I wasn’t hitting the mark exactly. All of the research I had done along with my (amazing) SET Lab mentor, Urvi, all of the topics we’d talked about in our weekly conversations were relevant but ultimately tangential. I needed a plan of attack.

First, I decided I’d revisit the questions I outlined in my first blog post:

How could Holistic Student Reports utilize a visual, comprehensive approach to include socio/emotional and qualitative values in addition to academic areas of strength & relative weakness?

Clearly, I’m not the only person asking this question. There are numerous schools of thought on approaches to assessment, grading and reports/transcripts and articles dating back to the mid 90’s talking about this stuff. Be it letter grades, number grades, narratives or student portfolios, nearly everyone seems to agree that the report cards of old aren’t getting the job done well (for students, parents or institutions), and they’re all talking about how it could or should be better. What I’m not finding is a lot of solutions about how, exactly, to make it better, save for the Mastery Transcript Consortium. They’re focused on reimagining high school reports and transcripts, leaving a beautiful gap for me to explore this problem/solution at the middle school level.

The other challenge that’s still got me playing a game of chicken and egg is that reports are primarily a result — a result of assessment. Assessment is a result of curriculum and classroom approach. (insert my own quote about how and what we teach).

‘The transcript is a presentation-of-information problem, not an education problem. And the sooner you solve this design problem, and move your school community beyond concerns and anxieties, the sooner you can get back to doing what truly matters: preparing the next generation of citizens, workers, and leaders.’

— Stephen Abbott, Much Ado about Mastery-Based Transcripts

How can students and their families benefit from participating in the process of self-discovery and assessment, using the Report as a tool in deciding next steps along the educational journey?

This question remains central to my project. The student deserves to participate in the process, and benefit directly from it. Families can provide useful and unique insight as well, and deserve a process and a product that leaves them informed and without fear. The connection between student, family, and school is essential and the perspectives of each can be used to create a multidimensional picture of the student from the truest perspectives. The report should encourage the student to know and understand herself more deeply on every level. More on this later.

Will schools welcome such an approach? How might it affect their admissions process?

There is plenty of available research that supports the fact that schools currently accept, understand and welcome a myriad of report and transcript types, and that the introduction of a Holistic Student Report would be perfectly fine if not welcomed by both high school and college admissions teams. The New England Secondary School Consortium has gone so far as to have numerous schools sign agreements stating that they will not discriminate against and will happily encourage more qualitative or elaborative transcripts.

What if schools also had a Holistic Report that visually & comprehensively outlined them as an institution, so that students could more easily determine a school’s fit with their personal interests, goals, and needs?

This is an incredible concept and one that still interests me, but it’s an entirely different ball of wax. I’m choosing to focus primarily on how student reports benefit and inform students. So I’ll put this question in my back pocket for now. SET Lab 2019/20 maybe?

Next, I revisited my ‘Why’ statement:

WHY statement:

For students, families & education institutions who need a more holistic illustration of student accomplishment, Holistic Student Reports are visual, comprehensive assessments that encourage qualitative & quantitative measure of student social, emotional & cognitive elements alongside academics because I believe self-understanding is the most powerful contributor to one’s educational choices.

Generally, this Why statement still works for me… I’m hung up on the word ‘accomplishment’ and think I can do better there, and I want to continue to refine my ‘I believe’ statement as I move through this project.

So, what exactly is ‘this project’? What did my litany of lit review lead me to? Amazingly and almost poetically, my subconscious brain seemed to synthesize these weeks of exploration and deep dive on the interwebs just in time for my weekly call with Urvi.

I typed furiously into our shared doc minutes before our video chat.

The Final Word (based on my lit review):

1. Personalized is NOT holistic — I found in more than one place that these two words were used interchangeably. I want to stress that for the purpose of my study the word ‘holistic’ refers to an approach to knowing, understanding and assessing students. Holistic Student Reports take into account social, emotional, cognitive and academic elements related to a student’s learning and can be measured both quantitatively and qualitatively.
2. Progressive vs. Liberal — In researching a multitude of school philosophies, curriculum approaches, and reporting techniques, ‘progressive’ education was often conflated with ‘liberal values.’ Simply because a school has liberal, leftist values does not mean that their approach to curriculum, assessment, scheduling or reporting is progressive.
3. The Cult of Efficiency- The systems in place have been created to favor the institution, not the student. This severe optimization and standardization (when related to grading, reporting and admissions transcripts) is meant to boil down the complexity of a student’s experience to a lowest common denominator. It’s simply too one dimensional and serves the purpose of ‘processing’ as many students as possible in the most efficient manner.
4. If it ain’t broke… — Educators are often fearful of parent backlash and misunderstanding when contemplating better approaches to curriculum, assessment, and reporting. Many parents hold on to the…
5. Both 3 and 4 are a result of ‘Easy, not Better.’ Change is hard. It is slow, incremental and messy, but necessary. Choosing system efficiency or parent placating over improving student experience and understanding is shortsighted. (Thanks to Trevor Ragan for this.)
6. It is essential to be mindful of ‘Profit over Purpose’ — for every article I read that say we should change the system, there were two EdTech platforms ensuring they had the solution to do it. I’m an EdTech founder myself but am mindful that private companies can’t be relied on to create a single, mass adopted solution to this challenge. Teachers and schools need to be encouraged that solutions are accessible, low or no cost and able to be designed in a multitude of ways to be sure they serve individual communities. EdTech should be part of the solution, but not the center of it.
7. Mind the Gap- My research continues to uncover an unsightly speed bump called ‘High School and College’ on the road from grade school goodness to Google employee. Information found on most professional performance reviews are more indicative of the ideal ‘holistic report’ than any current student report or transcript. In the professional world, great employee reviews are based on frequent feedback, peer review, and clearly stated goals, with ‘21st century skills’ like collaboration, problem-solving and time management topping the list. As Simon Sinek says, ‘Great companies don’t hire skilled people and motivate them. They hire already motivated people and inspire them.’

I want my study to focus on more holistic reporting through the triangulation of student, parent & educator assessment and how to reflect that information meaningfully in student reports and by extension, transcripts. Balancing some standardization of method while retaining the individuality of each school and student is key, as is working toward a model that is visually engaging, easily understandable and inclusive of all types of student data.

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts, research sources or additional questions as I make my way on this journey! Be sure to follow me and leave a comment. Let’s chat!

#setlab #educationscientist #changebydesign #humanfirst #startwithwhy