Meeting+Notes

**Notes from October 25 meeting:**
 * The Partnership for 21st Century Skills
 * Focus on the 4C's - critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration and creativity
 * The other areas of the rainbow will support the 4C's
 * Life and Career Skills
 * Information, Media, and Technology skills
 * Possible assessment tools, some external norm. Some can be internal.
 * Torrence Test of Creative Thinking [] can be used in a random sample of students or the entire student body.
 * Other tests, [|Guilford’s Alternative Uses Task (1967),] [|Wallas and Kogan][| (1965)] at @http://www.indiana.edu/~bobweb/Handout/cretv_6.html
 * 4C's Rubrics


 * Notes from November 23 meeting:**


 * Assess the 4 Cs individually as well as collectively
 * Collectively: Project Based Learning---student surveys, teacher surveys, lesson plans, etc
 * Creativity: Torrence
 * Communication:
 * Critical Thinking (Problem Solving): Essay writing, PSSA, SAT, math scores, science scores that are tasks or test items that reflect higher order thinking.
 * Collaboration: survey teachers and students about collaborative practices in the classroom

- Base line and ongoing assessment for each of the 4 Cs including the technological and interpersonal skills. - Tests (internal and externally normed), self assessment / surveys, authentic assessment / rubrics. - Assess teachers and students, teaching and learning. - Analysis of curriculum/lessons. - Analysis of building climate, structures, activities. - Staff development- internal and external - Curriculum/ teaching strategies - Building climate / structures/ activities / technology
 * Can we affect change simply by measuring? Phil's thought that if we assess our goal it will be an impetus to change. Mellon's approach to creating an umbrella of support that clients can buy into as they choose.
 * will cited class approaches that used student generated projects that engaged students to critically think and form more lasting understanding. Enduring understanding.
 * John cited the CFF coach bootcamp at the PDE that strongly emphasized project based learning.
 * We established the broad outline of an action plan based on a cycle of assessment/analysis and implementation that is reflected in the links from the main 4Cs page in this site. We will build out assessment and implementation for each of the 4Cs as well as collective assessment and implementation across the 4Cs. The following is the goal and considerations for the action plan:
 * Goal: ** Develop student capacity in creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking that include technological and interpersonal skills that support these capacities.
 * Assessment: **
 * Implementation: **