Broaden measured outcomes beyond high-stakes assessments to include durable skills¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The article calls for 'expanding what is measured beyond the narrow set of skills and knowledge captured on high-stakes assessments'. Multiple-choice-dominated end-of-year tests tap declarative knowledge and simple procedures but not durable skills such as creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking, nor growing content areas like computational thinking, data science, and AI literacy. Portrait of a Graduate performance tasks are cited as a route to measuring additional skills.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Investment in developing durable-skills assessments and collecting reliability and validity evidence, since measurement is only as useful as its validity evidence

Constraints¶

• An assessment measuring only part of desired outcomes can distort the market and narrow the innovation funnel

Target Learners¶

• K-12 students
• state assessment designers

Target Learning Goals¶

• Measuring collaboration, communication, critical thinking, computational thinking, data science, and AI literacy

Related Strategies¶

• Use process and usage data alongside impact data in edtech evaluations
• Broaden instruments, methods, and expert judgment in psychometric LLM evaluation research
• Include both academic and socioemotional outcomes when evaluating school composition effects

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Roschelle, J., Ruiz, P., Means, B., Griffiths, R., Lee, K. (2026 April). Towards an Evidence Framework for Emerging Educational Technologies. Digital Promise. https://doi.org/10.51388/20.500.12265/289