Next-Generation Accountability: Capturing and Showcasing Student Growth & Readiness

The Next-Generation Accountability Model is a transformative approach to evaluating student growth and readiness. It focuses on three key areas: core readiness, workforce readiness, and life readiness. For nearly three decades, public education has relied on an accountability system that fails to fully capture the true abilities of students. The overemphasis on single metrics from multiple-choice standardized assessments at the end of the school year falls short in determining student readiness in terms of core learning, workforce readiness, and life readiness.

Next-Generation Accountability Models provide public education with the opportunity to capture a student’s readiness for the future holistically. This applies whether a student is heading to college, joining the military, or entering the workforce straight out of high school. As of 2024, public education has access to a buffet of tools that didn’t exist 3, 5, 10, or even 30 years ago. The evolution of technology has provided opportunities for digital portfolios, centralized reporting mechanisms, and public-facing reporting tools, all of which enhance the potential to create a more meaningful accountability model, based on local/regional needs, that holistically captures student growth and readiness.

In recent weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to observe student demonstrations of learning, real-world skill acquisition, and grade-level readiness. Part of the district’s local accountability model includes student performance-based assessments through Celebrations of Learning, Passion Projects, TED Talks, and BPI Website defenses. These real-world performance-based evaluations challenge students to demonstrate higher-order thinking skills far beyond what any state assessment could measure. Importantly, these student demonstrations focus heavily on student “growth” and “readiness,” rather than merely “proficiency” and “achievement.”

Another component found in the district’s Portrait of a Learner Framework and Grade-level requirements complements students demonstrating growth and readiness through performance-based tasks and artifacts. Each student in grades 3-12 is required to maintain a digital portfolio. In Fleming County Schools, this goes beyond simply saving a Google Doc to Google Drive or uploading pictures or other artifacts. Students are required to keep artifacts that specifically meet each Portrait of a Learner component requirements. For instance, consider the image below, which shows grade-level BPI (the BRIDGE Performance Indicators, the district’s Portrait of a Learner) requirements for students in grades 9-12.

No multiple-choice assessment could come close to evaluating students’ actual grade-level readiness and real-world skill development like the students’ BPI skill artifact requirements. The BRIDGE Performance Indicators (BPIs), the district’s Portrait of a Learner, challenge students to demonstrate grade-level readiness through growth, artifacts, reflections, and rationales. The BPIs and the student’s digital portfolio (the students’ BPI website) require students to meet real-world, relevant, but much higher expectations. In Fleming County Schools, we focus not only on student growth and readiness but also on evaluating students holistically. We want students to demonstrate growth and readiness through performance-based assessments, projects, and other evidence by incorporating their individual interests, passions, and aspirations. In other words, we prefer to evaluate students’ readiness holistically by learning about them, their strengths, hobbies, family, and other information they believe is important.

Since 2017, Fleming County Schools has created a robust Portrait of a Learner framework that eventually led to the need to create a local accountability system to match expectations of learning. Below is a screenshot of Tote, a student profile tool, that is made available for free to all 171 school districts in Kentucky, and is fully customizable to each district’s vibrant learning and local accountability journey.

District and school administrators have made significant updates to Tote, based on needs in the district as we advanced in this very important work. No current statewide accountability meets our needs in Fleming County Schools, which is why our work around designing a local accountability system focused on student growth and readiness organically evolved over the years. We required an accountability system that holistically evaluated student growth and readiness.

The students’ BPI websites are far more than just a flipbook of student pictures, though we encourage students to personalize their websites based on their interests, passions, and aspirations. There is no limit to how students may personalize their websites, as long as each grade-level performance requirement for each competency, readiness requirements (reading, math, and writing), and other school-level requirements are met. Some students do this better than others, but overwhelmingly, the BPI websites have been impressive in all grades, 3-12.

At the end of the year, students in grades 3, 6, 8, and 12 must defend their BPI learning and grade-level readiness through defenses that require students to discuss their:

• Promising Practice (Which competency is your strongest? How do you know?)
• Problem of Practice (Which competency do you most struggle with? How do you know? Which should you focus on throughout this school year?)
• Key BPI artifacts aligned to each competency
• Core Growth and Readiness: Reading, Math, and Writing
• Their About Me artifacts

When all pieces of information and BPI artifacts are neatly organized on the student’s website, an amazing student profile emerges that shows in real-time just how important the holistic evaluation of student growth, learning, and readiness is to a student and their families. The emergence of the BPI website as the official digital portfolio for each student stemmed from the year of learning at Simons Middle School, the district’s middle school, under the leadership of Whitney Wilson, the principal. She and her team piloted BPI websites during the 2022-2023 school year, and students were more engaged and empowered throughout the learning process using Google Sites as their BPI digital portfolio - because it allowed students to personalize the overall experience of their digital portfolio.?

I lose count of how many students I speak with each day, always referencing their website, by asking, “Hey, Mr. Creasman, have you seen my BPI website?” or “Mr. Creasman, when you get time, check out my BPI website, it is awesome!,” or “Mr. Creasman, do you think I have enough evidence for each BPI competency?”. These BPI website conversations happen daily. It sounds very much like students are engaged - because we have empowered them to demonstrate growth and readiness through their interests, passions, and aspirations. In other words, we have developed an accountability model that is not punitive and not something we do to students, but instead with students - one of their requests back in the fall of 2021, as we prepared to launch Measures of Quality 1.0 in January 2022. Students wanted an accountability model that stopped putting things on their plates and one that would allow them to demonstrate their growth and readiness on their terms. In other words, a very high degree of student agency (voice and choice).

The BPI websites offer students the opportunity to demonstrate growth and readiness through a year of learning, which is captured in the students’ BPI Plan and their website. The demand for students to demonstrate higher-order skills is inherent throughout the entire BPI process, especially during the end-of-year evaluation of the students’ BPI evidence and core readiness in reading, math, and writing. Specifically, BPI websites serve as a valuable companion to the teaching, learning, evaluation, and accountability process by offering a holistic view of the students behind their growth and readiness. Throughout the BPI process, with the culminating final submission of BPI artifacts and end-of-year presentations and defenses of their BPI website, learning becomes more relevant to each student, fostering a deeper connection between each student’s learning journey, achievements, and future success. At the end of the day, the entire BPI process and local accountability process encourage students to demonstrate their growth and readiness through their interests, passions, and aspirations, not a multiple-choice state assessment.

As students showcase their BPI websites through celebrations of learning or defenses, the following four guiding questions focus students on their competencies and make connections to their learning throughout the school year:

• “How did your BPI Plan (Growth and Learning Plan) guide your learning journey and contribute to your BPI website development this school year?” (Connecting the Student’s Learning Plan and Digital Portfolio)
• “What evidence shared through your BPI website best showcases your growth and learning this year? Explain why it’s important to you.” (Highlighting Growth and Learning)
• "Discuss how your BPI website can assist you in your future endeavors, considering things like [Examples based on grade level]: (Future Use of the BPI Website)
• “Reflecting on your website this year, what improvements or enhancements would you like to make next year? Explain your reasoning.” (Digital Portfolio Enhancement(s))

For the past three years, we have made BPI evidence evaluation a very big deal. Each year, we schedule a day of district-wide accountability, where faculty and staff come together and evaluate student BPI evidence. The district utilizes a tool called Tote, a digital portfolio tool, that is free to all 171 school districts in Kentucky. The tool, developed by Gerry Swan, a professor at the University of Kentucky, is fully customizable to the needs of each district. For Fleming County Schools, we have more sophisticated reporting needs due to our local accountability system, but Gerry has worked with us to create a digital evaluation tool for district-wide reporting. We use Tote for scoring at the end of the school year and also to perform BPI check-ins - more formative evaluations performed three times throughout the school year, typically in October, December, and March, which is very close to the window when we administer “through assessments” each year. At the end of the year, we have a district-wide score based on each competency, as seen below, that we pull into our local accountability system, seen below.

Since 2017, our district has been deeply engaged in the transformative work of developing Portraits of a Learner, and yet, our journey of growth and discovery persists. Each passing year presents new opportunities for improvements and enhancement, driven by invaluable feedback from students, educators, support staff, parents/guardians, and the wider community. It became increasingly apparent, through our collective experiences across the district, that a paradigm shift in accountability practices was imperative.

Our realization stemmed from the limitations inherent in the prevailing state accountability model, which disproportionately emphasized single-day metrics over the comprehensive evaluation of student mastery, growth, and readiness vis-à-vis grade-level expectations. We recognized the pressing need for a more nuanced and holistic approach, one that transcended mere adherence to rigid standards to include a deeper understanding of students' capabilities and growth trajectories.

In this regard, the synergy between the BPI process and Measures of Quality is critical. These interconnected frameworks serve as the cornerstone of our approach, enabling us to authentically capture the multifaceted dimensions of student development and preparedness. Indeed, without this symbiotic relationship, our ability to gauge and nurture student growth would be severely compromised. As we navigate this evolving landscape of educational accountability, our commitment remains unwavering: to foster a learning environment where every student's journey is honored, celebrated, and propelled forward. Through the fusion of innovative methodologies and stakeholder collaboration, we are poised to transcend conventional paradigms, ensuring that our assessment practices reflect the richness and diversity of student achievement in all its forms.

As educators, while we celebrate the accomplishments of our students, we recognize the need for continuous innovation and improvement. Our commitment to providing ample opportunities for students to demonstrate their readiness remains at the forefront of the district’s priorities. We understand that the traditional metrics of assessment often fall short of capturing the full spectrum of a student's capabilities and potential. Therefore, we're dedicated to exploring new avenues, leveraging the insights from the work focused on vibrant learning (Portrait of a Learner), to ensure that every student's unique strengths and aspirations are acknowledged and celebrated.

What's truly remarkable is the obvious sense of engagement, enthusiasm, and empowerment that emanates from many of our students as they immerse themselves in these projects. They are not merely passive participants but active architects of their learning journey. Their passion and dedication serve as a testament to the transformative power of personalized education and the need for a new relevant accountability model in public education.

Looking ahead, as we anticipate the launch of the district's 4.0 version in September 2024, we stand at the threshold of a new era in educational accountability. This upcoming iteration promises to embrace innovative approaches to assessment and evaluation, aligning closely with the principles of holistic student development and the moonshot statement from the United We Learn KY Council. By focusing our efforts on capturing student growth through their individual interests, passions, and aspirations, we're poised to cultivate a learning environment that is truly reflective of the diverse talents and potential throughout the district. Together, we're charting a course towards a future where every student is not just prepared for success but empowered to define it on their own terms. In other words, a journey to a student-centered learning model.