What is the Education Program’s grantmaking strategy to help accomplish its deeper learning goals?
Testing in the United States signals what counts in the classroom: what gets tested is what gets taught. Right now, the country is not signaling that the mix of knowledge and skills matters—only rote memorization and basic knowledge. So, as a first order, improved efforts at testing what really matters will pressure the education system to reform not just measures of student performance but also measures of teacher and school accountability. In addition to OECD’s “PISA for Schools” project, the Foundation is funding state testing partnerships that are developing rich, timely assessments based on the Common Core standards—the new nationwide guidelines for what students should be taught in math and English/language arts. They’ve already been adopted by forty-three states. Some very smart researchers have analyzed these standards for the Foundation and determined that they serve as a great grounding for deeper learning knowledge and skills. These new multi-state tests will be used to infl
