Measuring What Matters

Non-degree credentials on track to become the most awarded in HigherEd within a decade.

HolonIQ Newsletter Headline, 3 Feb 202

• Traditional academic credentialing is failing to maintain relevance in our fast-paced world, as workforce demands accelerate the need for education aligned with real career pathways
• Multiple global initiatives are reimagining assessment to measure complex competencies like creativity and critical thinking—not just academic knowledge
• We risk focusing too narrowly on literacy and numeracy at the expense of broader skills development that students will need for future success
• Emerging research suggests we should design assessment that serves learning rather than just measuring it

---

The headline above caught my interest in the recent edition of the HolonIQ Newsletter. The article begins by saying;

“The drive to align education with workforce demands is accelerating. Institutions are reshaping their credential strategies—both degree and non-degree—by embedding them directly into career pathways.”

At a time that our senior secondary students in NZ are returning to school with course selections carefully made in order to secure the best pathway towards future career goals, it’s worth taking some time to consider the bigger picture being painted here. The idea isn’t new. There’s been talk for some time about how our current regime of credentialing learning in the time-honoured ways based on exams and testing for large chunks of work – often over a whole year – is failing to maintain relevance in our fast paced world. Not only is the rapid expansion of human knowledge causing headaches for curriculum and course developers, but the demand for evidence of development in non-academic areas such as the key competencies is rising among may employer groups.

The trending reported in the HolonIQ report identify just some of the initiatives that are being trialed around the globe. While the HolonIQ report focuses on what’s happening in the tertiary area, a recent report from KnowledgeWorks in the US titled “Measuring Forward” looks at emerging trends in K-12 assessment innovation. That report provides a table illustrating the key themes driving assessment innovation in the schools they researched – illustrated here:

Across the ditch in Australia, the members of the New Metrics unit at Melbourne University believe that Australian schooling is ready for a paradigm shift and the development of new metrics to assess, credential, and measure student, school and system success. They’ve been working with progressive school leaders who have moved away from the traditional ‘grammar of schooling’ to generate new and validated assessment tools for complex competencies. As part of this work they have developed systems to generate reports and learner profiles that recognise a broader range of what a learner knows and can do. Through their work they’ve identified what they call the building blocks of competency, which they label the ‘elements’ in their assessment framework.

Back in the US, the National Centre for Education and the Economy (NCEE) have published a paper on Reimagining Assessment that identifies both the system and school conditions required to expand what is required to experience success in our education system. In the introduction they say:

Skills like creativity, critical thinking, and digital problem solving are difficult to assess. They develop in non-linear ways and tend to be context-specific, without a clear correct answer. Systems are increasingly focusing on new ways to measure student performance on these metrics, weaving them together with traditional measures of student success to form purpose-led formative, summative, and system-level assessments.

The bulk of the Reimagining Assessment report is taken up with brief case studies taken from countries around the world where innovative approaches are being taken to address these concerns.

One of my favourite papers to challenge our thinking around how we might reimagine assessment and how we measure success in our education system was written by Bill Lucas, co-founder of Rethinking Assessment in the UK, and published in 2021 by the Centre For Strategic Education. Titled, Rethinking assessment in education: The case for change the paper explores some big questions, including whether our education system is fit for purpose, quoting Michael Fullan¹ who said;

The pervasive obsession with academic grades and degrees, and corresponding elite rewards at the expense of other people … results in narrow learning that severely distorts what people learn and need in the 21st century.

In the paper, Lucas goes on to identify some of the problems with educational assessment today, revisiting the purposes of assessment and looking at promising practices across the world. He quotes the work of Richard Elmore ²who differentiates between what he calls “Learning 1” and “learning 2”:

Learning 1 – Learning is the ability to recall and deploy information and algorithms accurately and appropriately, and assessment is the means by which we define, measure, evaluate, and confer ‘merit’, consistent with this definition of learning.

Learning 2 – Learning is the ability to consciously modify understandings, beliefs and actions in response to evidence, experience, and reflection, and assessment is the means by which individuals receive useful information about the development of their capabilities as learners over time.

I have to admit that reading that again here causes me to ‘wince’ at many of the practices being adopted in NZ schools this year as we meekly conform to the latest edicts from government and Ministry of Education regarding how we teach and assess literacy and numeracy. While I have no argument that we must adopt a more disciplined approach to teaching in these areas, we cannot let that become the sole focus of what we are doing. We do that at our peril – both in terms of the future of our education system, and the future of the kids we have in our schools.

So what can we learn from those who have been successful in re-thinking these sorts of issues? Back in the US, the The VELA Founder Network, made up of nearly 3,000 visionary founders building sustainable businesses that revolutionise education, published a paper that reported on how founders of unconventional models in their network define and measure learner outcomes in a paper titled Measuring What Matters. From their analysis they report on three findings:

• Finding 1: Founders have an expansive view of learner success.
• Finding 2: Founders are defining learner progress and assessing it.
• Finding 3: Founders are accountable to learners and families, and are growing.

These three principles seem, to me, to provide a pretty useful start point for any educator or school that is intent on taking seriously the need to re-think our approach to assessment and the value we place on measures of success in our education system.

The points taken from the various sources referenced above are just a handful of the sorts of research and frameworks available to help inform our view of what assessment could and should look like in a future-focused education system. In reading these it’s evident we need to be engaging in change in the way we measure success and design assessment. Here are my take-aways from all of this:

1. Traditional academic metrics are too narrow for today’s needs. This is evidenced by both HolonIQ’s observation about workforce demands and Fullan’s critique of the “pervasive obsession with academic grades.” The sources agree that current assessment systems aren’t fully serving modern educational and workplace requirements.
2. There’s a growing need to assess non-academic competencies. Multiple sources, from the New Metrics unit at Melbourne University to NCEE, emphasize the importance of measuring skills like creativity, critical thinking, and complex competencies that aren’t easily captured by traditional assessments.
3. Assessment should align more closely with real-world applications. This appears in HolonIQ’s discussion of workforce alignment and is reflected in the various initiatives trying to bridge the gap between education and practical skills.
4. The pace of change in knowledge and skills requires more flexible assessment approaches. The “rapid expansion of human knowledge” is challenging traditional year-long assessment cycles, suggesting a need for more adaptive and responsive assessment methods.
5. There’s a shift toward viewing learning as an ongoing, developmental process. This is particularly evident in Elmore’s distinction between “Learning 1” and “Learning 2,” where assessment becomes about tracking capability development rather than just measuring recall.
6. Assessment should serve learning rather than just measuring it. The VELA Network’s findings and the KnowledgeWorks report both suggest a more learner-centered approach where assessment provides meaningful feedback for growth.
7. There’s a move toward broader, more comprehensive learner profiles. Multiple sources, including the New Metrics unit and VELA Network, emphasize the importance of capturing a wider range of student capabilities and achievements.

Each of these points deserve much fuller exploration – but here they serve to illustrate how we need to be thinking about the future of assessment and the credentialing process we design to support that. With my eldest grandsons now in their final year at secondary school, I am finding my motivation to actively support educators, schools and systems to shift in these ways is increasing for all the reasons cited in these documents.

While systemic change in assessment practices requires coordination at many levels, every educator can begin this journey in their own context. Perhaps you could start by identifying just one area where you currently use traditional assessment methods and experiment with an alternative approach that better captures student growth and capability development. This might mean:

• Creating opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning through authentic, real-world applications rather than traditional tests
• Developing ways to document and recognize the development of key competencies alongside academic achievements
• Involving students more directly in assessing their own learning journey and helping them articulate their growth in ways that will be meaningful beyond school

The future of assessment isn’t just about changing what we measure – it’s about reimagining how we recognise and value learning itself. Rather than waiting for system-wide change, we can begin this transformation in our own classrooms and schools today, one assessment at a time.

Remember: every major shift in education began with educators who were willing to try something different. What will you try first?

---

1. Fullan, M (2021) The Right Drivers for Whole System Success, CSE Leading Education Series #1, February, Centre for Strategic Education, Melbourne. ↩︎
2. Elmore, R (2019) ‘The future of learning and the future of assessment’, ECNU Review of Education, 2, 3, p 328–341. ↩︎