and study microorganisms in New York, designing future schools in Seattle,

and racing electric cars in Hawaii.

All across the country students are being called upon

to show what they know in challenging tests of their abilities.

>>Man: Here we go!

The national championship on the line.

>>Narrator: These are the fun tests.

>>Teacher: Today we're going to take SAT I, the reasoning test.

>>Narrator: But today's students face other kinds of exams and their score

on one of them can determine their future.

With pressures mounting and stakes on the rise,

some educators believe we are asking the wrong questions

with standardized tests.

>>Linda: There's an irony in testing in American schools.

We probably have kids who are the most tested and under examined

of any kids in the world.

Take New York State for example.

Even before they get to the Regents examinations,

students will have taken 20 batteries of tests

over the course of their school careers.

So there are thousands and thousands of hours spent on taking these tests

and preparing for these tests which give very little indication

of what kids can actually do in real-world situations.

>>Howard: People may be good test takers but once you leave the world

of testing you have to think for yourself

because the world doesn't come organized in four choices

with the fourth one being "None of the above".

>>Hugh: As I was mulling all these issues about the SAT I was struck

by the fact that there are all sorts of other attributes like drive

and grit and determination, ability to problem-solve,

communication skills, leadership skills.

These intangibles that were critically important.

>>Student: So we could get 120 points just for getting our robots

in the end zone without scoring any balls...

>>Hugh: And that by virtue of excessive reliance on SAT scores,

you're ruling out large numbers of youngsters of all races

and all complexions who may not have stratospheric SAT scores,

but who have these other kinds of attributes

that experience shows contribute to high-level success in the real world.

>>Eeva: Is this what the science wing would look like?

>>Narrator: Teachers like Eeva Reeder believe that measuring performance

on projects is a better way to gauge a student's potential

for real world success.

>>Student: Open inviting area...

>>Narrator: So instead of memorizing geometrical abstractions,

her students spend the last six weeks

of their sophomore year designing schools for the year 2050.

>>Student: Why not have the whole side like wall open,

be glass facing the water.

>>Eeva: To assess a student's deep understanding of a subject

and their ability to apply a concept you cannot test those kinds

of abilities through a traditional paper and pencil kind of assessment.

It has to be what we call a performance-based assessment

and that's why I do these projects

because the project requires these students

to create products or performances.

>>Student: In the beginning we decided to start

with the floor plans and the designs.

Our school has one main building.

>>Eeva: I have to come up with ways to assess those products

and performances so I look at the site plan and look

at the perspective drawing.

I read the proposal.

And I have a scoring guide developed for each one of those.

But I think that the most powerful assessment for this project is

that provided by the architects.

>>Man: When I first saw your drawings I thought

to myself this is a real consistent idea.

>>Narrator: While performance-based assessment requires a significant

investment of time and energy,

proponents insist it is time well spent.

>>Linda: The students have to develop the performances.

The teachers have to evaluate them.

But the time is not lost to teaching and learning.

The time is teaching and learning.

Because the actual conduct of the assessment is a learning experience

for the students as well as the teacher.

It informs teaching.

It actually gives teachers feedback immediately about what they need

to do to meet students' needs so it's actually productive time.

>>Narrator: The Urban Academy in New York City is part of a consortium

of 32 schools that has rejected tests like the state's Regents exam

and replaced it with a series of performance assessments.

>>This thesis isn't clear.

It seems as though he jumps from-

>>Ann: We're very interested in students developing certain skills.

We re interested in them developing an ability to work

with multiple perspectives to be able

to analyze evidence, to be able to critique.

>>We want them to be able to take text and talk about it,

be able to understand to compare different texts

and to read whole books, not just little snippets of books.

And we've set them up with an external assessor.

Someone who has agreed to spend an hour with that student who has agreed

to read the book, and who then sites sown with that student and discusses

that book for 45 minutes or an hour.

>>Student: She's going to him to see whether

or not he saw what she had done.

>>Right.

>>Ann: What we're really trying to see is can that student take

that reading and go and talk to somebody they don't know,

a perfect stranger, about the book and have a conversation about it.

That's one way that we can tell whether a student is ready to go on

and do college-level work.

>>Student: Is that about a 26.

How come it's so low?

>>Narrator: Critics of performance-based assessment worry

that if students are free to pursue projects

of their choice standards will suffer.

But some assessment experts say

that independent study projects should meet the highest standards.

>>Grant: What we have to do is realize that even

if we give the kid free reign to do really cool projects it's still got

to fit within the context of some objectives and some standards

and some criteria that we bring to it.

>>Student: For those of you

who aren't sure what [inaudible] pools are, they're-

>>Grant: So that we can say by the end I have evidence,

I can make the case that you learn something substantial and significant

that relates to school objectives.

>>Teacher: As far as listening and speaking and writing,

you're making steady progress.

>>Narrator: One school the Key Learning Community in Indianapolis

in Indiana has a clear and unique objective.

Established in 1987 the school is dedicated to the cultivation

of multiple intelligences and to developing new methods of assessment.

>>Teacher: Ours represent that these are his strength areas

and also anytime that you see a the shape

of a triangle those also represent the strengths.

>>Pat: We're interesting in how students apply knowledge

and so students are required through their high school

to do major projects each semester.

At the end of high school they should have eight major projects

that they would have developed and all of this is put together

on a multimedia portfolio to document what it is they're capable of doing.

>>Student: I've been working with the Egyptians because they had

so many symbols and hieroglyphics and things like that.

>>Pat: I think that what we're doing here is going to be needed very soon

because people are going to realize how shortsighted all of this effort

on standardized tests is.

It's going to crash.

It has crashed in the past.

It will crash and people will need something else to replace it

and maybe we might help in that effort.

>>Narrator: For schools that are challenging the high-stakes testing

movement, the goal is to put less emphasis on cramming, drills,

and test taking strategies and focus on in-depth learning.

>>Ann: I'm all for high standards.

I don't know of anybody who is for low standards.

The question is do we get

at what we're saying we want using the tests to drive this?

That's the real crux of it and I would argue that we don't.

>>Grant: A lot of teachers and administrators

in their understandable concern

about these high-stakes tests are making a mistake when they say "Teach

to the test, teach to the test.

That's what we have to do."

There's no evidence to show that you raise test scores by teaching worse.

There's no evidence to show that when you teach

for an in-depth robust performance

where you have high-quality local assessment

that your test scores suffer.

In fact the evidence is to the contrary.

High quality local assessment is what we need to pay attention to.

>>Narrator: For more information on what works

in public education go to edutopia.org.