One Big Idea: Ray McNulty on Replacing Standardized Testing

If you could share One Big Idea to change the future of education, what would it be? 

In the sixth episode of our One Big Idea series, we hear from Ray McNulty, President of the Successful Practices Network. In his career, McNulty has served at the school, district, and state levels – as a teacher, principal, superintendent, and commissioner of education of Vermont; is a past president of the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE); was senior fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and was previously the dean at the School of Education at Southern New Hampshire University, which was named the 12th most innovative organization in the world by FAST Company Magazine.

Ray’s One Big Idea proposes that we must dramatically rethink the way assessment is used, as he describes the shortcomings of the high-stakes standardized testing environment that is used to measure students and teachers. “I don’t hear parents coming up to me and saying ‘I want my child to be an incredibly good test-taker,’” he says, later adding, “We’ve made assessment an incredibly dangerous thing to learning.” Ray talks about the importance of well-rounded development, including how students are developing their character, and how schools should be promoting continuous growth in all areas. When testing is presented with such high stakes that it will mark students as a “success” or “failure,” it is counterproductive to learning. “We have to move to a growth model. We have to move to a growth perspective. We have to move to multiple measures, and not this one assessment,” he says. 

What’s your One Big Idea to transform education? Connect with us on social media or on our website, www.futureof.school, to share! Follow Future of School on Twitter @futureof_school and follow Amy Valentine @amyvalentine555.

Learn more about Future of School and its mission to mobilize change in American K-12 education from a one-size-fits-all system to one that ensures all students reach their unbounded potential no matter where their learning takes place at www.futureof.school.

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