Eventually those 1st graders in 1983 became high school students demonstrating their SAT accomplishments in 1997. What was even more astonishing was that leaders around the country took credit for that increase because they had just raised the standards in each of the states. They actually believe they had something to do with this rise in SAT scores. I'm trying to figure out a way to help the decision makers to realize that education is like a good wine. It takes time.
Policy makers are impatient.
They think that by merely raising the bar we will advance learning. So one of the things I'm very interested in is alternative assessment. I use the webfolio, rubrics, and peer review currently. First the scholars publish all of their work on line as they write it to their webpage. It is evolving online and being critiqued by me, peers, and telementors as they write, which means it is always under construction.