Norgaard's talks in Maine schools included descriptions of the Project for Enhancing Effective Learning, which is widely used in Denmark. The approach makes students more responsible for learning by giving them a say in how a class is structured and awareness of how they think and learn. A BPE grant enabled her to spend a week in the Czech Republic in spring 1996, learning how Czechs have assessed students for the past two centuries. Students go before review committees to orally demonstrate their proficiency in four subjects. It was amazing to see the exams.
Students show off what they know.
University Heights School in the Bronx, an alternative school where Ort had been working, had been experimenting with similar assessment methods. Many of its students have problems in regular high schools and don't score well on traditional tests. Since her return to New York, Ort has analyzed 250 Roundtables reports and is using what she learned from the Czech system to suggest improvements. And that is a great form of professional development. Expanding horizons is what good teachers do.