Another item for my Kiwi readers as they begin their week.

FutureMakers Newsletter 6 April, 2024 Kia ora koutou It’s been a rather busy week this week, with lots in the news about government policy and budgets, all of which has a significant bearing on the future that our young people will inherit.  So this week’s newsletter contains a link to my recent blog post with a challenge to education leaders, a couple of posts about assessment – a critical aspect of our education process, and a reminder of the need to be discerning in our adoption of new pedagogical approaches. Ngā mihi In this newsletter… Tyrrany of the Urgent Consideration of the Assessment Landscape in 2024 Rethinking Grading 5 Popular beliefs that aren’t backed by research Tyrrany of the Urgent My latest blog post, the Tyrrany of the Urgent, is a call is for leaders (at every level of the system) to rise above the tyrrany of the urgent, and embrace a future-focused view of the work they/we do, acting with a ‘system leadership’ mindset, rather than merely focusing on the immediate area of leadership they are responsible for. It concludes with a ‘call to action’ with a list of things we must commit to doing and being as educational leaders into the future. Consideration of the Assessment Landscape in 2024 With the new National-led government now in office, we can expect changes to assessment policy for schools. Graeme Cosslett and Charles Darr from NZCER argue that given the critical role assessment plays in schooling, it is important that any proposed policy shifts are carefully scrutinised. In this paper they identify some possible proposals the new government may be considering and make some brief comments on each one, and conclude with a set of recommendations. Rethinking Grading I came across this short clip this week titled Rethinking Grading that briefly summarises a project called the Rethinking Grading Initiative designed and implemented by the Massachusetts Department of Education, Rennie Center For Education and Policy, and reDesign, between 2022 and 2024. While the notion of ‘grades’ is more specific to the US context, NZ educators could easily insert any of the vocabulary from our high stakes assessment and ponder the same questions as being addressed by the speakers in this clip. It really about considering measuring what matters, with a focus what will be important and meaningful in the lives of our learners into the future. 5 Popular Education Beliefs That Aren’t Backed by Research Just for interest I thought I’d include this fascinating article from Edutopia titled 5 Popular Education Beliefs That Aren’t Backed by Research. A timely reminder that we ought always be reflecting on the validity of the research behind what we do as educators. It’s not all bad news, however, the article quotes research that suggests making adjustments to these common misconceptions can turn dubious strategies into productive lessons. Free Playbook Download your own copy of Agency By Design: An Educator’s Playbook from the Aurora Institute Website and use this to help guide you and your staff/school through the process of creating a learning environment where learner agency can flourish. This playbook has been designed especially to be used either personally or as a focus for your professional learning community. You can download the whole book or separate chapters, and then capture your own notes and reflections in the areas provided in the text, But wait, there’s more… At FutureMakers we use a range of forums to curate good ideas and resources. Check out the following… Derek’s Blog – regular posts available on the FutureMakers website Previous newsletters – access all of the previous editions of the FutureMakers newsletter from this one place Resilient Schools Online Community – brought to you in partnership with Transcend My slideshows from recent presentations curated on SlideShare Hybrid Learning – a collection of resources on the FutureMakers website Learner Agency – another collection of resources on the FutureMakers website If you’ve enjoyed reading this newsletter please feel free to forward it to others to read, or better yet, ask them to become a FutureMakers subscriber so they will receive their own updates delivered to their mailbox. Subscribe to The FutureMakers Newsletter I’m always interested to hear your feedback or ideas about what you’d like to see included in future newsletters – please use the link below to email me with your suggestions. Email Derek

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