If we’re going to change the conversation about schooling, it’s going to require more than just building new kinds of schools. We also need to re-examine a whole range of things, including how we train teachers, our hiring and firing practices, and, of course the kinds of tests we give.
There’s a cool concept coming from an organization called Creative Distillery, which is partnering with the Institute for Democratic Education in America to create a new kind of standardized test. They’re calling it CORE (Creativity, Openness, Resourcefulness, and Engagement), and it’s designed to assess how well a school environment nurtures right-brain thinking. The creators of the test write, “Right now students are required to take top-down standardized tests that measure only left-brain skills. In contrast, the CORE test will work from the ground up, inviting students to evaluate how well their school is providing a creative, engaging learning environment.”
Right-brain thinking matters, according to a recent survey done by IBM of 1,500 CEOs from around the world. It identified creativity as the most important aptitude needed to navigate a rapidly changing world.