The Real World

The Real World, you know that place when you grow up that you are supposed to go. The place where when you wake up in the morning, put your suit and tie on, grab your briefcase, drink down a cup of coffee and go to work. The Real World where all of our children will go when they are done with the artificial world of school Not the Real World that resides on MTV, but the world in which not only can our children grow up and get a job, but do the job once they get there.  Now, there is this belief, that educators have never spent time in the Real World but rather they were born, raised, and never been allowed to leave the confines of K-12 education, so they have no context of what it takes to be successful in the Real World, only those that are in this real world know what it takes to be there, what must be learned, and how it should be assessed. The result of this is a long list of standards and some really long language-embedded tests. In order to prepare the students, we should have some very scripted recipe-based instruction and tests every Friday. Which, of course, the children can review for on Thursday.

The funny thing is in doing this we are required to create an environment that looks nothing like the Real World. While I have not spent a lot of time in the Real World, I am more of a rarity in education rather than the standard. Our teaching staff is composed of some college graduates that became teachers right away, but it is also composed of former attorneys, engineers, and construction workers. Members of our staff have worked in the corporate world and the world of education. Many of them as they reflect on their professions note how much more work they do now than then. In their former Real World lives often their work ended when they left for the day as opposed to the many hours of preparation and assessment feedback they do now in their evenings.

When they spent time Real World, there weren't many tests. Employees were evaluated on projects and products they created independently and collaboratively. As they worked, there were opportunities for questioning and feedback. Employees worked at different paces, adjusting to meet the demands of the project. Feedback frequently was an ongoing process. Content knowledge was downplayed and effective product design and implementation was praised. This was their Real World, one if we want to prepare our children for we need to rethink what we do in our classes.

In a test happy educational world we need to realize that this form of assessment is the smallest component of Real World experience. Tests will be gate keepers for college and possibly graduation from school. They will occur rarely through our adult lives. While we need to be able to do our best on tests, in the Real World, we need to be able to create products and work collaboratively on projects. On a daily basis, our children will need to be able to work with others, take feedback and adjust what they are doing. They will need to think creatively, research information that they do not know, and integrate it into their products to meet their client and employers needs. As such, in schools, if we want to prepare them for the real world, we need to stop thinking about the grade we are going to report out and instead cultivate project-based learning opportunities that they will need to continuously revise, adapt, and develop. This is Real World. This is a world that can exist in and outside of school. It may not be easily measured by a standardized score, but will enhance our GDP much more than our current study and test methodology. It's a world that is better for our students now and in their future.

State Department Assessment - Spies Like Us