Traditionally, we know if an educational intervention worked if we see an increase in test scores. In some contexts, you can show growth in soft skills like confidence, creativity, communication and more. But those aren’t what drive funding to schools. Those are things that help students lead better lives, but often those effects can’t be observed with “hard” data until far later in life.
In 10 or 15 years, you might finally have enough data to prove some modern, learner-centered system works. But we don’t have 10 or 15 years. We have to trust what’s working right now and increasing a student’s curiosity and confidence in the moment.
Young people need to guide us and that means we need a new set of metrics that align with what makes young people happy now and successful later. Rigor for its own sake does neither. Rote memorization discourages curiosity. Strict compliance crushes agency.
What do young people think we should measure?