Dear Village Family,
Throughout the creation story, we see God assess His work, reflecting upon His world. As God forms, he stops to evaluate. And as the first chapter of Genesis reaches summation, we find one of the most beautiful statements of the Bible: God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
This week, Mrs. Arguelles and Mr. Redondo will share how we work with our students, reflecting on their work and evaluating progress. As an IB World School, meaningful assessment supports curricular goals. In IB programmes, assessment is, therefore, ongoing, varied and integral to the curriculum. IB schools use a range of strategies and tools to assess student learning. Emphasis is placed on the importance of analysing assessment data to inform teaching and learning, and on recognizing that students benefit by learning how to assess their own work and the work of others.
Throughout my educational journey, I found that my assessments focused on content, the ability of a student to consume and repeat information in a stated format. As I transitioned from education to the technology industry, I found that the success of my daily work focused on the skills, both hard and soft, that I could bring to bear to solve a dynamic problem. Knowing and repeating content was no longer enough.
Our children are growing up in a vastly different world. a world where Artificial Intelligence use statistical models to analyze vast amounts of data to learn, predict, create content, and more and more bring solutions to our problems.
Our assessments and educational success must then go beyond well beyond content knowledge.
James J. Heckman is the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, a Nobel Memorial Prize winner in economics, and an expert in the economics of human development. In his research on education, Dr. Heckman states develop cognitive AND character skills early. Invest in the “whole child.” Effective early childhood education packages cognitive skills with character skills such as attentiveness, impulse control, persistence and teamwork. Together, cognition and character drive education, career and life success—with character development often being the most important factor.
At Creation Village World School, we strive to live our mission of developing students who love God, pursue excellence, live health, and serve others. Core to the International Baccalaureate® (IB) is the aim to provide an education that enables students to make sense of the complexities of the world around them, as well as equipping them with the skills and dispositions needed for taking responsible action for the future. Assessment, therefore, is the building of character through inquiring about God’s creation to take action through loving others. Within our assessment, we drive back to the Genesis model, pulling from one of our founding verses for the school: doing what is good for God is both excellent and profitable for everyone.
Developing students in mind, body, and spirit; enabling them to understand their development holistically. And the results? Dr. Heckman’s research has shown that “every dollar invested in quality early childhood education produces a 7-10% per annum return in better education, health, social and economic outcomes.”
We are made to do good for God, serving his creation in love, for we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
In His Grace,
Derek Cummings
Head of School
