Successful Pathways Minus Standardize Tests

In honor of graduation season, a challenge of the definition of student success.

Sir Ken Robinson said that there is no singular utilitarian pathway for every kid and success lies in providing multiple pathways that brings out the talents and passion in people rather than a standardize test.

One program that sheds light on limitations of standardize as a predictor of success is the Posse Foundation. I read about it in my favorite online NYT column, Fixes, titled Beyond SATs, Finding Success in Numbers.

This article talks about how the Posse Foundation,  takes high school students who were clearly leaders — dynamic, intelligent, creative, resilient — but who might not have had the SAT scores to get into good schools and groups them into posses of 10 students from the same city that go together to an elite college tuition-free.

"Most Posse Scholars would not have qualified for their colleges by the normal criteria. Nevertheless, they succeed. Ninety percent of Posse Scholars graduate — half of them on the dean’s list and a quarter with academic honors."

It discusses that these stories of success tells us not just that the SAT is an inadequate predictor of college success, but that it can be malignant.  It shows that academic performance does not completely determine college success. There are other important factors: whether a student has social support, a sense of belonging and a network that can offer advice.  Minority students often do not have these sources of support as naturally as non-minority students. 


Take-aways:

1. Do Not Limit My View of Success

I grew up with a traditional and limited view of what was success as a student.  But, as Sir Ken Robinson says, success is not a linear path.  This was obvious to me the other month when I interviewed students for the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara .  I did seven interviews which consisted of:

• seven different students
• seven differed backgrounds from traditional high achieving families to non-english speaking families to abusive families
• seven different paths to success from high achieving G.P.A's to finding success through journalism, sports, or entrepreneurship to finding their way back to main stream high school after failing out to overcoming learning challenges
• seven different college dreams from Ivy League schools, to Junior Colleges, to trade schools, to schools with extra support for learning challenges

Who is considered more successful, the child from a traditional family with traditional academic success or the child who raised himself from a failing G.P.A to a C+ or the child that learned important leadership skills through sports, or the child that stepped up and saved one of the high school student programs.  Is success simply a GPA and a test score?  The younger me would have said yes, but the older me is learning to be open minded.


2.  Do Not Underestimate the Importance of a Support Community

This is especially important when we think about solving community issues.  I have had the pleasure of working on developing an emerging nonprofit leaders program.  The number one thing these leaders say they need is a community of support, a network to work through ideas and to offer advice.  If our community leaders say a support community is the number one thing they need to stay fueled to address issues, imagine how important a support community is to the underserved in helping them solve their own issues.