Our Story of Student Mastery of Knowledge and Skills

​

By the time the graduates of the class of 2014 completed their education at Leaders, they had spent four years engaging in rigorous curricula that challenged their thinking; communicating their learning and academic progress in Socratic seminars, class debates, and Presentations of Learning; and applying the concepts they learned in the classroom to authentic situations through fieldwork and with real world experts. But they had also spent over 15 hours (and upwards of thirty for our ELLs and students with IEPs) sitting for state tests that rely heavily on rote memorization rather than critical thinking. 

 

Two years ago, when Leaders was accepted into the New York State Performance Standards Consortium, we were energized at the prospect of bringing our state assessments more closely in line with EL Education's Core Practices through PBATs. At Leaders we know that having high standards doesn't always mean learning must be standardized.

 

Since then, these authentic, in-depth, analytical products have transformed our curricula and the ways in which students learn. Our teachers know that task predicts performance, so they have designed assessments and lessons that allow students to become leaders of their own learning and are able to track their progress over multiple years through content-specific PBAT rubrics that are aligned to Common Core standards. Students in turn must research, write, speak about, and defend their ideas in a variety of formats and with diverse audiences. They must attend to craftsmanship by refining their ideas and revising their writing over the course of each semester. And as the tasks and their arguments grow increasingly complex over the course of their high school careers, they deepen their understanding of the key concepts and skills within each discipline. 

 

Perhaps most importantly, students develop the practical and critical thinking skills they will need once they leave our walls. In college and career, students graduate from Leaders prepared to think critically about the world, able to consider multiple perspectives, and capable of transferring their learning to novel situations. This is why Leaders students - all students, including those who enter our building speaking little or no English - are going not only to, but also making it through college in record numbers.