I believe that we have only just begun the process of discovering and inventing the new organizational forms that will inhabit the twenty-first century. To be responsible inventors and discoverers, though, we need the courage to let go of the old world, to relinquish most of what we cherished, to abandon our interpretations about what does and doesn't work. As Einstein is often quoted as saying: "No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it. We must learn to see the world anew."

—Margaret J. Wheatley

The design of most schools is based on the assumption that life proceeds in a linear fashion. For example, a strategic plan will outline a five-year design for a district, but it probably won't allow for more than one eventuality during that time. Because schools usually assume linear, certain paths in their work, assessment has always been designed to assume cause-and-effect relationships. As a result, we have been willing to use summative assessment as a final judgment rather than as a continuous feedback system based on a changing environment.

Although we recognize the nonlinear path of learning (whether by students or an organization), we continue to seek and use ways of assessment that ignore the realities of performance in a less predictable, nonlinear environment. This book describes a vision for "the world anew" based on both theory and practice regarding the role of assessment in school life. We will illuminate a new perspective for understanding what is meant by continuous improvement (Deming 1986) in a learning organization (Senge 1990).

Theoretical Background

To help us understand the nonlinear organizational world, we draw upon concepts by W. Edwards Deming as described in Out of the Crisis (1986) and Peter Senge's theories from The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (1990).

Underlying our work is the idea that improvement is not a one-time effort. We must constantly seek ways of continual growth, renewal, and learning. As one of Deming's fourteen principles states: "Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service."

Also underlying our work are Senge's five disciplines. They are:

1. Systems Thinking: The discipline that integrates the others, fusing them into a coherent body of theory and practice.
2. Mental Models: The ability to unearth our internal pictures of the world to scrutinize them and to make them open to the influence of others.
3. Building Shared Vision: The practice of unearthing collective "pictures of the future" that foster genuine commitment.
4. Personal Mastery: Continually clarifying and deepening our skills toward improved practices.
5. Team Learning: The capacity to "think together," which is gained by mastering the practice of dialogue and discussion.

Organization of this Book

Parts I through VI describe how assessment is related to:

• Bringing congruence and integrity to organizational goals and assessments through systems thinking (Part I).
• The use of feedback spirals as a process design for continued learning (Part II).
• The need to change our existing mental models for the role of assessment in schools (Part III).
• How schools state their purposes and outcomes as their shared vision (Part IV).
• The power of team building and the role of critical friends as resources for continual learning (Part V).
• A developmental continuum that helps us set milestones along the pathways to personal mastery (Part VI).

After an initial discussion of each paradigm, the section "From Paradigm to Practice" contains practical examples of the application of these concepts. These chapters have been contributed by outstanding educational practitioners, and they illuminate the realities and challenges of implementing the six concepts and shifting the various paradigms. The practitioners relate strategies from their districts, reflections on personal experiences with students in their classrooms and schools, and insights they have gained in working to create a renaissance in the assessment process. As you read these practitioner pieces, you are invited to return to the paradigm presented at the beginning of the chapter to gain the maximum meaning from each contribution.

Part VII concludes the book with a discussion of seven tasks that educators must confront and accomplish in order to implement shifts in the assessment paradigm and rebuild the school as a learning organization.

Today, the ascendant nations and corporations are masters not of land and material resources but of ideas and technologies. ... The global network of telecommunications can carry more valuable goods than all the world's super tankers. Wealth comes not to the rulers of slave labor but to the liberators of human creativity, not to the conquerors of land but to the emancipators of mind.

—Paul Davies and John Gribbin

References

Davies, P., and J. Gribbin. (1992). The Matter Myth. New York: A Touchstone Book.

Deming, W.E. (1986). Out of the Crisis. Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.

Senge, P. (1990). The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday, Current.

Wheatley, M.J. (1992). Leadership and the New Science. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.