Education Commissioner hopeful that PACE can create opportunities for deeper learning for all students

In this video for KnowledgeWorks and the Center for Assessment, Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut speaks to how PACE can help expand innovation and deeper learning for all students and inspire conversations around innovation in districts where it hasn’t yet taken hold.

The federal government requires annual statewide tests for grades 3 through 8 and once in high school as part of the federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). But, New Hampshire was one of two states (plus Puerto Rico) that applied for a waiver to implement new, innovative assessments that would take testing beyond the typical statewide, standardized test.

In New Hampshire, the pilot authorized the Performance Assessment for Competency Education (PACE), which reduces the number of standardized tests a student takes over her academic career and uses locally developed assessments that are designed to promote deeper learning.

“I’m hopeful that through this innovative project, we’ll be able to create opportunities in all of our schools to create really deep performance assessment opportunities for our students, to be able to get good learning in those schools, and it will create a vehicle for that innovation to start some of those innovation conversations in those schools where it hasn’t yet taken hold,” said New Hampshire Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut.

Learn more about PACE and testing in New Hampshire: