When a kid ‘gets an A’ on a test, it’s usually because they have complied with expectations. They wrote the answer we wanted them to write. We give them a compliance prize – an ‘A’ – and everyone is happy.
Compliance is easy to measure and easy to produce.
However, what an ‘A’ on a test doesn’t usually indicate is:
- how much a student has actually learned;
- how much they have contributed to the learning of others;
- how able they are to innovate with their new learning; to apply their learning to novel, unexpected situations in adaptive ways.
We still spend a lot of time and energy in schools measuring and rewarding compliance. It seems the ‘real world’ though is increasingly valuing agility of learning, positive impact on others, and disruptive, innovative thinking. These are much harder to measure on a test.
David's Blog 
Totally agree, the world needs more than compliance awards it needs changemakers. We need an education system overhaul to change at scale!
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Thanks for your comment Nada. I agree. And I think we are seeing innovative and progressive schools starting to move away from compliance-based education. But there’s a long way to go.
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