Graduation Performance System
Asia Society’s Graduation Performance System (GPS) prepares high school students for a global, innovation-driven future. Businesses, communities, and families are demanding that students graduate ready for college and globally competent. The GPS helps schools meet that demand.
The GPS is an iterative process that lets teachers improve instruction and students develop the knowledge and skills that will ensure they are ready for college—and the interconnected world beyond.
GPS design is informed by best-practice research on performance-based assessment in the United States as well as from top-rated school systems worldwide. It is adapted from a system developed by Envision Education and the Stanford Center For Assessment, Learning and Equity (SCALE). The GPS drives teaching and learning experiences that are very real-world and are informed by student choice. Students share projects with the world, not just their teachers.
GPS works within academic disciplines, and it can be applied in an interdisciplinary way, too. It aligns with state and Common Core standards.
More than a process, the GPS results in students creating a portfolio that demonstrates mastery of global knowledge and skills.
GPS implementation includes three main components: tools, faculty training, and on-site leadership coaching.
Tools
The GPS provides frameworks and tools to help students develop deep knowledge about the world and critical 21st century skills within and across disciplines. Problem seeking, analysis, problem solving, and collaboration are hallmarks of this type of education.
The tools include a graduate profile, a series of discipline-based and interdisciplinary performance targets and rubrics (which is a type of scoring guide; see an example), as well as sample curricula and examples of student work.
The tools are designed to work within formal education as well as in affiliated afterschool and summer programs.
Faculty Training
The training starts with an introduction to core principles of global competence and the GPS. It teaches a design approach to lesson planning, curriculum writing, and instruction. It provides instruction on how to evaluate student work, calibrate scoring—and importantly—how to use feedback to improve instruction and curriculum. The trainings will demonstrate how to use the GPS tools, as well as help educators create new teaching, learning, and assessment practices of their own based on underlying GPS frameworks and principles.
Leadership Coaching
On-site coaching is focused on working with school or district leaders to implement globally focused instruction, curriculum, and assessment throughout the education community.
Seeking New Partners
Asia Society has piloted the GPS in its network of international studies schools, and is currently partnering with school districts to develop globally competent and college-ready students.
To inquire about partnerships, please contact Neelam Chowdhary by calling 212-327-9265 or email nchowdhary [at] asiasociety.org.