Planned Creativity Indices in Several States Aim to Foster More Opportunities by Leah Goldstein Moses

A recent article in Education Week describes efforts in Massachusetts, California and Oklahoma to create new measures of creativity. While each state is taking a different approach, they are all trying to address three problems:

• Business and political leaders have said they need a more creative, innovative workforce, that can think quickly and launch new products, services and ways of doing business, including large companies like  IBM and Proctor and Gamble.
• Creativity does not lend itself to easy measures. A classic scholarly article put measures into ten different categories; since then, academics have pointed to the weaknesses in each.
• School leaders and advocates are concerned about over-emphasis on math and reading, and too little emphasis on subjects that are not tested.

Several interviewed for the article mentioned that they hope the assessments identify ways to improve arts and other creative expressions, without being punitive. I’m interested to see in the coming months what these states develop for their assessments, and how they can inform work in other states.