To discover the difference between traditional and nontraditional assessments, identify authentic tasks, and list components of rubrics and portfolios to help support students in applying what they learned in authentic situations.

In 1935, Ralph Tyler proposed an “enlarged concept of student evaluation”. He urged to sample learning by collecting products of their efforts throughout the year. Evolved into what is…

A form of assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills.

Assessment is authentic when we directly examine student performance on worthy intellectual tasks.

Authentic assessment is any type of assessment that requires students to demonstrate skills and competencies that realistically represent problems and situations likely to be encountered in daily life.

a.k.a. “alternative assessment” Embedded tasks that are similar to

those performed by professionals as they do their jobs

Usually associated with inquiry, hands-on and performance based activities

Measure knowledge and ability (both)(both)

Assess both content and higher order thinking skills

Provide opportunities to demonstrate creativity, problem-solving and decision-making

Reflective of standards

The ProcessThe Finished

ProductThinking Behind

The Work

An Authentic assessment usually includes a task for students to perform and a rubric by which their performance on the task will be evaluated.

Traditional Assessment (TA) A school’s mission is to

develop productive citizens. To be a productive citizen

and individual must possess a certain body of knowledge and skills.

Therefore, schools must teach this body of knowledge and skills.

To determine if it is successful, the school must then test students to see if they acquired the knowledge and skills.

Authentic Assessment (AA) A school’s mission is to

develop productive citizens. To be a productive citizen,

an individual must be capable of performing meaningful tasks in the real world.

Therefore, schools must help students become proficient at performing the tasks they will encounter when they graduate.

To determine if it is successful, the school must then ask students to perform meaningful tasks that replicate real world challenges to see if students are capable of doing so.

In the TA model, the curriculum drives the assessment. “The” body of knowledge is determined first. That knowledge becomes the curriculum that is delivered. Subsequently, the assessments are developed and administered to determine if acquisition of the curriculum occurred.

In AA, assessment drives the curriculum. That is, teachers first determine the tasks that students will perform to demonstrate their mastery and then a curriculum is developed that will enable students to perform those tasks well, which would include the acquisition of essential knowledge and skills.

Authentic assessments require students to be effective performers with acquired knowledge. Traditional tests tend to reveal only whether the student can recognize, recall or “plug in” what was learned out of context.

Authentic assessments present the student with the full array of tasks that mirror the priorities and challenges found in the best instructional activities; conducting research; writing, revising and discussing papers; providing an engaging oral analysis of a recent political event; collaborating with others on a debate

Authentic assessment achieves validity and reliability by emphasizing and standardizing the appropriate criteria for scoring such (varied) products; traditional testing standardizes objective “items” and, hence, the (one) right answer for each.

“Test validity” should depend in part upon whether the test simulates real-world “tests” of ability. Validity on most multiple-choice tests is determined merely by matching items to the curriculum content (or through sophisticated correlations with other test results).

We can teach students how to do math, do history, do science, not just know them.

Then, to assess what our students had learned, we can ask students to perform tasks that “replicate the challenges” faced by those using mathematics, doing history, or conducting scientific investigation.

Traditional…………………………...Authentic

Selecting a Response…..……………….Performing a Task

Contrived………….………………………….Real-Life

Recall/Recognition…………...........Construction/Application

Teacher-Structured……………………Student Structured

Indirect Evidence………………………….Direct Evidence

Traditional

Generally relies on forced-choice

Encourages memorization

Measures acquisition of past knowledge

Provides a one-time snapshot of student understanding

Authentic

Promotes integration of various written and performance measures

Encourages divergent thinking in generating possible answers

Enhance development of meaningful skills

Provides an examination of learning over time

Performance Assessment: Students are often asked to perform real-world or authentic tasks or contexts.

Alternative Assessments: Alternative to traditional assessment using a rubric.

Direct Assessment: Provides more direct evidence of meaningful application of knowledge and skills.

We want students to use the acquired knowledge and skills in the real world, or authentic situations.

Research on learning has found that we cannot simply be fed knowledge. We need to construct our own meaning of the world, using information we have gathered and were taught and our own experiences with the world.

It encourages the integration of teaching, learning, and assessing.

We have different strengths and weaknesses in how we learn. Similarly, we are different in how we can best demonstrate what we have learned.

1. Identify your standards

2. Select and Authentic Task

3. Identify the criteria for the Task

4. Cerate the Rubric

Model building Measurement

taking Oral reports Written reports Lab reports Debates

Portfolios Science

notebook/journals

Student talk Active listening Concept maps Open-ended

questions

Constructed ResponseProduct Like:

short-answer essay questions, “show your work”, journal response, concept maps, figural representations.

Performance Like: Typing test, complete a step of science lab,

construct a short musical, dance, or dramatic response, exhibit an athletic skill.

ProductEssaysStories or PoemsResearch ReportsArt Exhibit or PortfolioLab ReportsNewspaperPoster

PerformanceConducting an ExperimentMusical, dance, or dramatic performancesDebatesAthletic competitionOral presentation

Definition: A scoring scale used to assess student performance along a task-specific set of criteria

Comprised of two components: Criteria Levels of Performance

CriteriaEach rubric has at least two criteria

The criteria, characteristics of good performance on a task, are usually listed on the left hand column

Can assign a weight to each criterion

Levels of PerformanceWhat degree the student has met the

criterion

Each rubric has at least two levels of performance

Levels of Performance help students better understand what good (or bad) performance on a task looks like, permit the teacher to more consistently and objectively distinguish between good and bad performance, and allows the teacher to provide more detailed feedback to students.

Analytic

Articulates levels of performance for each criterion so the teacher can assess student performance on each criterion.

Holistic

Assigns a level of performance by assessing performance across multiple criteria as a whole.

Definition: A collection of a student’s work specifically selected to tell a particular story about the student.

Could include the following, but is not limited to :Samples of workReflectionsBelief statementsGoalsEvaluations

Growth PortfoliosTo show growth or change over time, help develop

process skills such as self-evaluation and goal-setting, identify strengths and weaknesses, and track development of one or more products/performances.

Showcase Portfolios To showcase end-of-year/semester accomplishments,

prepare a sample of best work for employment or college admission, showcase student perceptions of favorite, best or most important work, and to communicate a student’s current aptitudes to future teachers.

Evaluation PortfoliosTo document achievement for grading purposes,

document progress towards standards, and to place students appropriately.

1. Assess the student

2. Assess the activity

1. Pre-instruction

2. During Instruction

3. Post-instruction

1. Pre-instruction

Goal: Assess students’ prior knowledge, ideas, beliefs, and attitudes in order to help them construct new knowledge.

1. Pre-instruction

Strategies: T-charts, journal writing, drawings, interviews/conversations, surveys, concept maps

2. During Instruction

Goal: To gain insight into how (or if) students’ knowledge, ideas, beliefs and attitudes are changing.

2. During Instruction

Strategies: Portfolios, journals, logs, field books, skills assessments (can the students use a balance?), product assessment (videos, websites, audio), tests, quizzes, etc.

3. Post-instruction

Goal: To evaluate students’ progress and reflect on the effectiveness and quality of instruction.

3. Post-Instruction

Strategies: Teacher evaluation forms, student interviews, written assignments, standardized tests, performance assessments (problem-solving).

Does it assess what you think it assesses?

Does it really reflect what the students were actually doing?

Is it fair and is it doable? Do the students know about it ahead of

time?

If our aim is merely to monitor performance then conventional testing is probably adequate. If our aim is to improve performance across the board then the tests must be composed of exemplary tasks, criteria and standards.

Students assume an active role in the assessment process. This shift in emphasis may result in reduced test anxiety and enhanced self-esteem.

Authentic assessment can be successfully used with students of varying cultural backgrounds, learning styles, and academic ability.

Tasks used in authentic assessment are more interesting and reflective of students’ daily lives.

Ultimately, a more positive attitude toward school and learning may evolve.

Authentic assessment promotes a more student-centered approach to teaching.

Teachers assume a larger role in the assessment process than through traditional testing programs. This involvement is more likely to assure the evaluation process reflects course goals and objectives.

Authentic assessment provides valuable information to the teacher on student progress as well as the success of instruction

Parents will more readily understand authentic assessments than the abstract percentiles, grade equivalents, and other measures of standardized tests.

Thinking about your textbook/materials:

1. Identify a single most important “skill” that you will cover while teaching.

2. Devise a performance-based activity you could do to teach this skill.

3. List 3 “authentic” assessments you could use to “grade” your student’s ability to perform this skill.

4. Now, using the activity and one assessment, write up the grading rubric/checklist/guideline.

“…Engaging and worthy problems or questions of importance, in which students must use knowledge to fashion performances effectively and creatively. The tasks are either replicas of or analogous to the kinds of problems faced by adult citizens and consumers or professionals in the field.”

Grant Wiggins on Authentic Assessments

Authentic Assessment Toolbox

http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/whatisit.htm

http://www.park.edu/cetl/quicktips/authassess.html

http://jove.geol.niu.edu/faculty/kitts/GEOL401/inquiryassessment401.ppt#256,1,Authentic Assessment