What Are Some Types of Assessment?

In the early theories of learning, complex higher-order thinking skills were thought to be acquired in small pieces, breaking down learning into a series of prerequisite skills. It was thought that after these pieces were memorized, the learner would be able to assemble them into complex understanding and insight. The puzzle could be put together to form a coherent picture. Today we know that learning requires the learner to engage in problem-solving and to actively build mental models. Knowledge is not attained by just receiving information, but by interpreting the information and relating it to the knowledge base the learner already has. What is important, and therefore should be assessed, is the learner's ability to organize, structure, and use information in context to solve complex problems.

Credit: GLEF

Standardized Assessment

"Assessment should be deliberately designed to improve and educate student performance, not merely to audit as most school tests currently do."

-- Grant Wiggins, Ed.D., President and Director of Programs, Relearning by Design, Ewing NJ

Almost every school district now administers state-mandated standardized tests. Every student at a particular grade level is required to take the same test. Everything about the test is standard -- from the questions themselves to the length of time students have to complete it (although some exceptions may be made for students with learning or physical disabilities) to the time of year in which the test is taken. Throughout the country, and with the passage of the "No Child Left Behind" Act (which requires research-based assessment), student performance on these tests has become the basis for such critical decisions as student promotion from one grade to the next, or compensation for teachers and administrators.

Standardized tests should not be confused with the standards movement, which advocates specific grade-level content and performance standards in key subject areas. Often, in fact, standardized tests are not aligned with state and district content standards, causing considerable disconnect between what is being taught and what is being tested.

The questions then become: What is evidence-based assessment? Is it standardized tests? Is it portfolios? If portfolios are a part of evidence-based assessment, what else is necessary? Reflections? Work samples? Best work?

Credit: GLEF

Alternative Assessment

"If assessment is to be a positive force in education, it must be implemented properly. It cannot be used to merely sort students or to criticize education. Its goals must be to improve education. Rather than 'teach to the test,' we must 'test what we teach.'"

-- Lockwood and McLean

Alternative assessment, often called authentic or performance assessment, is usually designed by the teacher to gauge students' understanding of the lessons taught. Examples of these measurements are open-ended questions, written compositions, oral presentations, projects, experiments, and portfolios of student work over time. Alternative assessments are designed so that the content of the assessment being used matches the content of what is being taught.

Effective assessments give students feedback on how well they understand the information and on what they need to improve. They help teachers better design instruction to teach more effectively. Assessment becomes even more relevant when students become involved in the development of the assessment to be used. Students eagerly take an active role in developing the scoring criteria, self-evaluation, and goal setting. They accept that the assessment is adequately measuring their learning because they have had a role in the assessment's creation.

Research supports authentic assessment. Read the article "Assessment Research." Download the PDF files of the research reports or view the research Web sites. What do you think? Discuss your thoughts.

Authentic Assessment can include many of the following:

• Observation
• Essays
• Interviews
• Performance Tasks
• Exhibitions and Demonstrations
• Portfolios
• Journals
• Teacher-created Tests
• Rubrics
• Self- and Peer-evaluation

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