Authentic Assessment

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Authentic Assessment

• Lynne E. Houtz, Ph.D.
• Associate Professor of Education
• Creighton University

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Skill GoalsAs a result of
participating in this workshop, participants
will be able to

• Define Assessment.
• Use assessment to inform teaching and learning.
• Identify appropriate strategies to evaluate
  student learning, including test development and
  alternative assessments.
• Provide examples of a variety of assessment
  techniques and tools.
• Provide examples of rubrics and resources for
  rubric development.

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Assessment

• The systematic collection,
• review, and use of
• information about
• educational programs
• undertaken for the purpose
• of improving student
• learning and development.
• Scritchfield (2002)
• Scritchfield, S.A. (2002). Assessment of student
  learning What,how, why bother. Workshop
  sponsored by Office for Excellence in Teaching,
  Learning Assessment.

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"My question is, "Are we making an impact?' "
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Often the long-range goal is far downstream and
difficult to measure because of the many
intervening variables and time constraints within
funding and reporting periods.
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Fairness in classroom assessment refers to giving
all students an equal chance to show what they
know and can do!!
NEA Professional Standards and Practice
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Written Tests

• Paper pencil or computer
• Essay or objective
• Standardized achievement
• Criterion-referenced

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Assessment Terms

• Alternative - one of several possibilities
  another option. Any type of
  assessment in which students create a response to
  a question, rather than choosing a response from
  a given list.

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Authentic

• Tests should involve real-life tasks,
  performances, or challenges that replicate the
  problems faced by an expert in a particular
  field.
• Students should understand up-front the criteria
  on which their work will be judged and be able to
  apply the criteria to their work.
• Students should be asked to demonstrate their
  control over the essential knowledge being taught
  by actually using the information in a way that
  reveals their level of understanding.

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Assessment Methods

• Observations
• Oral Questions
• Written Tasks
• Tests
• Class Presentations
• Extended Problem-Solving Projects
• Take-Home Tests
• Homework

• Journals
• Group Work
• Portfolios
• Standardized Achievement Tests
• Student Interviews
• Focus Groups
• Performance Tests
• Criterion-References Tests

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Making Assessments based on Observations
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The Primary Components of Performance Assessment

• 1. Context What performance will you evaluate?
• 2. Criteria By what standards will you judge
  proficiency? How will these standards be
  determined?
• 3. Method How will you elicit this performance
  so that you can observe it? How will you rate
  performance and create a record of your
  assessment? Who shall evaluate the performance?

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Performance Based CurriculumKey Quality Points

• Students are given quality models of performance
  based upon real-world examples of excellence.
• Students practice toward, and teachers teach
  toward those models. Criteria are clearly stated
  and set in advance.
• High standards are set and maintained and
  additional instructional support provided, for
  all students to meet standards.
• Students have the opportunity to reflect and
  practice self evaluation.
• The engagement and motivation factors that have
  traditionally involved students in sports and the
  arts are applied to academic endeavors.

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Criteria for Good Alternative Assessment
National Research Centers (1993) A Tool Kit for
Professional Developers Alternative
Assessment. Laboratory Network Program.

• Coverage
• Performance Criteria
• Sampling/ Representativeness/Generalizability
• Tasks
• Extraneous Interference

• Fairness and Rater Bias
• Consequences/ Validity
• Cost and Efficiency
• .

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Performance Assessment

• Criteria for success
• Content
• Details
• Quality, etc

• Rubric http//rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
• Checklist
• Reliability
• Validity

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Perceptual Data views, judgments, or appraisals
from an individuals perspective (Bernhardt,
1998).

• Focus Groups
• Interviews
• Surveys
• Bernhardt, Victoria L. (1998). Data Analysis for
  Comprehensive Schoolwide Improvement. Larchmont,
  NY Eye On Education, 292 pages.

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I find the great thing in this world is not so
much where we stand as in what direction we are
moving!!
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Everything that can be counted does not
necessarily count everything that counts cannot
necessarily be counted.

• - Albert Einstein

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Analyzing Focus Group Information

• Memory-Based Analysis
• Note-Based Analysis
• Tape-Based Analysis
• Transcript-Based Analysis

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FOCUS GROUP ANALYSIS
Least time-intensive Most-rigorous
Most time-intensive Most-rigorous
Memory-based
Transcript - Based
Note-based
Tape-based
Focus Groups, Second Edition A Practical Guide
for Applied Research. Krueger, R. 1994. Sage
Publications. Thousand Oaks, CA
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Portfolio Assessment

• Students compose a portrait of themselves as able
  learners, selecting and presenting evidence that
  they have met the learning standards for
  individual classes and for the broader learning
  tasks.

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Final Thoughts

• Alternative assessment is not automatically
  better assessment.
• Alternatives have advantages and disadvantages.
• Take a balanced approach to assessment.
• Design alternative assessments to be tools for
  learning and teaching.

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It is good to have an end to journey toward but
it is the journey that matters in the end.
It is good to have an end to journey toward but
it is the journey that matters in the end.
Ursula K. Le Guin