Authentic Assessment - The Ins and Outs

Authentic Assessment - The Ins and Outs

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

   • Authentic Assessment vs Traditional Assessment
     • Traditional Assessment - The curriculum drives the assessment. Assessments are administered to determine if acquisition of curriculum occurred.
     • Authentic Assessment - Assessments drive the curriculum. This is also called "planning backwards". Students are asked to perform tasks that replicate daily challenges in all subjects.
       • Authentic Assessment Complements Traditional Assessment - Teachers can use both to get a whole child idea of what the student can do or cannot do. Some ways to incorporate these two assessments are:
         • Direct v/s Indirect Evidence - This is where multiple choice and open ended questions are weighed in. Open ended questions gives the teacher a deeper insight into what the student can do and how the student processes information. This type of assessment give evidence of proficiency at a deeper level.
       • Other Names for Authentic Assessment:
         • Performance Based- Students show what they know by performing a meaningful task.
           • Alternative Assessment - Assessments that are alternative to traditional assessments.
           • Direct Assessment - Provides more direct evidence of meaningful application of knowledge.
   • Authentic Assessments as Direct Measures
     • Students performing well on tests of knowledge is not a direct indicator of the students' ability to apply the skills learned in the real world. Authentic assessments provide the most direct evidence of the skills acquired.
       • To fully learn and acquire new skills and material, we must be allowed to construct our own meaning of the world. Assessments must ask students to demonstrate that they accurately constructed this meaning during the learning period. Authentic Assessments are also used as a natural vehicle for learning. Authentic assessments integrate teaching, learning, and assessing all in one meaningful task. In Authentic assessments the task used to measure the student's ability to apply the skill is working as a teaching/learning tool. For example this Mind Map.
       • Having a variety of assessments to give to the students is useful to see what the students have learned in different ways and perspectives. Two things are important when considering this. 1) a sufficient number of samples and 2) a sufficient variety of measures used.
         • Teachers want to see their students apply the knowledge in different ways and different perspectives. Away to give students freedom to demonstrate their knowledge is by giving them options on how to present the work. Some examples are posters, oral presentations, videos, websites, essays, etc.
   • Developing Authentic Assessments
     • 1. What should the students know and what are they able to do? Look at the standards.
       • 2. How do you know that they met the standards? Create authentic tasks.
         • 3. How do you measure adequate performance on the task? Determine criteria to follow.
           • 4. How well did they perform? Create and use a Rubric.
             • 5. How well must students perform? Set benchmarks.
               • 6. What improvements are needed? Adjust instruction.
     • For any type of assessment, you first must know where you want to end up. What are your goals for your students? An assessment cannot produce valid inferences unless it measures what it is intended to measure. And it cannot measure what it is intended to measure unless the goal(s) has been clearly identified.
       • Three Step Process: 1. REFLECT 2. REVIEW 3. WRITE
         • There are national and state standards to follow. When creating your own standards look for descriptions and language that capture what you most value and what you expect your students to come away with after instruction. The teacher should also look for ways to organize and connect the important knowledge and skills
           • For a standard to be amenable to assessment, it must be observable and measurable.
             • standards should be written clearly. Students and parents should be able to understand them.
               • Students should not be limited on how they can demonstrate mastery of skills or topics. i.e. asking for a paper or a poster specifically.
       • Authentic Assessment does not compete with traditional assessments like tests. Rather, they complement each other.
         • Authentic Tasks: Selected Response, Constructed Response, Product, and Performance.
           • Students need to learn to evaluate the quality of their work. A good strategy for evaluating a task is to imagine possible student performance on the task and see if you can really determine whether the standard was met or not.
             • Rubrics should be easy to follow and clear enough for the students to know exactly what is expected from them. These should also be accessible to the students so they know what the teacher expects from them and their work.
         • Determining the criteria that will be assessed is crucial for planning and implementing the assessment. The criteria will be used to evaluate how well students completed the task and, thus, how well they have met the standard or standards.
           • Good criterion (singular of criteria) should be a clearly stated; brief; observable; statement of behavior; written in language students understand.
             • Limit criteria to 3-4 per task. No need to assess everything in every task. Less significant tasks require less precision in your assessment than larger, more comprehensive tasks that are designed to assess significant progress toward multiple standards.
               • Be clear and precise. Avid being vague when writing criteria.
           • Rubric: A scoring scale used to assess student performance along a task-specific set of criteria
             • A rubric is comprised of two components: criteria and levels of performance. Each rubric has at least two criteria and at least two levels of performance. The number of criteria should be kept manageable.
               • Be as specific as possible. students will be more certain what is expected to reach each level of performance on the rubric if descriptors are provided. Furthermore, the more detail a teacher provides about what good performance looks like on a task the better a student can approach the task.
   • Assessment of English language learners requires specialized knowledge. They must be assessed when they first enter the school system to determine needs and levels of proficiency. The federal government requires schools to identify students who speak other languages to appropriately identify their needs.
     • Ongoing assessment is imperative to determine if the student is making progress and to determine if any changes in instruction and strategies need to occur.
       • High stakes assessments are used to determine if a student will exit out of ESL support, or if they will be promoted to the next year.
         • There are two commonly used informal methods: performance-based assessment and portfolio assessment. Both methods utilize typical classroom activities to measure progress toward curricular goals and objectives. These activities can be monitored and recorded by teacher observation and student self-assessment.

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