Authentic Assessment

Authentic Assessment

Objective • 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.

Authentic Assessment

Authentic Assessment • 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… AuthenticAssessment

Definition • 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.

Authentic Assessment • 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)

Authentic Assessment • Assess both content and higher order thinking skills • Provide opportunities to demonstrate creativity, problem-solving and decision-making • Reflective of standards

Authentic Assessment vALUEs… Thinking Behind The Work The Finished Product The Process

What does it look like? • An Authentic assessment usually includes a task for students to perform and a rubric by which their performance on the task will be evaluated.

Process…

Similarities and Differences • 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.

Traditional Assessment • 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.

Authentic Assessment • 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.

Comparisons • 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

Comparisons • 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).

Thought… • 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.

Defining Attributes Traditional…………………………...Authentic Selecting a Response…..……………….Performing a Task Contrived………….………………………….Real-Life Recall/Recognition…………...........Construction/Application Teacher-Structured……………………Student Structured Indirect Evidence………………………….Direct Evidence

Defining Attributes • 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

Alternative Names • 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.

Why include Authentic Assessments • 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.

Creating Authentic Assessments • Identify your standards • Select and Authentic Task • Identify the criteria for the Task • Cerate the Rubric

What are some examples of “authentic assessments”? • Model building • Measurement taking • Oral reports • Written reports • Lab reports • Debates • Portfolios • Science notebook/journals • Student talk • Active listening • Concept maps • Open-ended questions

Types of Authentic Tasks • Constructed Response • Product 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.

Types of Authentic Tasks • Product • Essays • Stories or Poems • Research Reports • Art Exhibit or Portfolio • Lab Reports • Newspaper • Poster

Types of Authentic Tasks • Performance • Conducting an Experiment • Musical, dance, or dramatic performances • Debates • Athletic competition • Oral presentation

Rubrics • Definition: A scoring scale used to assess student performance along a task-specific set of criteria • Comprised of two components: • Criteria • Levels of Performance

Rubrics • Criteria • Each 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

Rubrics • Levels of Performance • What 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.

Types of Rubrics • 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.

Portfolios • 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 work • Reflections • Belief statements • Goals • Evaluations

Types of Portfolios • Growth Portfolios • To 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.

Types of Portfolios • 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.

Types of Portfolios • Evaluation Portfolios • To document achievement for grading purposes, document progress towards standards, and to place students appropriately.

Assessment is a two-sided coin 1. Assess the student 2. Assess the activity

When do you assess inquiry? 1. Pre-instruction 2. During Instruction 3. Post-instruction

When do you assess inquiry? 1. Pre-instruction Goal: Assess students’ prior knowledge, ideas, beliefs, and attitudes in order to help them construct new knowledge.

When do you assess inquiry? 1. Pre-instruction Strategies: T-charts, journal writing, drawings, interviews/conversations, surveys, concept maps

When do you assess inquiry? 2. During Instruction Goal: To gain insight into how (or if) students’ knowledge, ideas, beliefs and attitudes are changing.

When do you assess inquiry? 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.

When do you assess inquiry? 3. Post-instruction Goal: To evaluate students’ progress and reflect on the effectiveness and quality of instruction.

When do you assess inquiry? 3. Post-Instruction Strategies: Teacher evaluation forms, student interviews, written assignments, standardized tests, performance assessments (problem-solving).

Evaluation • 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?

When do you assess the Inquiry activity? YouNeverStop!!!

Thought • 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.

benefits • 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.

Benefits • 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.

Benefits • 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.

Assessment Activity • Thinking about your textbook/materials: • Identify a single most important “skill” that you will cover while teaching. • Devise a performance-based activity you could do to teach this skill. • List 3 “authentic” assessments you could use to “grade” your student’s ability to perform this skill. • Now, using the activity and one assessment, write up the grading rubric/checklist/guideline.

Quote • “…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

References • 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

Authentic Assessment