As our country still reels from the No Child Left Behind Act, we continue to struggle with its legacy of testing, testing, and more testing. Thankfully, parents, teachers, school reformers, and even students are speaking out against the overuse of standardized tests which are used punitively rather than formatively, and do little to improve the quality of teaching and learning going on in classrooms. In fact, many have argued that the “drill and kill” method of teaching these high stakes tests encourage actually hinders real learning and does little to help us bridge our nation’s achievement gap. (Great Education Week article here.) So what then are some assessment alternatives?
In a previous post on assessment, I briefly touched upon the benefits of using performance-based assessments as demonstrations of learning. For the best example of schools that successfully use this method to evaluate their students, look no further than the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES). I can’t say enough about this group of schools united by a set of 10 common guiding principles (such as emphasizing depth over coverage, personalizing education for students, and viewing the student-as-worker, teacher-as-coach.) The sixth guiding principle in their list is “demonstration of mastery” which they describe as follows:

Teaching and learning should be documented and assessed with tools based on student performance of real tasks. Students not yet at appropriate levels of competence should be provided intensive support and resources to assist them quickly to meet those standards. Multiple forms of evidence, ranging from ongoing observation of the learner to completion of specific projects, should be used to better understand the learner’s strengths and needs, and to plan for further assistance. Students should have opportunities to exhibit their expertise before family and community. The diploma should be awarded upon a successful final demonstration of mastery for graduation - an “Exhibition.”

This month, CES embarks on its annual advocacy campaign to promote exhibitions as an alternative (and preferred) form of assessment. (Thanks to the Forum for Education and Democracy’s Newsletter for cluing me in). I just think it makes so much sense for students to engage in and create meaningful work that actually demonstrates their ability to synthesize and apply knowledge, as opposed to wasting precious education time on prepping them to take summative fill-in-the-bubble tests.

The only downside to performance-based assessments, described in a great article on assessment here, is that there are problems with the reliability of grading which cannot be duplicated from year to year or across different schools. Multiple choice tests are definitely a lot easier and less expensive to administer, not to mention their scores being easily comparable across schools, districts, and states. So as long as accountability is our government’s rallying cry, and exhibitions continue to rely on the perception and judgment of actual human beings instead of machines for evaluation, it’s unfortunately unlikely that they will replace tests as our education system’s primary assessment-method-of-choice any time soon.

However, that’s not to say that authentic assessments and standards of mastery should have no place in our public schools. On the contrary, they can still be woven into the curriculum, used to guide instruction, and become an integral part of public school education. And they should.

(Jose Kevo’s flickr photostream/Creative Commons)