Authentic Assessment
From WikEd
Descriptions, definitions, synonyms, organizer terms, types of
Definitions of Authentic Assessment:
- "Authentic assessment is an evaluation process that involves multiple forms of performance measurement reflecting the student's learning, achievement, motivation, and attitudes on instructionally-relevant activities. Examples of authentic assessment techniques include performance assessment, portfolios, and self-assessment." American Library Association
- "Simply testing an isolated skill or a retained fact does not effectively measure a student's capabilities. To accurately evaluate what a person has learned, an assessment method must examine his or her collective abilities.This is what is meant by authentic assessment. Authentic assessment presents students with real-world challenges that require them to apply their relevant skills and knowledge." Funderstanding
- "Evaluating by asking for the behavior the learning is intended to produce. The concept of model, practice, feedback in which students know what excellent performance is and are guided to practice an entire concept rather than bits and pieces in preparation for eventual understanding. A variety of techniques can be employed in authentic assessment." New Horizons for Learning
- "Authentic assessments are products and/or performances correlated with real life experiences. Therefore, they are authentic." Newton Public Schools
Rule (2006) says that every authentic assessment will be comprised of 4 main components:
- They involve real-world problems that mimic the work of professionals.
- They include open-ended inquiry, thinking skills, and metacognition.
- They engage students in discourse and social learning.
- They empower students by choice to direct their own learning.
- Authentic: genuine, real, valid, bona fide
- Assessment: appraisal, evaluation, measurement, judgement, review
- Scoring Guides/Rubric: A scoring scale used to assess student performance along a task-specific set of criteria. A list of required elements are grouped together to make the scoring guide with point specific designations.
- Portfolio/E-Portfolio: A collection of a student's work specifically selected to highlight achievements or demonstrate improvement over time (e-portfolio is electronic and usually accessible on the Internet).
- Authentic Task: An assignment given to students designed to assess their ability to apply standard-driven knowledge and skills to real-world challenges.
- Self-Assesment: Evaluating one's own performance to determine stregth and weaknesses and reflecting on what improvements can be made to enhance product
- Oral Interviews: Teacher asks student questions about personal background, activities, readings, and other interests.
- Story or Text Retelling: Student retells main ideas or selected details of text experienced through listening or reading.
- Writing Samples: Student generates narrative, expository, persuasive, or reference paper.
- Projects/Exhibitions: Student works with other students as a team to create a project that often involves multimedia production, oral and written presentations, and a display.
- Experiments/Demonstrations: Student documents a series of experiments, illustrates a procedure, performs the necessary steps to complete a task, and documents the results of the actions.
- Constructed-Response Items: Student responds in writing to open-ended questions.
- Teacher Observations: Teacher observes and documents the students attention and interaction in class, response to instructional materials, and cooperative work with other students.
Application in classrooms and similar settings
Assessment is an essential element in every classroom, even beyond assessment of formal grades. Effective teachers assess the classroom to determine when it is appropriate to move onto the next concept or to elaborate on the current lesson being taught. The desired goal of every classroom is not only to be fair and accurate when assessing students but to make sure that each student will be able to apply the knowledge and skills gained in the classroom later in life. What better for of assessment can there be for evaluating student work than to use an assessment tool that is authentic to the "real world." According to Grant Wiggins, in his article The Case for Authentic Assessment, "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, etc." Through authentic assessment, students are more engaged in the task and a teacher can be more confident that the assessment she/he gives is meaningful and relevant.
Furthermore, students are more relaxed during authentic testing, experiencing less test anxiety and nervousness. Authentic testing is a more casual experience, where the student may be communicating with the teacher or other students in the process during which time learning and the transfer and building of knowledge continue to occur (Suurtamm 507).
Why do we need Authentic Assessment
While multiple-choice tests can be valid indicators or predictors of academic performance, too often our tests mislead students and teachers about the kinds of work that should be mastered. Norms are not standards; items are not real problems; right answers are not rationales.
What most defenders of traditional tests fail to see is that it is the form, not the content of the test that is harmful to learning; demonstrations of the technical validity of standardized tests should not be the issue in the assessment reform debate. Students come to believe that learning is cramming; teachers come to believe that tests are after-the- fact, imposed nuisances composed of contrived questions--irrelevant to their intent and success. Both parties are led to believe that right answers matter more than habits of mind and the justification of one's approach and results.
A move toward more authentic tasks and outcomes thus improves teaching and learning: students have greater clarity about their obligations (and are asked to master more engaging tasks), and teachers can come to believe that assessment results are both meaningful and useful for improving instruction.
Evidence of effectiveness
Extensive research in the area of authentic assessment has be conducted by Mr. Grant Wiggins, a widely-known advocate of authentic assessment in education. Read Article
Critics and their rationale
Some critics have pointed out the negative aspects of authentic assessment exist.
- Examples include:
- Authentic assessment costs more than standardized tests
- Authentic assessment may be less reliable and valid than other forms of assessment
- For a teacher to use authentic assessment in the classroom, professional development and education may be necessary
- Authentic assessment is not as useful for policy makers as standardized tests because authentic assessment isn't able to show long term trends like stardardized tests
- Authentic assessment has been shown to have bias on the part of the assessor
Alternative explanations due to Diversity considerations
Critics of standardized testing have challenged academia to produce an assessment tool that can be used to fairly assess individuals among diverse populations. The same can be said of authentic assessment; what is authentic to one person may not be authentic to the next. According to Edmund W. Gordon, of Yale University, in his article Implications of Diversity in Human Characteristics for Authentic Assessment "authenticity may vary not only with populations but also with contexts." Because of this factor in assessment, Gordon suggests that it is necessary to "find ways in which to appropriately accommodate relevant sources of diversity in our revised examinations" if assessment it to ever be adequate. A need for universal standards of competence is also required, according to Gordon, even if differential indicators are used to measure the standards. Gordon states, "To do this will require that we find ways to provide students with learning and testing opportunities which are appropriate to the standards, equivalent to the standards, and sufficient to evoke relevant responses."
Stafford Hood has some very interesting articles related to assessment and African-American students. He believes while alternative/authentic assessment is helpful for all students, it is especially helpful for African-American students, as traditional assessments are even less authentic to the culture of African-American students than to white culture. This is another explanation of a part of the achievement gap (e.g. that gap is due in part to biases in testing, not in the actual achievement and knowledge of minority students). Also, although I'm not sure of the author, I've heard of some research in which African-American students take a test (like the ACT, for example) in a very strict, rigid standardized setting, then take the exact same test in a very informal, casual and comfortable setting. The first time, they score at the low average for African-Americans we see in achievement gap data. The second time, though, they score comparable to whites. Same students, no extra instruction, just a different climate for the test. Pretty amazing!! This has great potential for altering how we think about standardized tests and interpreting their results.
Signed "life experiences", testimonies and stories
I have begun using authentic assessments this year in my Geography class. Yes, they are much harder to make and grade, but I think the students learn better and take more of an interest. This year I have actually not given one test. I have given projects that allow my students to show me what they know. When reviewing their projects I can really assess what they know and do not know. I do not think this is possible in a fill in the blank or multiple choice test. Unfortunately, most of the assessments given by the state are not real authentic assessments. They are moving towards more open-ended writing questions so this is definately a positive step. B. Moore
Authentic assessment is one of the only ways to see if sythesis has happened. Sure the students may "know" the facts, but do they understand what it means? By using authentic assessment, you can give a child a situation and see if he understand the concepts of what was taught, not just the answers, but how he got the answers. After all, isn't that what we are striving to help create? Young people who can think and come up many different ways to the answer. I teach junior high music and for my theory "exam" I have my seventh graders write a song. Sure they might be able to give me the definition of meter, but can they show me that they understand it by doing it? That is real assessment.
For the final project of my algebra one class I assigned an accumulative project that covered most of the topics that my students had learned over the course of the year. I was a little leery of giving this assignment at first, but that soon changed. I had been using a nontraditional, group and investigation based curriculum for the entire year. During the course of the project most of my students were able to clearly demonstrate to me that they had a sound understanding of the material we had covered that year. The few students who did struggle with the final project were able to clear up the areas in which they were confused. All of my students were able to see how much they had learned during the year and had a great sense of accomplishment. I would recommend that every teacher try this kind of accumulative assessment project for there students because they might be pleasantly surprised at how far their students have come. – Jeremiah Johnson
- Authentic assessment in mathematics is difficult for a teacher create and grade, but if it is done correctly with "real" problems from real situations, the student is motivated to think critically, analyze, and solve problems. If a student is not giving their best effort during a "test" then the test results have not measured the true ability of the student. I'm sure that the near future will not bring an end to standardized testing of students. But, as educators, we can enrich the academic learning for our students by making the assessment something that the students can be proud of when completed. Next week, I will introduce the following project to my students who just completed a unit on ratios, proportions, and percents. Students will work in groups of 2 or 3 to become the management team for a consumer electronics manufacturing company. The management team is presented with the following problem. Analyze the sales of personal camcorders over the past 6 months (data from several sources has been prepared for them to compile and analyze), prepare a display and a report to present your findings to the board of directors. Include a recommendation about what the company should do with these products. Students will work during 2 whole class periods and it is suggested that they take advantage of "Wednesday nights at the Media Center" (our media center is open for student use every Wednesday from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm). Students will present reports, display graphs, analyza data, and make recommendations to the "board of directors."
I'll report back here and let you know how it goes. You can e-mail me at lwilkin2@uiuc.edu if you are interested in more details of the project or the results. Lee Wilkinson
- Authentic Assessment is one of the most effective ways to assess a child's ability. Yes, it may require professional development and more time on the teacher's behalf. I started portfolio assessment in my classroom about seven years ago. Since it is a student-centered portfolio the students get to choose some of their work for assessment. It is amazing that we are willing to spend money on all sorts of educational material, but we think spending money on authentically assessing a child is too much. As a science teacher I would rather see a child use a microscope and identify the parts in front of me rather than have them identify the parts on a piece of paper. What if teacher's were assessed on their teaching ability on a written piece of paper rather than being observed by an administrator. We lower the bar for our children. We are the richest nation in the world and we gawk about paying taxes for education. we don't have a problem spending tons of money on standardized tests that only reflect one way of assessing a child's ability. If we wanted the best for all children we would use authentic assessment. -- Valerie Munds elementary/middle school teacher 10 years
Authentic Assessment can be a more difficult method of assessing students from a teacher perspective; however the potential for what can be gained far outweighs this concern. As a high school band director, performance evaluations are an important component. The kind of growth I have seen through authentic assessment could never be measured on a multiple choice test. We need to find more ways to incorporate authentic assessment into our schools. –J. Blanken-Webb
As a foreign language teacher, I think authentic assessments are crucial to my classes. It's my opinion that we should be assessing students based on their/our academic goal. For instance, most of my students' goal is to learn Spanish so they can communicate with a native speaker one day. I feel like my assessments should be based on that goal. It's important to note that authentic assessments aren't the same as alternative assessments. In my district I'm required to give four assessments (2 book tests and 2 prescribed alternative assessments) to ensure that all the Spanish teachers in the district are teaching what's in the book. It's so painful for me to watch my students struggle when asked to write paragraphs about a Hispanic athlete they've just learned about. How is that authentic? I think the students should be allowed to use resources like their textbook, dictionary, and/or the computer, because in the real world, if they had a need to write a paragraph in Spanish, they would go to those resources. However, the students are expected to just write, no books, no notes, and they must be sure to include the target grammatical structures from the current lesson in the book. I definitely think we need to move away from standardized tests and start thinking about the real-world and how our students will apply what they've learned. -J. Adams
I think this is a great way to assess students in a math class. I teach statistics and I gave the students several projects throughout the year where they had to go out and collect and analyze data. What was great about this is that students were looking at topics that interested them and kept them interested in the mathematics. And the practical use of the subject was shown while they were being tested for the course. -MM
References and other links of interest
American Library Association Authentic Assessment Information
University of Wisconsin Stout, Authentic Assessment Resources
Professional Development Module on Assessment; By Diane Starke, El Paso Community College
Blog relating to Authentic Assessment
From the ERIC database The Case for Authentic Assessment, ERIC Digest, Grant Wiggins
Rule, A. C. (2006). The components of authentic learning. Journal of Authentic Learning, 3(1),1–10.
Suurtamm, Christine A. "Developing Authentic Assessment: Case Studies of Secondary School Mathematics Teacher's Experiences." Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics & Technology Education. 4.4 (2004): 497-513.
The ePortfolio Portal serves as a resource to assist you in gaining knowledge around the concepts of eportfolios
