 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.
 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…
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.
 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)
 Assess
both content and higher order thinking
skills
 Provide opportunities to demonstrate
creativity, problem-solving and decisionmaking
 Reflective of standards
Thinking Behind
The Work
The Process
The Finished
Product
 An
Authentic assessment usually includes a
task for students to perform and a rubric by
which their performance on the task will be
evaluated.
• Identify Standards
• Develop Learning Objectives
• Identify Target Performance or Skills
• Develop Performance Criteria
• Create Scoring Rubric
• Design Instructional Activities
• Implement Authentic Assessment

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.

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.

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.
 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
 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).
 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.
Traditional…………………………...Authentic
Selecting a Response…..……………….Performing a Task
Contrived………….………………………….Real-Life
Recall/Recognition…………...........Construction/Application
Teacher-Structured……………………Student Structured
Indirect Evidence………………………….Direct Evidence
 Traditional
 Authentic
 Promotes integration
Generally relies on
of various written and
forced-choice
performance
 Encourages memorization
measures
 Measures acquisition of
 Encourages divergent
past knowledge
thinking in generating
possible answers
 Provides a one-time
snapshot of student
 Enhance development
understanding
of meaningful skills
 Provides an
examination of
learning over time

 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.
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.

1.
Identify your standards
2.
Select and Authentic Task
3.
Identify the criteria for the Task
4.
Cerate the Rubric
 Model
building
 Measurement
taking
 Oral reports
 Written reports
 Lab reports
 Debates
 Portfolios
 Science
notebook/journals
 Student talk
 Active listening
 Concept maps
 Open-ended
questions
 Constructed

Product Like:


Response
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.
 Product







Essays
Stories or Poems
Research Reports
Art Exhibit or Portfolio
Lab Reports
Newspaper
Poster
 Performance





Conducting an Experiment
Musical, dance, or dramatic performances
Debates
Athletic competition
Oral presentation
 Definition:
A scoring scale used to assess
student performance along a task-specific set
of criteria
 Comprised of two components:


Criteria
Levels of Performance
 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
 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.
 Analytic

 Holistic
Articulates levels of
performance for each
criterion so the teacher
can assess student
performance on each
criterion.

Assigns a level of
performance by
assessing performance
across multiple criteria
as a whole.
 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
 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.

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.
 Evaluation

Portfolios
To document achievement for grading purposes,
document progress towards standards, and to place
students appropriately.
1. Assess the student
2. Assess the activity
1. Pre-instruction
2. During Instruction
3. Post-instruction
1. Pre-instruction
Goal: Assess students’ prior knowledge, ideas,
beliefs, and attitudes in order to help
them construct new knowledge.
1. Pre-instruction
Strategies: T-charts, journal writing, drawings,
interviews/conversations, surveys, concept
maps
2. During Instruction
Goal: To gain insight into how (or if) students’
knowledge, ideas, beliefs and attitudes are
changing.
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.
3. Post-instruction
Goal: To evaluate students’ progress and
reflect on the effectiveness and quality of
instruction.
3. Post-Instruction
Strategies: Teacher evaluation forms, student
interviews, written assignments,
standardized tests, performance assessments
(problem-solving).
 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?
 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.
 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.
 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.
 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.

Thinking about your
textbook/materials:
1.
2.
3.
4.
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.
 “…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
 Authentic



Assessment Toolbox
http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/too
lbox/whatisit.htm
http://www.park.edu/cetl/quicktips/authasse
ss.html
http://jove.geol.niu.edu/faculty/kitts/GEOL40
1/inquiryassessment401.ppt#256,1,Authentic
Assessment