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Introduction: Redefining Assessment

By Heidi Hayes Jacobs, Ed.D.

"In our country we have given our students a great deal of practice and rehearsal, but we have not allowed students to play the game."

The operational definition of "assessment" has changed dramatically over the last ten years and this change is revolutionizing teaching. Basically, assessment is simply evidence—evidence of a student's growth or regression. The only way a teacher knows whether learning has occurred is by looking at the student's performance.

Teachers gather many kinds of evidence. In the past, the primary source of evidence was standardized testing. Today, more and more teachers are moving toward student performance assessment. It is tempting, given this new trend, for teachers to pit one type of assessment against the other. This would be a mistake, however, for each is useful in its own way. Ultimately, we need to redefine assessment to become more comprehensive. We need a wider range of revealing evidence.

Standardized Testing

Standardized testing is helpful for diagnosing a student's ability to perform a discrete skill or recall discrete information. Standardized testing is limited when gathering evidence of a student's ability to use or apply these skills and knowledge in the context of "real life" problem-solving. In other words, standardized testing is of limited use when assessing students' reasoning, composition, and evaluative skills. The validity of standardized tests is also called into question because students can get a correct answer without knowing the material. If the ability to analyze and compose a well-reasoned point of view is being assessed, a traditional standardized test cannot provide that information. If the ability to select from four choices the appropriate verb to agree with a subject is being assessed, then a standardized test can serve. The main downfall of standardized tests is not in their design, but in their use. They are meant to be diagnostic tools for very specific competencies, yet too many view them as end points.

Standardized testing is changing. For example, electronic portfolios will eventually replace the way students submit applications for college admission. In the future, students will provide to colleges, either on a disk or through electronic mail, a portfolio of work samples. These work samples will be used, in combination with SAT scores, to determine the student's eligibility for admission. Most testing agencies expect that more writing samples will be required on standardized testing. When parents question teachers about how new forms of assessment will affect their child's chances of being adequately prepared for college, the teacher can answer that by using both standardized testing and student performance assessment, your school is anticipating future trends in the college admissions process. Certainly those students looking to join the work force after high school graduation will be most likely hired by demonstrated performance as exemplified in school-to-work programs.

Links

The home page of The Educational Testing Service has information about the SAT and other standardized tests they administer. The following two articles from the ERIC archives give information about standardized tests and resources that describe them.

• "Talking to Your High School Students about Standardized Tests"
• "Finding Information about Standardized Tests"

Student Performance Assessment

Student performance assessment answers the need for a greater range of data upon which to gauge student progress. Student performance assessment strives to provide more comprehensive assessment than does standardized testing. Comprehensive assessment gives teachers, admissions counselors, and other educators more evidence—and more valid evidence—on which to base their analysis of each student. Students must be able to do more than study a particular subject, they must be able to apply that information to any number of situations. When they can do so, then teachers can evaluate their performance more accurately.

How does a basketball coach know that his or her players are "learning basketball"? He or she watches the players in drills. The coach also uses structured practices and controlled "rehearsals" or scrimmages. But the real test of the players' ability comes when they are faced with an opposing team whose strategies and plays are a mystery. In short, the students are basketball players. Similarly, as a history teacher, you do not want students simply to study or read about history. You want them to be historians. You don't want students to simply study math, but to be mathematicians. In our country we have given our students a great deal of practice and rehearsal, but we have not allowed students to play the game. That is what we are looking for in performance assessment—not simply studying the text, but actually playing the game.

Links

For definitions of the "catchwords" of Alternative Assessment, see "About Alternative Assessment"; definitions from the August 1993 issue of Visions, the newsletter of the Education for the Future Initiative.

Feedback Systems for Students

Even when students are allowed to "play the game," the only way that their work will improve is if they "self-assess" that work. When students are asked what constitutes a good essay, or a good historical analysis, they often do not know the answer. This is because they have learned not what constitutes quality, but rather what to do in order to get an "A" from a specific teacher. They haven't internalized what is considered good work. How can students improve if they do not know what quality looks like?

Rubrics

The answer to this dilemma is to design a rubric with your students. A rubric is not a grading system. It is a lesson in what constitutes quality. It is a declaration of expectations and a means of self-assessment for the student. Students are more likely to be able to perform well if they know what constitutes quality performance. A rubric can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

When designing rubrics, teachers and students should incorporate the following elements:

• the standards or levels of excellence
• the specific criteria for assessment
• the specific indicators describing what the various levels of excellence look like for each of the criteria.

The Standards or Levels of Excellence

These should be in terms that are readily understandable to the student. An even number of levels should always be used because it forces judgment. With an odd number there is a tendency to "clump" in the middle of the scale and avoid judgment. The levels can be represented by words, numbers, or letter grades.

The Specific Criteria for Assessment

These should indicate the specific focal quality for review in the product or performance. Teachers use multiple criteria, but can select any specific one for instructional purposes. Criteria may also vary depending on the stage of the project; for example, the criteria for a first draft are very different from those for a final draft.

Indicators

Indicators must be descriptive and non judgmental. Do not use words such as "excellent" or "poor"—rather, the task is to describe what excellence looks like in a product or performance for any one criteria.

Students can use a rubric to edit and analyze their own work. When a teacher reads a paper and marks it up in "red," the teacher was the editor. Instead, the teacher should call attention to problems or issues, give the work back to the student and let them become the editors. If the learner does not know how to follow-through on revision, the teacher's job is to teach them how to edit—not to edit for them. When this type of self-assessment is used consistently, teachers see students begin to evaluate and value the quality of their own work. They begin to understand what areas they need to work on in order to improve. The revision and editing process is not only true for written products, but visual and oral performances as well.

Rubrics are particularly effective when used across grades and between levels. In such situations, rubrics help teachers know what students have focused on in earlier grades so that they can build on that knowledge, not repeat information, and not assume knowledge that does not yet exist.

Some Cautions

An important point to remember when using rubrics and student performance assessment is that the standards stay constant. Tasks will change, but not the standards. A common tendency is for teachers to respond to areas of student weakness by lowering standards. Students do not benefit from this lowering of standards. Clear, high, and consistent standards raise the level of student performance. The teacher's work is to assist students on skills to raise the quality of their work. A struggling student may need a task broken into parts or a simpler task, but quality will not be changeable. By the same token, a student showing excellent performance may need a more challenging task. In both instances, the standards are constant.

Another potential pitfall occurs when teachers attempt to use feedback mechanisms such as rubrics to categorize students into a holistic "level" or "stage." Such categorization is limited and misleading because students may be at varying levels with different criteria on one project. If such categorization is used, teachers are in fact falling back on the old "A," "B," "C" method of grading, with teacher comments such as "good work," "nice word choice"—which is of limited value to students. With the new method of grading, the student reflects on what the grade actually means, monitors his or her performance, and takes action to do progressively better. The rubric translates the grading system into a meaningful feedback system. Presently, most grades are an indication of the individual teacher's values. If a high school student has eight teachers in a day, he or she has eight different grading standards.

Links

For more in-depth information about rubrics, see "Why Rubrics?" from the Teach-nology.com site.

The Changing Roles of Teachers and Students

To make use of student performance assessment, the teacher must reevaluate his or her role in the classroom. One positive change that teachers notice is that they spend less time reading papers and assignments. Instead of reviewing and editing a student's first draft, the teacher will spend his or her time up front, defining and clarifying expectations and levels of excellence. This does not mean that teachers no longer read student papers. It is simply that the quality of those papers will be higher when they first come to the teacher. The burden shifts from teacher to student to self-assess his or her own performance and make adjustments. The teacher's job is to take the evidence present in the students' work and help him or her figure out ways to improve that work.

Teachers will find student performance assessment to be more efficient than old ways of assessment. Students will receive more consistent feedback and as a consequence, their work will improve. In the past, teachers have taken on much of the burden of performing for students when in fact, it is the students who need to perform and practice. It does little good for the coach to play basketball while the team watches. Similarly, it is of little use for the teacher to analyze a subject on the board while the class watches. When it is clear to students what is the purpose of the practice, there is less resistance. Students practice basketball or music because they can see the purpose of that practice and they see the results when they do not practice. This habit of mind changes the role of student to become a self-assessor and a self-teacher. It is an attitude and approach that must be cultivated in all areas of the curriculum. Student performance assessment will help students understand the value of their work and support life-long learning.

Links

Standards for Teacher Competence in Educational Assessment of Students: a report developed by the American Federation of Teachers, the National Council on Measurement in Education, and the National Education Association

Sample Rubrics

Most of the assessment tools included on this site appear in two different formats—as completed rubrics and as evaluation forms. The first format, the rubric, includes the standards of excellence across the top, the specific criteria for assessment along the left side, and the indicators filled in within the chart. These "completed" rubrics can be used in several ways. First, they are meant to be shared with students at the beginning of an assignment so that students are aware of what constitutes good work. Second, they can be used by students evaluating their own or each other's work (either focusing on one particular criteria at a time or all the criteria).

Each rubric has also been included in a second format—an evaluation form. Teachers and students can use these forms to indicate which level of work (standard of excellence) was achieved for each of the criteria. The space within the chart and at the bottom of the form can be used to make note of specific examples or provide comments. Finally, teachers are encouraged to use these rubrics as starting points for developing their own rubrics.

Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs has served as an educational consultant to over 500 schools nationally and internationally. She has been an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City, since 1981. She works with schools and K–12 districts on issues and practices pertaining to curriculum reform, instructional strategies to encourage critical thinking, and strategic planning. Her book, Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Design and Implementation, published by ASCD, has been a best seller. The fundamental backbone of her experience comes from her years as a teacher of high school, junior high school, and elementary children in Utah, Massachusetts, and New York.

More Resources for Alternative Assessment

Alternative Assessment Resources
The Michigan Electronic Library site has links to information about alternative assessment, including how to design performance tasks and asessment.

ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation
This site includes links to information about assessment and evaluation as well as a test locator.

National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST)
This site contains information assessment and rubrics.

National Council on Measurement in Education
This organization helps to improve testing and measurement practices in education. The site includes public domain software and shareware, commercial testing companies, and links to other assessment sites.

The Buros Institute of Mental Measurements
Provides professional assistance, expertise, and information to users of commercially published tests.

The Library in the Sky
This site contains a list of assessment information, including discussions, lists, materials, and papers.