world view. A significant question is whether teachers can effectively measure this type of
learning using standard assessment devices: short answer tests, essays, written reports, and
classroom presentations.
Grant Wiggins (1998), a major advocate of performance assessment, is critical of most test-
ing, which he argues only measures the least complex levels of human thought. Wiggins chal-
lenges educators to assess student performance on the higher order thinking skills identified
in Bloom’s taxonomy. For example, a student’s ability to synthesize information and create a
new understanding requires creativity and judgment. This kind of thinking stimulates diverse
and unexpected responses that are not easily measured on a multiple-choice exam.
Wiggins argues that the key to employing Deweyan ideas is to view assessment as an on-
going part of a learning process, in which people repeatedly test their knowledge and their
skills, and adjust what they do and how they do it based on what they discover. This is very
different from creating tests that measure a limited form of knowledge at a particular point.
Wiggins suggests that teachers think of their students as workers (e.g., historians, writers, or
mathematicians) who are continually enhancing their skills as they create increasingly more
complex products. The difficult task for teachers is establishing criteria for evaluating these
products during the process of creation and after they are completed.
I believe that certain principles can guide teachers as we work to discover more authentic
ways of assessing student understanding. These principles include the following:
·Assessment of student performance should be on the full range of what is being taught in
class. That includes content knowledge and academic skills. It also includes the acquisi-
tion of social skills; an understanding of key concepts; the ability to gather, organize,
present, integrate, and use information; and the ability to explore values and ideas and
use new understandings to reconsider the way we understand and appreciate a particu-
lar subject and the broader world.
·Assessment should be part of the learning process. It should be continuous so that stu-
dents have feedback on how they are doing.
·We should use tests to discover what students know, not what they do not know. A rea-
sonable assumption is that when students are excited about what they are learning and
do well on tests, they will want to learn more.
·If test scores are going to reflect what students are learning, they need to be designed for
specific classes. Prepackaged and standardized tests are based on the assumption that
the same things are happening in widely diverse settings.
·Although the criteria for assessment should be clear to students, they should also be flex-
ible. Assessment is relative, not absolute. It involves judgments where people can legiti-
mately disagree.
·Assessment is most effective when it includes individual self-assessment.
·Authentic assessment of student learning requires examining a number of types of activi-
ties at a series of points in the learning process and using different criteria and assess-
ment devices to evaluate student performance. We do not measure temperature with a
speedometer. How can a matching quiz measure a student’s understanding of demo-
cratic values?
·The goal of assessment is to encourage and assist learning. Tests and projects should not
be used to punish or sort students. Everyone who works hard and does well should be
able to receive the highest evaluation.206 CHAPTER 8