ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT

The Use Of Alternative Assessment

The Use Of Alternative Assessment

Introduction

Assessment should be a part of instruction, not apart from it” is a point of view most proponents of Alternative Assessment would enthusiastically endorse. Alternative Assessment (or portfolio assessment), a contemporary entry in the educational measurement derby, has captured the attention of many educators because it represents a clear alternative to more traditional forms of educational testing.

A portfolio is a systematic collection of one's work. In education, portfolios refer to systematic collections of students' work. Although the application of portfolios in education has been a relatively recent phenomenon, portfolios have been widely used in a number of other fields for many years. Portfolios, in fact, constitute the chief method by which certain professionals display their skills and accomplishments. For example, portfolios are traditionally used for this purpose by photographers, artists, journalists, models, architects, and so on. An important feature of portfolios is that they must be updated as a person's achievements and skills grow.

Discussion

Portfolios have been warmly embraced by those educators who regard traditional assessment with less than enthusiasm. In Table A, for example, a chart presented by Tierney, Carter, and Desai (2001) indicates what those three proponents of portfolios believe are the differences between Alternative Assessment and assessment based on standardized testing. (Anderson, 2003)

Portfolio

Testing

Represents the range of reading and writing students are engaged in

Assesses students across a limited range of reading and writing assignments which may not match what students do

Engages students in assessing their progress and/or accomplishments and establishing ongoing learning goals

Mechanically scored or scored by teachers who have little input

Measures each student's achievement while allowing for individual differences between students

Assesses all students on the same dimensions

Represents a collaborative approach to assessment

Assessment process is not collaborative

Has a goal of student self-assessment

Student assessment is not a goal

Addresses improvement, effort, and achievement

Addresses achievement only

Links assessment and teaching to learning

Separates learning, testing, and teaching

[Table A: Differences in Assessment Outcomes between Portfolios and Standardized Testing Practices]

Classroom Alternative Assessment versus Large-Scale Alternative Assessment

Classroom Applications

Most advocates of Alternative Assessment believe the real payoffs for such assessment approaches lie in the individual teacher's classroom, because the relationship between instruction and assessment will be strengthened as a consequence of students' continuing accumulation of work products in their portfolios. Ideally, teachers who adopt portfolios in their classrooms will make the ongoing collection and appraisal of students' work a central focus of the instructional program rather than a peripheral activity whereby students occasionally gather up their work to convince a teacher's supervisors or students' parents that good things have been going on in class. (Valdez, 2008)

Here's a description of how an elementary teacher might use portfolios to assess students' progress in social studies, language arts, and mathematics. The teacher, let's call him Phil Pholio, asks students to keep three portfolios, one in each of those three subject fields. In each portfolio, the students are to place their early and revised work products. The work products are always dated so ...