Home ResearchReports The Road Ahead Background Papers (1997)

Projects: Road Ahead
(Assessment)

This document is a draft of one of several reports prepared for The Road Ahead (1995–1997), a program of the National Foundation for the Improvement of Education (NFIE), a nonprofit foundation of the National Education Association (NEA). The Road Ahead was funded by Bill Gates, co-founder and CEO of Microsoft Corporation, from proceeds from his book by the same name. The program involved 22 school/community partnerships in 15 states using technology-based learning activities that extend beyond the traditional classroom and school day.

This draft is subject to review and revision, and was prepared by staff of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). All statements and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent policies or positions of the NEA, NFIE, ISTE, or Microsoft Corporation.

Assessment: Information Technologies in the K–12 Curriculum

The main focus of this booklet is student assessment in instructional settings where use of information technologies is woven into the everyday curriculum. Current research is presented and analyzed from an information-technologies point of view. The emphasis is on authentic assessment, where students are assessed on performances that are "real-world" in nature. The booklet also looks at self assessment, peer assessment, teacher assessment, and outside assessment. All of these practices are being affected by both the general growth in educational technology, and by such specialized tools as computer banks of examination questions, computer-presented testing, electronic gradebooks, and electronic portfolios.

Successful implementation of authentic assessment requires education of the key stakeholders as well as changes in both curriculum and instruction. Curriculum and instruction must be aligned with assessment to achieve the improvements that are being expected of our educational system.

Links to major headings

• Purposes of Assessment
• Assessing Authentic Student Performance
• Authentic Curriculum and Instruction
• Roles for Information Technologies
• Major Ideas in Authentic Assessment
• Rubrics
• Sample Information-Technology Rubric
• Computer-Generated and Scored Tests
• Computer-Presented Tests
• Electronic Portfolios
• Electronic Gradebooks
• Final Remarks
• References

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Purposes of Assessment

Three common purposes for assessment in education are:

1. To obtain information needed to make decisions. This information might be used by a variety of different stakeholder groups such as students, teachers, parents, policy makers, and resource providers. These stakeholder groups often have different information needs and make differing types of decisions based on the assessment information received. Assessment designed to fit the needs of students (arguably, the most important stakeholders) may be quite a bit different than assessment designed to meet the needs of teachers or of policy makers.
   
2. To motivate the people or organization being assessed. In education, for example, it is often said that assessment drives the curriculum. Successful performances act as an affirmation to students, teachers, school administrators, and other stakeholders. This motivates teachers "teaching to the test" and students orienting their academic work specifically toward achieving well on tests.
   
3. To emphasize accountability of students, teachers, school administrators, and the overall educational system. For example, a school district's educational system might be rated on how well its students do on college entrance tests. Poor student performance may lead to major changes of administration in the school district.

Technology is gradually being woven into the everyday classroom activities of all students. Increasingly, the regular classroom teacher-who is typically not a technology specialist-must assess students who are using and learning about information technology. Assessment can be quite informal.

A student is writing a paper using a word processor. The student reads what she has written and notes that a sentence does not communicate the idea she has in mind. She changes the sentence. She runs the spell checker (an electronic aid to self-assessment) and corrects a couple of keyboarding or spelling errors. Such self-assessment is an ongoing part of any creative process. The student shares her paper with several fellow students. All students in the class have received instruction and practice in peer assessment. They make use of a set of criteria (a rubric) that helps to guide their feedback on how well the document communicates, how well it holds the interest of the reader, and what unique and exciting features it offers the reader. This is low-stakes assessment.

The stakes are somewhat higher as a teacher wanders purposefully around the classroom, watching students work in groups to accomplish a task. The teacher makes mental and written notes (perhaps using a hand-held personal digital assistant) about activities of individuals and groups. The teacher observes that a group is doing well at following the directions, and tells the students so. The teacher may make a suggestion that will help the group do even better and then shares this suggestion with the whole class.

The stakes are likely to be still higher on major projects that engage students over a period of weeks. A significant portion of a student's grade may depend on producing a desktop-published newsletter that is carefully researched, designed, written, and produced. As the project proceeds, self-assessment, peer assessment, and teacher assessment on draft versions all provide feedback. Much of the grade on the project may be based on the final results and may take into consideration peer assessment, teacher assessment, and perhaps assessment from an outside expert.

Assessment can be for really high stakes. A college may require that applicants score above a specified level on an entrance exam. No matter what the student's previous record of achievements, failure to achieve above this specified level on the test results in not being admitted to the college. This is certainly high stakes assessment. It has spawned an industry devoted to developing test-specific interactive software and other study materials that students have used to boost their scores.

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Assessing Authentic Student Performance

Assessment has always been an important part of the overall teaching and learning process. When developing tests to be used in a formal test taking situation, the test maker usually faces a number of conflicting demands:

• The test should be valid. It should measure what it is designed to measure. It should accurately represent the criterion situations, and it should be comprehensive.

  The test should be reliable. It should accurately measure what it is designed to measure. Any time the test is given under similar conditions, it should produce similar results.

  The test should be fair. It should not give an advantage to particular racial, socioeconomic, or gender groups.

  The test should have a ÒreasonableÓ cost in terms of the materials and labor needed to design, administer, and score the test. Costs also include the student time and expense required to prepare for and take the test.

These same criteria apply to informal assessment and to teacher-designed tests. The difficulties that teachers and others face in meeting these criteria have helped to support various efforts to reform assessment. In recent years, there has been a large amount of literature analyzing the effectiveness of various forms of assessment.

Most tests rate rather poorly. Even professional test-development organizations have considerable difficulty developing assessment instruments that are valid, reliable, fair, and not too costly. Perhaps the most basic question is whether the assessment systems we are using tell us what we need to know. Do they tell us whether students have the capacity to use the knowledge and skills we want them to acquire? Many people argue that the answer is no&emdashassessment should be more authentic. Students should be expected to solve problems and accomplish tasks that are Òreal-worldÓ in nature. They should be expected to perform in a knowledgeable, skilled manner in complex situations.

Assessment should include a major focus on higher-order cognitive skills. In addition, students should learn to assess both themselves and their peers. This is an important part of becoming an independent, lifelong learner and a facilitator of the learning of oneÕs peers and coworkers. All of the professional societies that are concerned with K-12 education are concerned about assessment.

Articles about authentic assessment are common in the periodicals of these professional societies. In addition, there are many books devoted to the topic, as well as entire issues of various professional periodicals. Examples include Educational Leadership (1992, 1996), Rothman (1995), The Computing Teacher (1994), Wiggins (1993), Applied Measurement for Education (1992), and Owen (1985).

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Authentic Curriculum and Instruction

Curriculum, instruction, and assessment are closely intertwined. The movement toward authentic assessment cannot succeed unless it is supported by authentic curriculum and authentic instruction (Wiggins, 1996-1997). Later in this document we list and discuss a number of criteria for authentic assessment. These criteria should ÒdriveÓ curriculum and instruction. That is, the curriculum and instruction should be designed to help students learn what will be assessed, and what is to be assessed should be authentic and important as an object of study. Curriculum, instruction, and assessment should stress higher order thinking skills, creativity, and habits of mind that support lifelong learning and consistently high levels of performance.

For example, if we want students to learn to develop documents that communicate effectively, we will want teachers to model design and writing using the tools and processes of professional communication: computers, projection equipment, desktop publishing tools, process writing, and group creative activity. The curriculum content needs to emphasize graphics, fonts, layout, and white space for effective communication. The assessment instrument is the content and presentation of the final documents.

As a second example, suppose we want students to make effective use of calculators or computers as an aid to addressing and solving math, science, and social science problems. We develop assessment instruments that assume students will have access to calculators or computers when they are being assessed. We design curriculum and instruction that helps students learn to function comfortably and competently in environments that assume ready and routine access to calculators and computers. The teacher models such performance in the instruction. The curriculum includes emphasis on roles that calculators and computer play in Òknowing and doingÓ the discipline being covered.

As a third example, suppose we want students to develop multimedia presentations that can be used with a small group or a whole class. The multimedia presentation -- essence, a performance -- the final product to be assessed. In this situation, the teacher should have modeled such presentations. Students should have routinely viewed such teacher-created multimedia presentations as a routine part of the instructional process. Moreover, the various components of multimedia communication and a multimedia presentation should have been thoroughly covered in the curriculum.

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Roles for Information Technologies

Information technology empowers users in a number of ways. For example, a third-grade student can learn to read and interpret a pie chart of data as part of a science, mathematics, or social studies lesson. The mathematics involved in creating a pie chart is beyond most third graders, but the use of computer software to create a pie chart is not.

Students at all grade levels learn to use library materials. In the past, most students had access to quite limited libraries. Now, by using the Internet, students are gaining access to the libraries of the world, electronic encyclopedias, and other references. There is considerable research supporting the value of using technology in education (Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 1996; Moursund et al., 1995; Wishnietsky, 1994).

During the last decade, we have seen a gradual increase in the sophistication and depth of use of information technologies in the curriculum. Technology is making it possible for the curriculum to place more emphasis on higher-order cognitive skills and on students addressing deeper, harder problems. This change was foreseen by Pea (1985) in an article discussing the (then) superficial uses of computers in the classroom.

Sophisticated use of technology is now common in many schools. Information technologies affect assessment at the K-12 level in four distinct ways:

1. Learning About Information Technologies

First, the information technologies are subjects in themselves. Even primary school students can learn to use digital cameras, scanners, word processors, CD-ROM, computer graphics, and other tools. Students can learn to work in a hypermedia communications and problem solving environment. As in any other subject, they need instruction, assessment, and feedback as part of the learning process. As students progress into middle school and high school, they are quite capable of learning to use the same information technology tools that adults use.

2. Technologies in ÒTraditionalÓ Disciplines

Second, the information technologies are becoming routine tools to facilitate learning in other subjects. A student writes using a word processor, retrieves information from CD-ROMs and the Internet, does computations using a calculator or spreadsheet, organizes information in a database, and presents information using computer-generated graphs and graphics. Such computer uses cut across disciplines and grade levels. Thus, all teachers face the task of assessing students who routinely use information technologies when they study ÒtraditionalÓ topics. A steadily increasing number of classrooms are equipped with a multimedia presentation station that includes a computer and a projection system. Students are learning to use the same system to make presentations to the whole class or to groups of students. Teachers are learning to assess student multimedia projects and their multimedia presentations.

3. New Assessment Tools

Third, technology provides new assessment tools. Some examples include:

• Computer-based self-scoring tests. ÒComputer-adaptiveÓ tests can be interactive, adjusting to the knowledge levels of students. Computerized testing offers a type of flexibility not readily available in paper-and-pencil testing. If the computer can generate test questions or retrieve them from a database, individual students can take tests whenever they are ready to do so, rather than when the test happens to be scheduled for a whole class. This can be used to help support individualized instruction and mastery- learning approaches to education.
• Electronic gradebooks. Among other things, electronic gradebooks make it possible for teachers to provide students with up-to-date information about their grades, along with computer-generated analyses of their standings relative to the standards being set for the course.
• Computer-based student portfolios. Portfolios developed and stored as multimedia databases can be&emdashwith some limitations&emdashmore compact, storable, and retrievable than traditional collections of papers and constructions. Each of these new assessment tools is discussed in more detail later in this booklet.

  4. Process-Based Projects

Process writing is now thoroughly integrated into curriculum and instruction. Students learn that writing begins with brainstorming and other prewriting activities. Students then go through repeated cycles of composing, feedback, and revision. Finally, they polish their writing for final publication. Computers are useful in all steps of this process.

Most of the projects used in project-based learning have characteristics similar to process writing. All such projects are carried out over a period of time. All require continual assessment that provides feedback and leads to revisions that improve the developing product. All produce final products that are published or performed (International Society for Technology in Education, 1996).

Increasingly, information technologies are used in student projects to collect, process, and communicate information. This means that teachers in all disciplines and at all grade levels must work with students who are learning to use technology. The teachers must assess the studentsÕ work and must help students do both self-assessment and peer assessment of this work. A sequence of drafts of the project&emdashwhich may be stored in a computer&emdashcan be a part of a studentÕs portfolio.

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Major Ideas in Authentic Assessment

This section examines a number of the major ideas in authentic assessment. These are analyzed from an information-technology point of view. In many cases, the information technologies empower students so they are capable of much higher levels of performance than they could do without the technology. They can develop high-quality products and performances.

Authentic tests of intellectual performance involve the following factors:

• Faithful representation of the contexts encountered in a field of study or in the real-life tests faced by adults.

Increasingly, adults make use of information technologies as they address the problems and questions encountered on the job, at home, and in their other everyday activities. They use computer networks to retrieve information and to communicate with their colleagues. They use computer networks as they engage in tasks that can only be accomplished through collaboration of a number of people. They use computers to store and manipulate data -- to solve problems that require a lot of computing power.

• Engaging and important problems and questions.

What is deemed engaging and important varies with the grade level of students as well as the discipline being studied. Such problems and questions tend to be complex and multidisciplinary, and have many possible solutions. In every discipline and at every grade level, students should be using their steadily increasing knowledge and skills in ways that require higher order cognition, problem solving, and creativity. They should learn to make use of adult tools as they address hard problems. They can do research using electronic sources of information such as CD-ROMs and the Internet. They can learn to develop computer database and spreadsheet models of the problem they are addressing. They can learn to design and develop effective communications that may be desktop-published or published as interactive hypermedia documents that can only be effectively viewed through use of computers.

• Nonroutine and multistage tasks -- real problems.

Carrying out a multistage task is invariably a "process," analogous to process writing. Many such processes can take advantage of information technologies. Consider, for example, a stage production. Script writing is a particular type of writing, and computers are an especially valuable tool in this endeavor. Revision of the script is an ongoing process as the stage production is developed. The same comments hold for the needed music. Computers are now a routine tool for the writing, editing, and production of music. Computers are also routinely used in the development of costumes and stage sets, and in the overall choreography of a production.

• Self-assessment.

The student is both assessor and subject. The criteria for success and clear and understandable to the student. A student learns to engage in an internal dialogue that is guided by assessment criteria, both those set by the external evaluator and those that the student considers of particular importance.

• Trained assessor judgment.

Students, peers, teachers, and other assessors all receive instruction that leads to improved judgment as they use clear and appropriate criteria to assess a piece of student work. The assessment criteria are known to both the assessor and to the students being assessed. There is clear and open communication about these criteria. Through this communication, the assessment is clarified and improved. This criterion is particularly challenging to teachers who are learning to use information technologies at the same time they are implementing use of the technologies in their classrooms. The teacher is learning on the job and is learning from the students. It can be very helpful to have some consulting help from an outside assessor who has a higher level of expertise in the student work being assessed.

• The assessment of habits of mind and patterns of performance.

Authentic assessment is not "one-shot" assessment. It is assessment that measures the habits of mind and patterns of performance that can be consistently expected of a student in varying situations. It is assessment of the levels of expertise that a student has achieved in a discipline. There has been considerable research on helping students develop expertise and on measuring emerging, increasing levels of expertise (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1993). An important component of expertise is knowledge and skill using the tools of the discipline. The information technology tools are an important component of expertise in all academic disciplines.

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Rubrics

A rubric is a scoring tool that can be used in student self assessment or peer assessment, as well as by teachers and evaluators. It lists important criteria applicable to a particular type or piece of work. It also lists varying levels of possible achievement of the criteria.

Scoring rubrics tend to be holistic in nature. For example, a writing rubric may be designed to categorize a piece of writing as being representative of a writer falling into one of six categories: 1) Emergent Writer; 2) Limited Writer; 3) Developing Writer; 4) Capable Writer; 5) Strong Writer; and 6) Exceptional Writer. For each of the six levels there would be a number of descriptors of writing at that level. The process of training an assessor would include examining a number of pieces of writing and learning the meanings of the various criteria associated with each level.

Rubrics have been developed for many different curriculum areas and lists of these have been published (Brewer, 1996). Wide-scale implementation of such rubrics has been accompanied by extensive research on their effectiveness as well as on the nature and extent of teacher education needed for their effective use. Conclusions from this research include:

• It is not easy to develop good rubrics. Wiggins (1996-97) discusses rubrics that his research organization developed for use in assessing a project that is developing assessment rubrics for students and teachers. Wiggins emphasizes that the development of rubrics is a process that leads to a product; both the process and the product should be assessed.
• Because curriculum, instruction, and assessment need to be aligned, scoring rubrics by themselves do not lead to an improvement in education. A substantial amount of professional development, accompanied by significant changes in both curriculum and instruction, are essential components of moving toward effective authentic assessment.
• Teachers need to learn to modify the scoring rubrics that are published in books and articles to better fit their own teaching situations and styles, and they need to learn to develop rubrics.
• The introduction of authentic assessment into a classroom, school, or school district may encounter considerable resistance from teachers, parents, students, and other key stakeholders. It represents a substantial change from "traditional" assessment, and many people oppose such change. As with any school reform project, all of the key stakeholders need to be involved. There must be considerable emphasis on helping the stakeholders learn about the advantages of authentic assessment, as well as difficulties and drawbacks.
• Wide-scale use of authentic assessment requires a major investment in the assessment process. The assessors need to have a high level of competence and training. To achieve reasonably reliable results requires that a student product be assessed by several people and that mechanisms exist for resolving discrepancies. (Anyone who has watched the scoring of athletic performances in diving, gymnastics, or ice skating is familiar with this. Each performance is scored by multiple judges, often with the highest and lowest score being thrown out. A head judge may call the judges together for a discussion to resolve discrepancies.)

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Sample Information-Technology Rubric

This section contains a partial example of a scoring rubric that might be used in a unit of instruction in which students are learning to design and desktop publish a newsletter. The main emphasis in the instructional unit is on students learning to use information-technology tools. However, there is also some emphasis on students learning to communicate effectively while making use of these tools.

This unit of instruction is different than a writing unit in which the main emphasis is on effective written communication, with only a minor emphasis on desktop publication of the resulting written document. Remember, assessment must be aligned with curriculum and instruction. Scoring rubrics that fit a unit emphasizing technology will, necessarily, be different than scoring rubrics for a unit emphasizing written communication.

In this particular unit of study, the students are studying a number of principles of design for an effective newsletter. The assumption is that they are already skilled in using a word processor, scanning and editing graphics, and printing documents.

The rubric shown in Table 1 contains only part of the items that would be used for this newsletter project. We have not included any items having to do with the quality of the written content. This particular example makes use of a six-level scale on each rubric item. Four-level scales are also commonly used. The intent is that the different levels form an equal interval scale.

It is common to make use of a Likert-type scale with an even number of levels for a rubric item. This forces the assessor to place the work into an "above the middle" or "below the middle" category.

It is evident that it takes considerable learning on the part of students and teachers to make effective use of these rubric items. The assessment, curriculum, and instruction are interwoven. The curriculum and instruction will include the examination of a number of different desktop-published newsletters. Students will practice assessing these newsletters, their own newsletters, and the newsletters of their fellow students.

Six-level scale. The student work displays:

1. No evidence of understanding and using this principle.

2. Limited evidence of understanding and using this principle.

3. Developing understanding and use of this principle.

4. Capable understanding and use of this principle.

5. Strong and creative understanding and use of this principle.

6. Exceptional and highly creative understanding and use of this principle.

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Computer-Generated and Scored Tests

Although authentic assessment has received a lot of attention in recent years, "conventional" assessment based on objective test items is still far more commonly used. Computer technology can be quite useful in developing, administering, and scoring such tests.

There are two common approaches to computer-generated tests. One approach is to develop a large data bank of objective test questions and their answers. A second approach involves developing computer software that can generate test questions. This tends to be particularly easy in mathematics computation situations. A computer program can use a random number generator to generate numbers that are to be used in a problem, and the computer can then solve the problem. Careful program design and sophisticated programming techniques make such item- generation software applicable in a wide range of testing situations.

One common use of computer-generated tests is for paper-and-pencil testing of large groups of students. Suppose, for example, that you want to have three different forms of a test, all containing the same questions. With simple test-generation software, the questions are entered into the computer, which is then directed to print out three randomized versions of the test along with the corresponding answer sheets.

If computer-generated test items are being used, it is possible to generate innumerable tests of essentially the same difficulty and coverage. This is useful in situations in which students need to take makeup tests and in testing for mastery learning. A test on a topic can be generated whenever it is needed, printed out, and provided to the student.

The use of "scan sheets" for recording answers on objective tests is commonplace. A scanner/computer can then process the answer sheet. This is a fast and accurate way to process the answer sheets. Moreover, the computer can then be used to do an item analysis of the questions -- for example, providing data on the number of times each of the questions was answered correctly, and which questions best discriminate between students who score high on the test and students who score low. This type of analysis is useful in refining the test and the test questions in order to produce a better test.

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Computer-Presented Tests

There are many types of tests that can be stored and administered by computer. The types of questions to be presented can make use of text, graphics, color, sound, animation, and video. Depending on the hardware and software being used, student responses might come from keyboard, mouse, touch screen, voice, or an adaptive device designed to fit the needs of a student with a particular physical challenge.

With an objective or true/false computer presented test, scoring can be immediate -- indeed, if desired, a report can be given to a student as soon as the individual completes the test. Moreover, the computer system can gather data on the time spent on the various test items, changes in responses when the student re-examines an item, and so on. The availability of this sort of data from a number of test takers provides the basis for item analysis as well as analyzing the test-taking characteristics of each student.

Computer-presented testing adds some new dimensions to testing. It is not necessary for each student to have the items presented in the same order. Computer software can select items from a database of questions. This selection method might be based on an analysis of the answers being produced by the student. For example, if the student provides incorrect answers to most questions of a certain level of difficulty, the computer system might switch to providing easier questions. This would be an example of computerized adaptive testing (CAT) (Shermis et al. 1996).

CAT has been a explored by a number of different researchers and is gradually gaining acceptance. Generally speaking, CAT is quite a bit faster than paper-and-pencil testing. It saves time through a combination of factors. Students answer more quickly when questions are at a level appropriate to their knowledge and skills, and they need to answer fewer questions to provide a good measure of their performance levels.

CAT can be designed to outperform the validity and reliability of paper-and-pencil tests for students who are at the extreme ends of the population being tested. For example, some of the seventh-grade students being tested on a statewide reading comprehension test may read below the third-grade level, and some may read above the 11th-grade level. Most of the questions in a paper-and-pencil test for seventh graders are at the fifth- through ninth-grade levels. CAT readily adapts to students falling outside this range and asks questions that can be used to accurately assess their actual performance levels.

It requires considerable resources to develop and adequately test a CAT product. Thus, such tests are typically developed by large district, state, national, or commercial testing services.

Many schools now have adequate computer facilities to make use of computer presented tests and CAT. The software to do simple computer presented testing, perhaps with items being drawn randomly from an item data bank, will run on even the simplest of computers. Thus, this is an assessment vehicle that can be used by any teacher who has an interest in developing the necessary data bank of test items. Moreover, many textbook publishers have developed such item banks and provide them with classroom-sized orders of the texts.

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Electronic Portfolios

Portfolios and portfolio assessment have long been an important part of assessment in the graphic arts. Similarly, students of music can record their performances, and students of dance and theater can videotape their performances.

In recent years, the idea of portfolios and portfolio assessment have spread to other disciplines. A portfolio might contain writing samples that illustrate changes in writing skill over a period of time. A portfolio might contain samples of science lab writeups or written tests from any discipline.

Portfolios are one component of authentic assessment (Gardner, 1993; Fogarty, 1996). The overall approach is straightforward, albeit fraught with many difficulties. The student and teacher work together to select appropriate portfolio items. Initially, it is common to select far more items than will be used in the final portfolio. The student and the teacher then work together to develop a presentation portfolio for a specific purpose, such as a presentation for parents. The student develops a critical analysis of the works that have been selected. This analysis is an important part of the portfolio presentation. It might discuss the purposes of the various portfolio items as well as the progress in gaining knowledge and skills illustrated by a sequence of items.

Information technologies add new dimensions to portfolio assessment. First, technology can be used to digitize and store pictures, graphics, sound, and text. The editing facilities of a computer can be used to arrange portfolio items into a presentation to fit a particular presentation situation and can be used later to develop the materials into a different presentation.

Second, many students now develop and carry out projects and developing products that can only be adequately represented and used on a computer. Interactive multimedia "stacks" and Web pages provide excellent examples of this new form of product. Student work done using a computerized music synthesizer, science simulations, and sophisticated mathematical software all support the need for electronic portfolios.

Electronic portfolios have considerable advantages over physical products in terms of editing, copying, storing, and moving the materials. However, viewing an electronic portfolio requires appropriate hardware, software, knowledge, and skills. Moreover, the hardware and software used to create an electronic portfolio eventually become obsolete, and long-term records have to be translated to current media and software formats from time to time if they are to remain easily accessible.

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Electronic Gradebooks

Many teachers make use of electronic gradebooks. This technology can help teachers keep detailed records, produce reports for students and end-of-term grades, and write notes to parents.

Over the years, electronic gradebook software has grown in sophistication and versatility. For example, such software may include provisions for developing a seating chart, even when chairs in the room are not aligned in rows. The software may store alias names for students, so that grade reports can be printed out and posted. The software allows different weightings to be assigned to various assignments and tests. It may automatically adjust for excused absences on assignments and tests. Finally, an electronic gradebook usually contains provisions for the teacher to enter anecdotal information and other written comments.

An electronic gradebook may be installed on a laptop computer or personal digital assistant. This facilitates the teacher wandering around the classroom to observe students at work. The teacher can use checklists when observing student behavior and performances and can enter notes as needed. Obviously, a teacher needs both training and experience to develop the observational and technology skills to make effective use of these tools.

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Final Remarks

Information technologies are steadily growing in importance and use in our schools. Use of such technology tends to add to the "authenticity" of curriculum and instruction. With the help of these tools, students are able to undertake projects that are more real-world in nature and that would be beyond their capabilities if they did not have technology access.

This brings a new challenge to student assessment. All teachers will eventually have to assess students who are making routine use of information technologies. Because of the authentic nature of the information technology facilities and their use, it is natural to make use of authentic assessment in this endeavor. Electronic aids to assessment, as well as electronic portfolios, are growing in importance and use.

Although some schools and school districts have devoted considerable professional development time to authentic assessment, few have addressed this topic specifically from an information-technology point of view. Increasing use of authentic assessment and electronic portfolios requires changes in curriculum and instruction. It also requires educating the various stakeholders -- students, parents, school board members, and so on. Authentic assessment -- especially as it relates to information technologies -- is an essential component of this nationÕs drive to improve its schools.

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References

 

Applied Measurement in Education [Special Issue]. (1992). 4 (4).

This journal issue provides an in-depth analysis of the nature, practices, and concerns about performance assessment. The articles not only discuss the difference between the new and traditional approaches to student assessment, they also define performance, authentic, and portfolio assessment.

Baker, E. L. & O'Neil, H. F. Jr. (Editors). (1994). Technology assessment in education and training. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

A comprehensive analysis of the research literature on technology in education, with a major focus on metastudies and other broad-based studies.

Barrett, H. C. (1994). Technology-supported assessment portfolios. The Computing Teacher, 21(6), 9-12.

Barrett examines a number of different pieces of software and hardware used in electronic portfolios and in other aspects of student assessment.

Bereiter, C., & Scardamalia, M. (1993). Surpassing ourselves: An inquiry into the nature and implications of expertise. Chicago and La Salle, IL: Open Court.

A seminal book on expertise. It is aimed at educators and education in general, but it also discusses some of the roles of computers in expertise. Contains a large bibliography.

Brewer, R. (1996). Exemplars: A teacherÕs solution. Underhill, VT: Exemplars.

Vermont has made a major commitment to authentic assessment in its schools. This book includes a number of examples of rubrics used in authentic assessment.

Educational Leadership [Special Issue]. (1992, May). 49 (8).

This journal issue provides an in-depth analysis of the nature, practices, and concerns about performance assessment. The articles not only discuss the difference between the new and traditional approaches to student assessment, but they also define performance, authentic, and portfolio assessment.

Fogarty, R. (Ed.). (1996). Student portfolios: A collection of articles. Palatine, IL: IRI/Skylight Training and Publishing, Inc.

Major sections of this book address choosing, using, and perusing portfolios. Two of the articles focus on electronic portfolios, and one addresses self-assessment.

Gardner, H. (1993). Multiple intelligences: The theory in practice. New York: Basic Books.

Howard Gardner is a prolific author and has pioneered a specific theory of multiple intelligences. A number of schools have developed their curriculum, instruction, and assessment around his theory that each student has seven different types of intelligence: linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, spatial, intrapersonal, and interpersonal.

International Society for Technology in Education. (1996). Foundations for The Road Ahead: Project-based learning and information technologies. Washington, DC: National Foundation for the Improvement of Education. (Also available online at http://www.iste.org/specproj/roadahed/pbl.html.)

This short report includes a summary and examples of project-based learning, along with recommendations for organizing successful projects.

Journal of Research on Computing in Education [Special Issue]. (1996). 28(4).

This special issue of the JRCE focuses on assessing the impact of computer-based learning since 1987.

Kulik, J. A. (1994). Meta-analytic studies of findings on computer-based instruction. In E. L. Baker and H. F. OÕNeil, Jr. (Eds.), Technology assessment in education and training. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Kulik is undoubtedly the worldÕs leader in doing meta-analyses on computer-assisted instruction (CAI). This extensive article is a meta-analysis of meta-analyses on CAI. It contains an extensive bibliography. It is an excellent starting point for anyone interested in studying the CAI research literature.

Meng, E. & Doran, R. L. (1993). Improving instruction and learning through evaluation: Elementary school science. Columbus, OH: ERIC.

Explores many different ways to assess elementary school science. The emphasis is on assessment that is aligned with a philosophy of hands-on science instruction.

Moursund, D., Bielefeldt, T., Ricketts, R., & Underwood, S. (1995). Effective practice: Computer technology in education. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.

A comprehensive summary and analysis of the research literature and other information on effective uses of computer technology in K-12 education.

Owen, D. (1985). None of the above: Behind the myth of scholastic aptitude. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

An analysis of the SAT and similar types of tests, oriented toward showing that through appropriate test-directed study and practice, one can significantly raise their score on such tests.

Pea, R. D. (1985) Beyond amplification: Using the computer to reorganize mental functioning. Educational Psychologist, 20(4), 167-182.

At the time this article was written, most cognitive uses of computers were rather superficial. For example, using a computer as a word processor or as a high speed calculator are ÒamplificationsÓ of current cognitive processes. Pea speculates on possible types of cognitive uses of computers that move beyond amplification and lead to major changes in the ways that we approach and solve problems.

Rothman, R. (1995). Measuring up: Standards, assessment, and school reform. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

A book written for the educated layperson. Provides good coverage of the advantages, disadvantages, and issues underlying alternative assessment. Provides a number of examples of schools and school districts that have implemented alternative forms of assessment.

The Computing Teacher [Special Issue]. (1994, March). 21 (6).

A theme issue devoted to alternative assessment. This periodical is published by the International Society for Technology in Education and is now called Learning and Leading With Technology.

Shermis, M. D., Stemmer, P. M., & Webb, P. M. (1996). Computerized adaptive skill assessment in a statewide testing program. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 29 (1), 49-67.

A research study on the feasibility of using Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) in statewide assessment in Michigan. The article provides a good overview of advantages and disadvantages of CAT versus paper-and-pencil testing. The results were supportive of moving toward statewide use of this mode of assessment.

Wiggins, G. P. (1993). Assessing student performance. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Wiggins is a leading research and author on authentic assessment. This comprehensive book provides the solid background needed by anybody who is doing a serious exploration of authentic assessment.

Wiggins, G. P. (1996-1997, December-January). Practicing what we preach in designing authentic assessments. Educational Leadership, pp. 18-25.

An analysis of effective practices in developing authentic assessment materials. The emphasis is on using authentic assessment techniques in the process of developing assessments.

Wishnietsky, D. H. (Ed.). (1994). Assessing the role of technology in education. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa.

A collection of articles analyzing the uses of computer technology in education and how it is affection our schools. Includes a discussion of authentic assessment.

Prepared for the National Foundation for the Improvement of Education by the International Society for Technology in Education. Subject to review and modification. Principal author: Dr. David Moursund. Contact: Talbot Bielefeldt, Research Associate (talbot@iste.org).