Assessment is a learning experience! Week 4

I so resonated with this week's video and readings on performance assessment.  This is where I wish my school was headed.  I am always pushing for authentic performance assessments, while the school is interested in writing better multiple choice questions and having uniform paper and pencil test.  I have stuck with my convictions, and am still allowed to do my own finals and exams.  In order not to be seen as too revolutionary, this has often meant giving two tests - a lab performance-based test and the traditional multiple choice and short answer test.  As I stated in the Week 1 blog, I feel the performance based assessment is a learning experience.  I was delighted to hear the same phrase in the video on Comprehensive Assessment: An Overview by Edutopia.

In the related article by Roberta Furger, it states that"...you can't assess a student's deep understanding of a subject and their ability to apply a concept through a traditional paper-and-pencil, crank-out-the formulas kind of assessment.  I have argued with my colleagues that the best way to find out if a student can apply the chemistry problems is for them to perform experiments in a lab, similar to the ideas in the article - If you want to know if a student understands how to make a souffle - they need to make it! - not answer questions about it!  I was energized and envious about all the exciting projects students were doing in other classrooms, racing electric cars, designing buildings and dueling with robots!  This is the challenge to come up with authentic robust projects. As we also learned this week there are many online tools available for assessment, "Survey, quizzes and Test Builders, Reflection, Peer-to Peer Collaboration and Audio Video Production, as shown in our website.  However, I do not just want to change my assessments from paper and pencil to a video, unless producing the video has a deeper component to it.  I am struggling with how to make this all happen in my classroom (with school restraints) and with my numerous targets (objectives) that all need to be covered, but I am working on it!