Replace Testing with Learning
SXSWedu 2017 Panel
2. Large-scale summative assessments have a role, but that role has expanded well beyond what these tests can do.
3. We need to be honest about what these tests can and can't do.
4. Can we use more institutionally-based assessments to also serve accountability purposes? Sounds simple, right?
a. Long history of accountability purposes subverting instructional uses.
5. The New Hampshire model. PACE Pilot. A common task is required of students in grade levels that don't have state assessments.
Assessment does not have to be end-of-year, multiple choice tests. Assessment is evidence of learning.
Technology can help with mastery based curriculum. For example, multiple step problems can be used to assess student acquisition of knowledge/skills along the way. Why throw away data acquired by adaptive systems. Could it not be used for accountability?
Progress monitoring must be easy to understand for instructors and administrators.
Unintended Consequence: Have to be careful so kids don't think the things they are doing all the time are "the test."
We get stuck thinking the only way to find out what a student knows is to give them a test.
Assess comes from the Latin "to sit beside." What about evidence based observations of learning by educators?
We got into a trap with large-scale assessments because we pretended they could do everything. We don't want to get into a similar trap with a "new way of assessing." A system of assessments is more likely to give us a more complete picture.
The kind of assessment we need: If you didn't score the task, it would still be an excellent instructional activity.
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