Reassessing Assessment

Better assessments yield better learning outcomes

25 July 2024

Image credit Colleen Farris

In the United States, standardized tests are part of most teacher and student experiences. The drawbacks of standardized tests have been discussed for years, but no widespread alternative to solve assessment problems has been adopted (Stanford, 2023). There is ample evidence to show that alternative forms of assessment offer a better picture of what students can do with what they know (CSCC, 2022).

This raises many questions: Why do we rely on standardized tests to assess if students know something? What are the different methods we can use to assess knowledge? Are some modes of testing better than others? Answering these questions is difficult because assessment in general, and alternative assessments in particular are wicked problems.

Wicked Problems

What is a wicked problem?

Wicked problems are characterized by having many stakeholders with competing priorities. Another identifier of wicked problems that they have many aspects to them, so that even good solutions cause other problems and do not fully resolve underlying issues.

Why is alternative assessment a wicked problem? 

In the United States, we have large monetary investments in standardized testing. Standardized tests are actually required by law in some states and at the federal level (Stanford, 2023). And, alternative assessments, by their very nature, are not as easy to standardize and use as data for comparative purposes. Alternative assessments require more time, personnel, and money to administer and grade. Between the multiple levels of stakeholders from the Federal government down to local businesses, schools, parents, and students, to the myriad of moving parts that must come together to administer and grade tests, implementing alternative assessments in a world where standardized assessments are already entrenched is a wicked problem.

Standardized Assessments

Background on standardized assessments

In the 1800s, Horace Mann proposed the idea of measuring learning to improve teaching (Gregory, 2022). The original intent was to identify teachers who excelled at teaching, then take their methods and share them with other teachers so all students had the benefit of best teaching practices. We have gotten away from that idea today. Multiple choice tests, the most familiar standardized assessments, were invented to save time. They were not created for the purpose of supporting student learning and achievement.

Support for standardized tests has fallen over time. Only nine states have standardized tests as a graduation requirement (Stanford, 2023). It is interesting to note that U.S. scores on standardized tests in science and math have not improved in twenty years (Amadeo, 2024). While standardized assessments have their detractors, they are not going to be replaced any time soon. That is because they do offer real benefits along with their drawbacks.

Standardized assessment affordances and constraints

Standardized assessments help educators identify areas of growth and weakness. They provide measures that can be compared within schools and at the national level. These measures allow teachers, schools, school systems to evaluate their progress (Whitby School, n.d.). While standardized assessment has costs, the uniformity of the testing helps reduce time, labor, and infrastructure demands.

While standardized assessments offer legally required accommodations for special education and 504 students, they are not designed to accommodate a wide variety of unique contexts of learning. This contradicts best practices related to knowledge creation (Koehler, 2017). (My previous blog post, Ten Dollar Words, discusses best practices based on education theory.) Standardized assessments' ability to measure knowledge transfer is limited. In addition, they disadvantage students who do not test well, can cause drops in learner confidence, and give an advantage to students who do test well, creating a disparity (Whitby School, n.d.). At the same time, teachers who are paid based on test scores experience pressure to teach to the test.

Alternative Assessments

What are alternative assessments?

Alternative assessments are a way of evaluating student learning through performance tasks. They show what students can do with what they know, not just what they know. Alternative assessments include projects, portfolios, collaborative testing, concept mapping, journaling, videos, and other options (CSCC, 2022. longe, 2021).

Alternative assessment affordances and constraints

Alternative assessments are very flexible and can be developed according to TPACK and other theory of knowledge creation principles. This means teachers can tailor assessments to the context of their learners, content, etc. The main differences between alternative assessments and standardized assessments are that they provide students with feedback and the opportunity to complete meaningful tasks (CSCC, 2022).

The constraints of alternative assessments are that they are not standardized; therefore, they do not yield data that can be tracked like standardized assessment results. They also require considerable more investment in classroom teacher planning and grading time, as well as more school resources.

Solutions

When we started researching this topic in a effort to propose a better way to assess students, we projected that the answer to our questions would be that standardized testing should be replaced with alternative assessment. What we found, as shown in the discussion above, is that each approach to assessment has benefits and drawbacks. Taking that into consideration, we looked for a middle way.

We found two successful ways to combine assessment approaches as examples. One where project-based learning is used for formative assessments and standardized assessments are used for summative assessments. This approach yielded higher standardized assessment scores (Miller, 2018). The second is the Advanced Placement model for two courses that are taken in sequence, AP Research and Capstone. The Research course has a summative standardized assessment and the Capstone course has a summative research project that is an alternative assessment (2024 College Board, n.d.).

Research on assessment actually shows that improvements in student outcomes can be found with a "both/and" solution. When implemented together, standardized and alternative assessments balance each other. It is not a perfect balance, but it is better. That is the best we can hope for with wicked problems. It is still wicked, but it works (better)!

Artifacts

Wicked Problem Presentation

Wicked Problem Planning Journal

References

2024 College Board. (n.d.). AP research. AP Research Course – AP Central | College Board. https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-research

CSCC Digital Education and Instructional Services. (2022). https://iti.cscc.edu/deis2/ati_AlternativeAssessment_Main.html#:~:text=Alternative%20assessments%20are%20used%20to,knowledge%20rather%20than%20memorize%20material

Miller, A. (2018, September 11). PBL and standardized tests? it can work!. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/PBL-and-standardized-tests-andrew-miller

Amadeo, K. (2024, July 10). U.S. education rankings are falling behind the rest of the world. The Balance. https://www.thebalancemoney.com/the-u-s-is-losing-its-competitive-advantage-3306225#:~:text=Comparing%20Test%20Scores,-The%20Program%20for&text=around%20the%20world.-,The%20U.S.%20placed%2016th%20out%20of%2081%20countries%20in%20science,Singapore%3A%20575

Berger, W. (2024). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. Bloomsbury.

CoSN. (2024). Driving K-12 innovation: 2024 hurdles, accelerators, Tech enablers | CoSN | Millennium@EDU sustainable education. cosn.org. https://millenniumedu.org/2024/02/07/driving-k-12-innovation-2024-hurdles-accelerators-tech-enablers-cosn/

Gregory, M. (2022, August 10). Standardized Testing History: An Evolution of Evaluation. Education Advanced. https://educationadvanced.com/resources/blog/standardized-testing-history-an-evolution-of-evaluation/

longe, Busayo. (2021, March 9). Alternative assessment: Definition, types, Examples & Strategies. Formplus. https://www.formpl.us/blog/alternative-assessment

Koehler, M. (2017, June 9). TPACK explained. TPACK.ORG. https://matt-koehler.com/tpack2/tpack-explained/.

McCann, Andrew. YouTube. (2012, January 13). A brief history of assessment.mp4. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lBhMSaFNhY

National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council, W. D. C. on B. and S. S. and E., Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Expanded Edition. https://ezproxy.msu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=ED481522&site=eds-live&authtype=ip,guest&custid=s8364774&groupid=main&profile=eds.

Right Question Institute. (2024, June 6). Home. Right Question Institute. https://rightquestion.org/

Stanford, L. (2023, November 30). More states could drop their high school exit exams. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/more-states-could-drop-their-high-school-exit-exams/2023/11#:~:text=In%20January%2C%20the%20National%20Center,and%20Wyoming%E2%80%94still%20require%20the

Whitby School. (n.d.). The Pros and cons of standardized testing. https://www.whitbyschool.org/passionforlearning/the-pros-and-cons-of-standardized-testing