Alternative Assessment

Why all the talk about alternative assessment? The NYS Learning Standards for MST challenge us to teach using methods of inquiry. They tell us to have students ask questions and develop experiments to answer them. Now that we are doing science better than ever before, we must try to assess our students. Traditional multiple-choice tests do not provide a complete picture of student learning, especially when we are emphasizing the process rather than the content of science. Alternative assessment is simply an alternative to traditional methods. Its purpose is to better evaluate students' understandings in science. The State Education Department is piloting an integrated task activity that includes an assessment format which may be a change for some elementary teachers. The new test creates a need to expose students to alternative methods of assessment. Perhaps, as it has in the past, the assessment will drive the instruction.

The most important first step is to determine the goals of your unit of study and the evidence you need in order to demonstrate that the goals have been met. If you don't have a clear purpose in mind, your assessments will not tell you very much.

Using pre and post unit assessments can allow the teacher to gain a clear understanding of what students know at the beginning of the unit of study and what they know at the end. Pre and post assessments can be formal or informal and administered to the class as a whole or to students as individuals. There is no one correct format, but in order to compare a pre and post test, the format should be the same for both. Pre-tests should never be presented as a test for a grade.

A K-W-L chart (What do I know? - What do I want to know? - What have I learned?) is an informal way to assess students' knowledge and learning.

Student journal entries (pre and post) can be compared. If a focus question is used in the journal, the post unit question should have the same form, but reflect time that has passed, i.e. "What do I know about...now?"

Interpreting a picture (drawing or photograph) of a scene before and after a unit of study can be a tool of assessment. For example, students see a picture of a woodland scene and are asked, "How would this scene change if humans settled here?" Then students are asked the same question after studying ecosystems and humans impacts on them. The students' interpretations can be very revealing.

Document science attitudes and skills using a checklist system before a unit and after it. In the same way, compare student data tables or lab reports from the beginning of the year and the end.

A teacher or a student can perform the same simple task at the beginning and at the end of a unit and the class can use the same worksheet to explain or describe the task. The responses and explanations can be compared.

Use student pre and post drawings to assess learning or observation skills, i.e. pictures of butterflies before and after the unit, pictures of how to light a bulb before and after the unit, things that a plant needs to stay alive, etc.

Have students create a concept map as a class and then compare it to the map students make at the end of a unit. Accept both correct and incorrect information for the first map. When the second map is created, try to reflect all information gleaned from a unit of study and ferret out all inaccurate information.

Student self-evaluations encourage self-reflection and better learning for students. They can encompass a variety of formats and reflect a student's opinion of his/her performance. Self-evaluations should never be graded.

In addition to pre and post assessments, teachers can institute many other types of alternative assessment.

Post-unit assessments can include "lab tests" using a format similar to the ESPET performance task. (Tasks which are similar to the state assessment items are sometimes referred to as parallel tasks.) Student interpretation of data (especially data which they collected) can expose their understanding. Hands-on experiments that replicate a process used in the unit allow teachers to measure ability to use skills that were taught. Given certain materials, students can construct a model of the current topic of study, i.e. the cell. Students could work alone or in pairs to design and/or carry out an experiment.

A culminating activity such as a presentation, skit or teaching of others allows exhibition of student learning. The teacher should use the rehearsal for the public activity as the actual assessment, so that any nervousness won't hinder an accurate assessment of students' knowledge.

When you start using alternative assessment, start small. One example of this is to use an old multiple choice question without providing the answers. This eliminates the "guessing factor" for which multiple choice tests are famous. Don't add to your workload if you can help it. Look for things that you already do to find evidence of students' thinking and learning. Be realistic about the values of your school community. Science journals fit in well in a school that emphasizes writing. If graded report cards are emphasized, be sure that you can translate your assessments into traditional grades.

I am indebted to the following resources for alternative assessment in elementary science:

Hein, George E. and Sabra Price. 1994. Active Assessment for Active Science. Heinemann. Portsmouth, NH.

New York State Education Department. 1997. Mathematics, Science & Technology Resource Guide. Albany, NY. A print copy of the resource guides was mailed to every district. Address additional inquiries to:

The MST Resource Guide
NYS Education Department
Office of Curriculum and Instruction
681 EBA
Albany, NY 12234
(518) 474-5922

Reynolds, D.S., R.L. Doran, R.H. Allers, S.A. Agruso. 1996. Alternative Assessment in Science: A Teacher's Guide. Buffalo, NY: University at Buffalo.

Reynolds, D.S., R.L. Doran, R.H. Allers, S.A. Agruso. 1996. A Collection of Alternative Assessment Tasks for Grade 4. Buffalo, NY: University at Buffalo.