Development+of+Authentic+Assessments+for+the+Middle+School+Classroom

The article that I found on assessments for special population, discusses the rationale for, and explicates the process used in, developing differentiated authentic assessments for middle school classrooms, many of which contain gifted students. The assessments are aligned with state academic standards and were developed based on learner-centered psychological principles and revised based on a content validation study involving a panel of 46 experts, who represented a variety of educational professionals. Results provide evidence that these types of assessments can provide quantifiable information about student learning, as well as inform the instructional process. Here is the link to this full text article: []

Thanks, Youlia Weber

1) Describe what you learned about diagnostic and assessment strategies that fit your target population (Content Knowledge).

I learned that while best practices in the middle school include teaching conceptually and assessing student undestading of concepts vs. trivial microfacts or specialized skills, traditional standardized tests fail to do so. Also, the traditional assessments cannot test the extent to which a student has mastered a body of knowledge surrounding a concept, only the information tested in the selected items, nor can they provide rich information about the multifaceted thinking necessary for complex problem-solving. This is why authentic assessments, often called performance-based assessments, are viewed by some in the field of gifted education as a more valid measure of student learning. Authentic or performance-based assessments engage students in real-world tasks and scenario-based problem-solving more that a traditional paper and pencil tests. Authentic assessments are highly contextualized and allow students to demonstrate knowledge and skills that are worth knowing in multiple ways, with multiple points of view and multiple interpretations. They focus on the ability to produce a quality product or performance rather than s single right answer. They are in depth and often lead to other problems and questions. To actively engage students in their own learning, tasks were designed around real-life situations and required students to make connections and forge relationships between prior knowledge and skills.

2) Describe in what ways assessment data would determine how you planned your curriculum and lessons for the specific needs population? (Pedagogical Knowledge)

The premise underlying authentic assessment is that teachers create curricular expreiences targeting specific performance skills and as a result, gain richer instructional information about students that is useful for modifying instruction for their varied needs. Authentic assessments should be evaluated by criteria that differ in emphasis, rather than kind, because they emphasize different aspects of student learning. Curricular tasks were developed to provide sufficient challenge for the range of academic diversity in the heterogeneous middle school classroom. Beginning with the presumption that all students' tasks must relate to the same essential skills and objectives, a core on-grade-level task was designed around the specific standards to be assessed, and then modifications were made to reflect advanced understanding of the major concepts, principles, generalizations, and skills for more advanced learners. For example, the tasks for the gifted students required depth and complexity of content undestanding, were less structured, required integration of multiple facets of a discipline or across disciplines, and allowed for greater independence. Thus, for gifted students the differentiation does not mean more work, but a different kind of work. And at the same time, regardless of level, all students' tasks related to the same essential skills and objectives.