Alternative Assessment Originally published in The Gerbil Journal Volume 31, Issue 2. 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.