That was the question confronting Larry Lewin after his class of 8th graders had studied, in depth, the historic events of 1492. So Lewin asked his students to write a persuasive letter to the monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Students had to call upon their newly acquired knowledge of history to defend their point of view. When finished, the letters were assessed against criteria that the class had helped generate.
Kids are more motivated to write to dead monarchs than to take a test.
To give readers an overview of these trends, Education Update spoke with 10 experts in the field, who offered their perspectives on how the assessment of student learning is changing, and why. Chief among these trends are educators' efforts to assess active learning and to base assessments on clearly defined standards.