Tests with open-ended questions. These tests help teachers by showing how students think and use knowledge in different subject areas. They are often teacher-made. A picture drawn in art class is a product. So is a paper based on historical research.
Products offer a concrete demonstration of student progress.
These assessment techniques provide teachers and parents with useful information on which to base educational decisions about individual students. Multiple choice tests can be one part of an overall assessment program when they are administered to a sample of students and are not administered at every grade. Adapted from material prepared by FairTest, the National Center for Fair and Open Testing . Once children are labeled as a low, average, or high achievers and grouped accordingly, they are placed on tracks that can propel them toward college, or prepare them for low-paying, service sectors jobs. All too often, it is children who are members of language, ethnic, or racial minorities, or recent immigrants who find themselves relegated to lower tracks, limiting their access to the full range of school curriculum.