Like it or not, we're stuck with standardized, multiple-choice tests for the foreseeable future. The answer was no. Thus the authors designed a series of workshops to help teachers and students explore what various types of test questions really ask of the test-taker. Unlike other test preparation programs, theirs required engaging students in improving their problem-solving skills by examining correct answers. Thus the staff wrote and piloted four very different types of authentic assessments for a unit on simple machines, as Egeland graphically shows.
Students work in groups to construct and explain how three pulley arrangements work.
They take home exercises on the concepts of inclined planes, wedges, and screws. And they either design and construct a complex machine or take apart a compound machine and show how the simple machines inside make it work. Egeland's 5th graders built contraptions ranging from a banana peeler and egg cracker to machines that feed their pets to a mechanical snowball thrower. Lake Oswego in suburban Portland is one of several districts that is developing and piloting a performance-based certification program, and, as the authors report, the task has been formidable. For schools, this presents enormous challenges in such areas as developing high-quality assessments, assuring consistency in scoring student work, and addressing the needs of students who need remediation, to name a few.