| Reprinted here with the permission of the Eisenhower
National Clearinghouse. No further republication or
redistribution is permitted without the written permission of
the editor.
Source:
ENC Focus, 2000 - Volume 7, Number 2 |
 |
Aligning Assessment with Learning Goals
Concerned about aligning assessment with national and state standards? Help
is on its way from Project 2061.
by Natalie Nielsen, American Association for the Advancement of Science
| At the end of this article, see:
|
By now, most educators are familiar with the standards movement. National learning
goals specifying what students should know and be able to do in science and
mathematics have been developed by Project 2061 of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the National Research Council, and
the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. In addition, most states
have attempted to derive from these national goals their own standards or
curriculum frameworks to guide their education reform efforts.
With these learning goals in place, researchers and educators have taken the
next step to link standards and benchmarks to curriculum materials and instruction.
But what about assessment, which exerts extraordinary influence on the lives
of students and their families, and on every level of the education system?
A Lack of Guidance
Highly publicized, high-stakes tests are often the most visible indicator of
education success or failure for political leaders, parents, and concerned
citizens. Since this is unlikely to change, it is crucial for such assessments
to be developed thoughtfully.
Nearly everyone recognizes that to effect meaningful improvement in science
and mathematics education, curriculum and assessment have to be aligned with
specific goals for specific learning. In addition to this alignment, Blueprints
for Reform: Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education (AAAS, 1998)
recommends that assessments should:
- include a variety of techniques,
- encourage students to go beyond simple recall of data or facts,
- close the gap between the classroom and the real world, and
- include opportunities for students to perform tasks and solve problems.
As reasonable as these recommendations might appear, most assessments do not
do these things. Furthermore, the classroom teachers, administrators, and
test developers--those who are required to choose and develop assessments--have
little to guide them. Although some 40 states are currently engaged in developing
statewide assessments, Andrew Ahlgren, associate director of Project 2061,
notes that there is "no useful synthesis of the latest thinking on assessment,
much less practical advice on how to judge alignment of assessment with learning
goals."
Tools for Change
Project 2061 intends to provide some guidance. With a recent three-year, $2.4
million grant from the National Science Foundation, the project is gearing
up to develop a guide on how to evaluate--and hopefully improve--the alignment
of assessment to specific learning goals. Project 2061 intends to:
- develop criteria and an analysis procedure for judging alignment of assessment
tasks to specific learning goals (see box on this page
for a summary of the draft procedure); and
- produce case studies to illustrate the use of the criteria to revise
existing assessment tasks and create new ones.
According to Ahlgren, "This guidance will also be useful to classroom teachers
who are required to develop and assemble their own tests, interpret students'
responses, and make instructional decisions based on those responses." Together
with the project's other reform tools, the assessment guide will offer educators
the opportunity to make well-coordinated improvements in science and mathematics
education for all students.
References
American Association for the Advancement of Science (1989). Science for
all Americans. New York: Oxford University Press.
American Association for the Advancement of Science (1993). Benchmarks for
Science Literacy. New York: Oxford University Press.
American Association for the Advancement of Science (1998). Blueprints for
Reform: Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Natalie Nielsen, a writer with Project 2061, is currently a doctoral student
in education at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
About Project 2061
Begun in 1985 when Halley's Comet last appeared, Project 2061
takes its name from the year when the comet will again be visible
from Earth.
Hailed by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development
as the "single most visible attempt at science education reform
in American history," Project 2061 of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science is a long-term initiative to help
reform K-12 education nationwide so that all high-school graduates
are science literate.
Working with panels of scientists, mathematicians, and technologists,
Project 2061 set out in 1985 to identify the basic knowledge and
skills adults should have in five subject areas: biological and
health sciences; mathematics; physical and information sciences
and engineering; social and behavioral sciences; and technology.
These learning goals were eventually integrated into the landmark
document, Science for All Americans (1989).
In 1993, Project 2061 collaborated with teams of teachers from
six carefully selected school districts to create Benchmarks
for Science Literacy, a curriculum design tool that translates
the literacy goals of Science for All Americans into expectations
of what students should know at the ends of grades 2, 5, 8, and
12. Both documents have had a major impact on education, providing
the foundation for national and state science education standards.
To assist educators in meeting science literacy goals in their
own districts, Project 2061 is now developing a coordinated set
of reform tools. For full information on available publications
and services, visit the Project 2061 web site.
AAAS Project 2061
1200 New York
Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6666 / Fax (202) 842-5196;
Email: project2061@aaas.org
www.project2061.org
Project 2061 is currently supported by grants from the Carnegie
Corporation of New York, the Hewlett-Packard Company, the John
D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the National Science
Foundation. |
Summary of the Draft Project 2061 Assessment Analysis Procedure
The purpose of the procedure is to determine whether specific assessment
tasks focus on ideas or skills in benchmarks and standards. Reviewers
examine each assessment task including the scoring guides or rubrics.
If there is a content match with benchmarks and standards, reviewers
proceed to the next step, in which they examine other assessment
characteristics that, if present, will increase the likelihood
that the assessment will actually find out what students know
and can do. These characteristics include:
Depth of Understanding.
- Does the task avoid allowing students a trivial way out,
like repeating a memorized term or following rote steps in
a procedure?
- Are concepts or skills applied and connected in responding
to the task (e.g., by asking students to explain phenomena
or solve related problems)?
Usefulness.
- Does the task provide guidance to help the teacher interpret
students' responses or scores?
- Are the scoring and other additional information that accompany
the task helpful in modifying instruction?
Fairness.
- Can all students demonstrate what they know and are able
to do?
- Are there alternative formats, a variety of contexts, or
situations that are familiar to students from many backgrounds
and to both genders?
|
Nielsen, Natalie. (2000). Aligning Assessment with Learning Goals.
ENC Focus
7(2), 47-48. Reproduced with permission of Eisenhower National Clearinghouse;
visit ENC Online (
enc.org).
