This report describes a program for improving students' depth of understanding through the use of alternative assessment. The targeted population consisted of students at one elementary, one junior high, and two high schools in two growing middle class communities in northern Illinois. Lack of student understanding was documented through teacher…

Educators and educational policymakers increasingly express the belief that assessment should not be used merely to judge how much students know, but also to illuminate the nature of their knowledge and understandings in order to help them learn. The role of classroom-based assessment in this process is explored considering such forms of…

This paper looks at alternative assessment and explores its place in educational reform. It gives a snapshot of alternative assessment in practice, guidelines for establishing it as part of the urban school culture, and resources for additional information. Alternative assessments differ from traditional tests in that they require students to…

Few studies have investigated the knowledge and beliefs that undergrids science teachers' assessment practice. This study was conducted to investigate the perspectives of science teachers on classroom assessment, considering the constructs that inform teachers of their classroom assessment practice. The study was grounded in a socioconstructivist…

Forms of assessment that are consistent with outcomes based education are discussed. Assessment in service to learning must inform students about their learning, provide data for teachers who plan instruction, inform parents about student progress, and provide data for policymakers. Chapter 1 of this document is "The Implications of…

The use of classroom assessments in the context of the new assessment system for California schools, the California Learning Assessment System, is discussed by describing the California Learning Record (CLR). The CLR emphasizes the central role of teachers in equitable assessment of student learning for students of diverse cultural and ethnic…

The chapters in this collection explore alternative assessment and give specific examples of successful efforts by teachers to develop their own systems of assessment. Taken together, these chapters are a rejection of the ranking and separating of students according to test scores, and an argument for richer forms of mixed alternative assessments.…

Alternative assessments, also called authentic or performance assessments, have first the common notion of a meaningful performance or product. The use of such alternatives with students belonging to nondominant language and cultural groups is of interest because of the hope that this type of assessment can show what these students can really do…

In April 1991, members of the Kentucky Educational Research Association (KERA), held a conference to discuss performance assessment and its use in Kentucky schools. The following papers from the conference are included: (1) "Our Conference and the Performance Assessment Committee" (S. Kifer); (2) "Performance Assessment: A National…