Assessment: Non-Traditional and Alternative

I like that this section brought up alternative assessment because we talked about alternative assessment briefly in our ESL Testing class last week.  Normally I think of alternative assessment as a way to differentiate methods and allow the students' knowledge to be measured in ways other than multiple choice tests that can hinder them and not extract their true knowledge in a way that is meaningful for them. Chapter 33 echoes my idea: "Alternative assessment is different from  traditional testing in that it actually asks students to show what they can do" (339). I know that many of my greatest learning experiences in high school and college were when I was given a choice of different ways of completing a project. I am naturally a very good writer and test-taker, but differentiated methods were very much appreciated. I think it is also important for teachers to implement alternative assessment because it keeps the class engaged and eager to learn. How much more fun does acting out a play or having a group discussion seem as a basis for an assessment rather than sitting down for an hour and silently taking a test? However, as the chapter notes, the reliability and validity of these alternative assessments are still necessary.

So, how can we got about deciding which forms of alternative or non-traditional assessment will be appropriate and useful for the classroom? Obviously, we have to consider the classroom setting and participants, but chapter 34 provides three issues that need to be considered in assessment: philosophical issues, public issues, and implementation issues. Although the text presents these three idea in order of importance, I would argue that implementation issues are the most important characteristic to be considered because it refers to how the particular form of assessment can be implemented daily in the classroom, which is a huge part of how successful the classroom is.