Assessment

Means et al. (1993) discuss the importance of using assessment models that are compatible with the goals of the technological innovation:

"Concern over the quality of education and the resolve to hold schools accountable for student learning have made assessment a 'high-stakes' activity. Districts and schools are rewarded and punished on the basis of the average test sores of their students. In striving for comparability across sites and for cost-effectiveness, the standardized tests that are used for these evaluations consist almost entirely of multiple-choice questions covering many discrete topics. Basic skills are stressed. To avoid favoring one curriculum topic over the other, test developers measure reading comprehension using material that is likely to be new to everyone. Thus, particular knowledge that may have been learned, the ability to regulate one's own sustained intellectual inquiry, and advanced skills generally go untested. The education system may unwittingly subvert efforts to teach more advanced skills by judging districts, schools, principals, and teachers on the basis of their students' performance on basic-skills tests. The surest way to raise those test scores is to teach to the tests; time spent with technology-enhanced instruction aimed at very different learning outcomes becomes a 'distraction.'

The potential for high-stakes testing of content to kill off a project was demonstrated at the Belridge School in McKittrick, California. Funded by tax revenues from neighboring oil fields, this small K-8 school district purchased computers for school and home use for every student and teacher in the school. Laser disc players, television production equipment, and large amounts of software were purchased. The project stressed having students collaborate on meaningful tasks that would challenge them to think. Student work included producing their own television news shows, and setting up and administering a computer-based presidential election. Two years later, when scores on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills for the first year of the technology implementation were released, parents were shocked to see that their students scored no better than before and slightly below the national median. Failing to consider the difference in focus between the technology-based projects and the standardized test and immaturity of the implementation at the time the students were tested, parents picketed the school and elected a new school board with the mandate to find a new 'back to basics' principal. Computers were removed from student desks and pushed to the rear of the classroom or sold (Schulz, 1992).

Thus, it is wise for innovators to confront the assessment issue as early as possible. Although district and state testing policies may be beyond local control, the school or classroom can at least take steps to collect additional assessment data that are more compatible with the goals of their innovation. Unfortunately, we lack good standardized measures of many advanced thinking skills, but a school can at least choose among the more appropriate subtests from standardized test batteries (e.g., reading comprehension as opposed to word-attack skills, math problem solving as opposed to numerical operations) and can supplement these measures with writing samples, portfolios, and other concrete evidence of student achievement." (pp. 87-88)

References