3.  What is the purpose of education?
 Is it to teach the correct responses or is it to
teach how to reflect, analyze, think critically
and become good citizens of the 21st
Century?

4.  Indirect measure of competence
in use of their knowledge.
 Test only cover one domain of
knowledge to prevent ambiguity.
 There is only one correct answer
and no chance to revise and
think about improvement.
 Cannot measure higher order
thinking.
 Do not show how a student may
have organized his/her thinking.
 Do not demonstrate progress or
mastery of a skill.
 Pressure of timing can distort
the scores

5.  Students tasks incorporate a
range of skills that mirror the
challenges of the real world.
 Focus on the processes,
feedback and revision. There is
no one correct answer.
 Demonstrates higher order
thinking in skills that involve
“analysis, interpretation, and
multiple perspectives”
Comparing Traditional and
Performance based Assessment.
 Students receive feed back as
they complete the project, and
the assessment turns into an
opportunity to evaluate and
learn.
 Encourage “metacognition”, or
how a student thinks.

6.  Traditional tests are reliable but not valid. Reliability is the
consistency and precision of test scores. Answers are
obviously right or wrong, and scoring is considered objective,
but they don’t really measure the full scope of a students
knowledge.
 Performance assessments (projects)are valid but not reliable
measures because scoring can be subjective if not monitored
and planned. Validity is how well a test measures what it says
it measures. With projects there is no correct answer, but
these tasks reflect real world situations and foster knowledge
that is relevant and intrinsic.

7.  Eeva Reeder demonstrates
how performance or project
based assessment is a true
and valid indication of
mastery of a subject. Her
Geometry class, in
Mountlake Terrace High
School, demonstrate their
mastery of the subject by
designing a high school.
The project includes site
planning, model
development, cost
estimates, and formal
proposals.
 Take a Deeper look at Assessment for
Understanding

8.  Data from test scores can be used to address weaknesses and
improve instruction or it can be misleading if the basis of the
data is only standardized testing.
 Test scores in standardized tests are objective and can be used
to indicate learning. High scores on standardized test can reflect
an increase in authentic literacy learning, but they do not show
the deficiency in offering students “intellectually challenging
tasks” (Schmoker, 2009, p. 70). Tasks that teach students to
analyze, conduct research, invent, synthesize, and think
critically.
 Emphasis on test scores can prevent improvement in teaching
because teachers are evaluated on how well they teach based on
these scores. As a result, much time is spent on test-prep
activities instead of “authentic teaching and learning”(Schmoker,
2009, p.71).

9.  In Indiana ISTEP and ECA scores are the focus
of measuring success, but this may be
changing due to implementation of the
Common Core Standards. Because of the
reduced quantity of content, teachers will be
able to go more in depth in the subjects
covered. The new focus on literacy and
critical thinking will better prepare our
students for college.

10.  If we take the example of New
York Performance Standards
Consortium of 28 High Schools
who used a method of data
collection through project based
learning ,the results of this New
York Project are evident in
comparing the dropout rate of
these schools to other New York
City schools. The New York
consortium schools have a
dropout rate of 9.9 percent and
the City School’s rate is 19.3
percent. Along with this data,
college acceptance of the
consortium schools is 91% as
compared to 63% from City
schools. (Schmoker, 2009)

11.  Instead of focusing on test scores alone to
measure learning, students completed four
projects encompassing the core academic
areas for graduation: “(1) literary analysis,
(2) science experiment and related research
project, (3) extended mathematics problem
solving project, and (4) a research paper in
social studies demonstrating the use of
argument and evidence”(Schmoker, 2009).

12.  Rubrics for these projects were
designed by a collection of high
school faculty, college
professors and local
professionals. Exemplary
“anchor” projects were also
provided.
 Every summer a group of
teachers and college professors
take a random sample of 150
projects to evaluate and see if
they meet the standards.
Feedback is then given to the
schools along with suggested
areas for improvement. This
pressure of evaluation has driven
the teachers to make sure the
students produce “creative
quality work”(Schmoker, 2009).

13.  Along with this feedback, teams of teachers
meet weekly to evaluate student projects
and compare these to the anchor projects.
They give critical feedback before the final
projects are due. Through collaboration,
teachers have even found ways to integrate
the projects into their academic units
instead of “adding these projects on as
something extra”(Schmoker, 2009).

14.  http://www.edutopia.org/comprehensive-
assessment-overview-video

15.  After watching the video and reading about
how standardized tests are truly created in
Put to the Test :Standardized Tests, I am
convinced that to truly assess if a student has
mastered the material taught, portfolio based
assessments are the best method. The
reading on standardized tests shows that
there is bias involved in the creation of the
tests and they really are not as objective as
they state.

16.  Grant Wiggins notes that to test is to determine the “worth of
a product or a person’s effort”, with the idea that “a test
measures knowledge or ability after the fact, and the product
of learning will contain in itself all of the information that the
evaluator needs to know about the learners and the quality of
thinking processes” (Comparing Traditional and Performance
based Assessment).
 if the product is just the answer to one
question then it is not a good test, but if the
product is a portfolio then the quality of
thinking can be truly be measured.

17.  Wiggins also says that to assess “requires time as well as
interaction between the person and the assessor…, so that
the congruence between underlying mental processes and
surface observation, can be verified. The idea is that the
product is not sufficient evidence of the quality of the
thinking that produced it” (Comparing Traditional and
Performance based Assessment).
 A portfolio, as an assessment, would
demonstrate the “quality of thinking that
produced it".

18.  M. Schmoker, (2009), Measuring What Matters, Educational
Leadership,
 vol. 66(4), pp. 70-74.
 G. Bracey, (2002), Standardized Tests, Put to the Test: An Educator’s
and Consumer’s Guide to Standardized Testing (pp. 26-45).
 Comparing Traditional and Performance based Assessment
 http://www.edutopia.org/comprehensive-assessment-overview-
video
 Student portfolios vs. Standardized tests
 Facts on standardized tests and assessment alternatives
 Take a Deeper look at Assessment for Understanding

19.  Group of students working in front of computer
 http://kidseducationalwebsites.blogspot.com/2011/01/proje
ct-based-learning-lesson-plans.html
 http://www.bie.org/about/what_is_pbl/
 Students constructing a model with wood
 Face profile with writing in it
 Model of building
 kid taking test