1. This presentation was developed for the
exclusive use of students enrolled in:
Educational Testing & Grading,
Professor Gregory E. Stone.
© 2004 Gregory E. Stone. All rights reserved. This presentation may not be
reproduced in any form, in part or as a whole, without the express written permission
of the author.

2. Authentic Assessment
Assessment through a vehicle
designed to mimic real­life.

3. Authentic Assessment
“Traditional paper
tests are too removed
T
ESST
T E T from reality and too
T ES
T
indirect. We should
test directly what
students will really
do outside school.”

4. Authentic Assessment
Most appropriate for
vocational education,
and job training
Programs, but
increasingly useful
for all academic
subjects.

5. Authentic Assessment inspired by
Howard Gardner’s
Theory of Multiple Intelligences

6. There is no single intelligence.
We are smart in different ways
Linguistic: Capacity to use your own and
other languages to express yourself and
understand others.
Logical­Mathematical: Capacity to
understand underlying causal principles in
ways similar to scientests or logicians, or to
use quantitative and mathematical reasoning
in ways similar to mathematics.

7. There is no single intelligence.
We are smart in different ways
Spacial: Capacity to represent the special
aspects of the world in your mind in ways
similar to airline pilots, chess players,
architects, painters and sculptors.
Body Kinesthetic: Capacity to use all or part
of your body to solve a problem, make a
product, or perform in ways similar to actors,
dancers and atheletes.

8. There is no single intelligence.
We are smart in different ways
Musical: Capacity to mentally process music
in a way that recognizes and remembers
patterns, and can manipulate music to solve
problems or express understanding.
Interpersonal: Capacity to understand and
meaningfully relate to others. Understand
what other people can do, how to approach
the world and others, what their reactions are
likely to be, etc.

9. There is no single intelligence.
We are smart in different ways
Intrapersonal: Capacity to know yourself,
who you are, your strenths and limitations,
your goals and aspirations, how you feel,
what you should avoid, etc.
Naturalistic: Capacity to understand nature
and the modern world by discriminating
among and classifying living and nonliving
natural things, as well as among human­
made creations.

10. Authentic Assessment
Emphasizes Applications
Assess whether or not a student
can use his or her knowledge in
a practical situation, in addition
to assessing whether or not the
student possesses the
knowledge.

11. Authentic Assessment
Focus on Direct Assessment
Assess the stated learning
objective directly rather than
Indirectly, as is done in a
traditional assessment (e.g.
paper test).

12. Authentic Assessment
Use of Realistic Problems
Frame the tasks in a highly
Realistic way so that the
students can recognize them as
part of everyday life in the
setting defined.

13. Authentic Assessment
Emphasizes Applications
Frame tasks to encourage:
>More than 1 correct answer,
>More than 1 way of expressing
the answer

14. Authentic Assessment
Emphasizes Applications
Frame tasks to encourage:
>Groups of students working
together,
>Taking a relatively long time to
complete (a week, month, etc.)

15. Seven Steps to Creating
Authentic Assessments that Work!
 Select the content.
What is the content area about
which you want to make a
measurement?

16. Seven Steps to Creating
Authentic Assessments that Work!
 Select the Taxonomy.
In what ways (cognitive,
affective, psychomotor) would
you like to see the student
interact with the material?

17. Seven Steps to Creating
Authentic Assessments that Work!
 Draft the Performance Task.
Draft your task so that the
students know how they are
expected to interact with the
content.

18. Seven Steps to Creating
Authentic Assessments that Work!
 Select an appropriate information
processing dimension.
Rewrite your task in a way that
includes precise instructions concerning
how the student should interact with
the content.

19. Seven Steps to Creating
Authentic Assessments that Work!
 Select Communication Format.
How do you want the student to
communicate this interaction?
On paper? By demonstration?

20. Seven Steps to Creating
Authentic Assessments that Work!
 Rewrite to include communcation.
Rewrite your task one more
time, this time, including
communication.

21. Seven Steps to Creating
Authentic Assessments that Work!
 Review and Edit.
Review yourself and have others
review too, to see if your
intended meaning was
understood.

22. Example:
Demonstrate ability to use
geometry. e!
tiv
ob jec
rn ing
r lea
Y ou

23. Example:
 Cognitive I want the student to know how
to calculate geometrically.
 Psychomotor I want the student to be able to
USE geometry in real life, like
constructing a building.

24. Example:
You are an architect hired to create a
new shopping mall. Create a model of a
shopping mall and demonstrate how you
used at least two different geometric
principles in constructing the model. (For
instance, how would you use geometry to
build a perfect square?)

25. Example:
You are an architect hired to create a new shopping
mall. Using the building materials supplied in class,
create a model of a shopping mall and demonstrate how
you used at least two different geometric principles in
constructing the model. (For instance, how would you
use geometry to build a perfect square?) Please show all
equations and how they were used to create your
model. You will be graded on the correctness of your
use of the geometric principles in constructing your
model and your in class explanation.

26. Example:
 Cognitive I want the student to
demonstrate correct formula use
on paper and in class
presentations.
 Psychomotor I want the student to be able to
USE geometry in real life, by
constructing the model and
explaining how it was
constructed to the class.

27. Example:
You are an architect hired to create a new shopping mall.
Using the building materials supplied in class, create a
model of a shopping mall and demonstrate how you used
at least two different geometric principles in constructing
the model. (For instance, how would you use geometry to
build a perfect square?) Please show all equations and
how they were used to create your model in a short paper
(approximately 3­5 pages). You and your fellow architect
classmates will present your models and your use of
geometry to the class next week. You will be graded on
the correctness of your use of the geometric principles in
constructing your model and your in class explanation.

28. Example:
You are an architect hired to create a new shopping
mall. Using the building materials supplied in class,
create a model of a shopping mall and demonstrate
how you used at least two different geometric
principles in constructing the model. (For instance,
how would you use geometry to build a perfect square?)
Please show all equations and how they were used to
create your model in a short paper (approximately 3­5
pages). You and your fellow architect classmates will
present your models and your use of geometry to the
class next week. You will be graded on the correctness
of your use of the geometric principles in constructing
your model and your in class explanation.

29. Judging the value of an
Authentic Assessment
First ask: “Is the task On Target?”
Clear
Compelling (worth doing)
Complete (is the task a
complete learning experience?)

30. Judging the value of an
Authentic Assessment
Next ask: “Is the task Practical?”
Appropriate (for grade, etc.)
Feasible (realistic challenge?)
Fair (can be completed by ALL
students)
Accurate (avoids bias/distortion)

31. Authentic Assessments
Suffer the MOST from a lack of
validity and reliability evidence.
Because of this we must
be very, very careful to
follow our rules and our
process when considering
authentic assessment.

32. Portfolios
Generally considered an
Authentic Assessment!
As with all other authentic
assessments, portfolios must be
planned and executed very
carefully ­ not haphazardly.

33. Who chooses the work?
Best Work Growth &
A selection of what is Learning
considered the student’s
best work (e.g. the “final” A selection of student
paper). work from novice to
proficient (e.g. first draft,
second draft, final paper).

34. Who chooses the work?
Best Work Growth &
Is the student’s idea of Learning
best work the same as the
parent or teacher? How much of the
improvement in work was
On what grounds is it the a result of people helping
“best”? the student?
Isn’t this a biased sample? Was it the student’s work
at all?

35. Authentic Assessment
New assessments with much
promise and major problems.