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Zessoules, R., & Gardner, H. (1991). Authentic assessment: Beyond the buzzword and into the classroom. In Perrone, V. (Ed.). Expanding student assessment. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Zessoules and Gardner argue that the dominance of standardized testing in American schools leads to a standardized approach to learning and evaluation, and that curriculum and instruction is driven by standardization. This standardization does not match very closely the actual effective processes and performances that occur in daily teacher assessment practice and student learning. In reaction to standardization, new forms of assessment are evolving. "Currently taking the form chiefly of portfolios and performance-based tasks, these measures are often referred to as authentic assessment; and they are designed to present a broader, more genuine picture of student learning" (p. 49). Assessment is a complex process (as opposed to a singular act, like standardized testing), and a curriculum driven by authentic assessment should not only involve parallel activities to actual assessment activities (on a repeated basis), but it should also offer practice in assessment-like activities. Students should be required to demonstrate deep understanding of learning, not just mastery of a set of discrete facts.
Instead of testing students for what they know, they should be assessed for what they understand. Assessment as an integral part of the educational process should be used as a means for developing complex understandings in learners. Complex understandings of an area of classroom study should be encouraged and built upon. Students should approach learning and performance from multiple perspectives (as in maker, perceiver, critic for arts education). Assessment constitutes an integral part of instruction and learning, not as a separate entity.
Students should take part in the assessment process as active, thoughtful, and independent learners. Standardized testing takes away access and responsibility from the hands of learners. As the processes behind student work are integral to revealing student understanding, they should be revealed in assessment. Student reflection should therefore be engendered. Students should command the capacity to consider or judge their work from various perspectives and during all phases of its development. This process can be encouraged through progress logs, critical discussions, peer responses, and formal reflection. Additionally, teacher perceptions and reflections can add to student understanding and can also motivate the processes within classroom curriculum. This type of reflectiveness should become a "habit of mind" in order to maintain the benefits of a classroom assessment culture.
Evolving student development should be captured by authentic assessment. Not only a student's best work or highest achievement should be captured, but also the process of learning and the emergence of strengths as well as weaknesses in understanding. "Process-folios" offer a much better opportunity for such assessment than standardized testing. These collections contain high and low quality work as well as a variety of work from various projects. Students' review of these folios enables them to reflect on their own progress through understanding, and the locus of assessment is simultaneously transferred to the individual learner.
Assessment should be maintained as a "moment of learning" and incorporated directly into the curriculum, not as some entity distinct from learning and instruction. Such integrated assessment can be incorporated along the following lines: by having students regularly and frequently engage in project work, repeatedly judge their own work, critically work together with other students in sharing perceptions, focus on the intent and purpose of a work with a real audience in mind (beyond the classroom), and picture their learning along with understanding the meaning of progress or improvement.
All parties involved in authentic assessment practice must reevaluate their perceptions of the role of assessment and classroom instruction. Students should take control of and responsibility for their own work. They must learn to judge, reflect on, and critique their own work. Teachers should reflect on their own teaching practice by questioning student learning, teaching strategy, and their own development. Administrators should assume responsibility for validating authentic assessment approaches to classroom practice by advocating for authentic assessment as a means of systemwide accountability. Zessoules and Gardner conclude with the reminder: "Authentic assessment does not eradicate, but in fact inherits, many of the problems of standardized testing. Educators still need to confront issues of cultural bias, teacher fairness, validity, and reliability" (p. 70)


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