Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Benjamin Stewart
June 2008
Authentic Assessment 2
Abstract
This essay discusses authentic assessment strategies and practices from both an instructional
leadership and teacher viewpoint. Instructional leaders who model formative-types of reflective
support allow teachers to transfer that same knowledge into the classroom. Authentic assessment
for learners provides the means for facilitating the novice’s journey to a more expert level of
meaningful learnings that have not only current appeal but also long-lasting benefits for future
pursuits. Instructional leaders who plan, implement, and monitor assessment strategies and
practices are better prepared to provide the support needed in order to assure its success.
Authentic Assessment 3
Authentic assessment strategies and practices provide learners with meaningful learning
experiences that offer a more real-world application. The teacher-student relationship takes on
more of an expert-novice dynamic that allows to a more collaborate, collegial partnership. This
same partnership emulates that of the principal-teacher relationship as well. Instead of the
principal give direct post-conference feedback that pushes teachers to change behavior, a more
reflective approach is sought after so that teachers make the personal choice to change. For new
authentic assessment strategies and practices to be implemented and monitored, the instructional
leader much first communicate clearly what the school-wide objectives are so that changes in
School-wide objectives
authentic assessment strategies and practices should be presented to the entire staff in an ongoing
manner. An overall philosophy, mission and vision statement, and core value system that stress
the importance of authentic assessment provide the groundwork from which teachers to start.
Staff development meetings that focus on belief statements, for example, are a good way for an
Collaborating with staff on why the school exists can better cultivate a mission statement that
statement with staff empowers others to take on a teacher-leader role in achieving projected
goals. Delegating responsibility throughout the staff provides the infrastructure to better
promote core values that the school treasures. Collegiality between instructional leader and staff
afford an active pursuit towards objectives that include more authentic assessment strategies and
Authentic Assessment 4
practices both within and outside the classroom. Taking a bottom-up approach to establishing
school-wide objectives gives teachers voice in expressing personal perspectives and beliefs in
how the school is planning for future improvement. But a bottom-up approach can have its
Instructional leaders often must take on a change agent role when staff fails to share
common educational beliefs. If after a staff development meeting, the staff tends to favor a
perennial educational philosophy and the intent of the principal is to pursue a more existential
educational philosophy, then conflict could result. Wiles and Bondi list perennialism, idealism,
realism, experimentalism, and existentialism as the five major educational philosophies, each
having the following criteria: ontology, epistemology, axiology, reality, teacher and student
roles, and school attitude toward change (2007, p.43). These criteria have a large impact on the
perceived value of implementing authentic assessment in the classroom. For example, if staff
feels that the role of the student is to passively receive information from the “sage” - teacher -
(i.e., perennialism), then authentic assessment takes on a different meaning than if the student
plays an active role in the learning process whereby the teacher coaches the student through the
learning process (i.e., experimentalism). When planning for change, the instructional leader
must provide research-based evidence that new strategies and practices result in improved
learner outcomes. That providing the proper teaching context allows for more authentic
assessment strategies and practices to take place. Modeling new strategies and practices is also
an important step in assuring that staff has the support and direction they need to achieve the
objectives. McEwan’s second step to effective instructional leadership calls for instructional
leaders to “be an instructional resource for your staff” (2003, p. 33). Being an “instructional
Authentic Assessment 5
resource” also is a vital element to the implementation stage of assessment strategy and practice
techniques.
reflective practice that is brought about by supportive supervision. Gupton mentions that
groups are forms of authentic school processes (as opposed to event-oriented staff development
that occurs on occasion rather than routinely) that can be powerful tools for sharpening staff’s,
teachers’, and administrators’ skills and performance” (2003, p.96). Thus, authentic assessment
occurs at two levels. Authentic assessment at the supervisor level entails a formative attempt on
the part of the principal to modify teacher performance by providing the necessary reflective-
type questioning that allows teachers to change future teaching practices on their own. This is
contrary to many who believe that a direct approach to postconference feedback is preferred (i.e.,
directly telling a teacher to assess students in a different way). At the teacher level, authentic
assessment mirrors the collegiality relationship established between teacher and principal in that
teachers act as a facilitator, coach, or mentor that assists the novice to achieve a particular goal.
Authentic assessment that relates to real-world experiences provides what Dewey calls
“educative” experience; that is, experience that has “an immediate aspect of agreeableness” and
that has “influence upon later experiences” (1938, pp. 25-26). Instructional leaders model
authentic assessment by implementing best practices through collaborative and collegial learning
communities that are built on trust and creativity. Once new practices are within the
implementation stage, instructional leaders must then monitor assessment strategies and practices
instructional leaders rely on a variety of elicited-based evidence that gauges how effective and
efficient techniques are for improving student achievement. Formative and summative forms of
assessment help staff, as they do with learners, to evaluate past performance and to direct future
efforts towards higher quality educational designs. For example, reflective postconferences can
act more as a formative assessment if the instructional leader provides the means for self-
reflection without fear of any negative impact on any post teacher evaluations. In contrast,
yearly evaluations (i.e., summative assessment) are used to assess past performance and usually
are judgmental in nature. In addition to conferences and yearly evaluations, instructional leaders
may seek evidence from the participation in staff development meetings, educational
conferences, and teacher-leader roles in assessing instructional techniques that foster authentic
assessment in the classroom. The ultimate test in assessing assessment strategies and practices is
monitoring learners’ achievement through randomized testing and reviewing students’ work.
assessments have one clear objective – improved student achievement. Formal testing, such as
standardized tests, is not the only means of monitoring strategies and practices. Informal testing
(e.g., academic prompts, observations, instructional conversations, etc.) also provide additional
evidence of how new strategies and practices are working. Monitoring the learning process and
product outcomes offer additional means for evaluating best practices as teachers, students, and
instructional leaders each play their role in the overall learning community.
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Conclusion
Creating authentic assessment scenarios provides the means for the expert and novice
(i.e., teacher and student) to interact within real-world experiences. Experiences that are seen as
agreeable by the expert and novice and are seen as having some future benefit are considered to
be more worthwhile and of lasting benefit. To better assure that such experiences take place
both inside and outside the classroom, instructional leaders assume the role as change agents in
order to rally the staff into new directions. Carefully explicit goals help clarify the reasoning for
the change and help staff realize the necessity of such a change. Once a plan has been
communicated, the implementation stage takes the staff through the new teaching practices
environment allows for teachers to take risks without fear of having negative observations during
also monitoring its progress. Assessing the assessment practices through formative means
allows the instructional leader to base future actions on current teaching events. This ongoing
process continues as authentic strategies and practices are improved over time. The file test is
determining whether authentic assessments are having a positive impact on student achievement.
Formal and informal assessment should contain a variety of evidence in this regard. Having a
plan for implementing and monitoring authentic assessment strategies and practices cultivates
the learning environment so that all learners have a voice and are able to actively participate in
References
Gupton, S. (2003). The Instructional Leadership Toolbox: A Handbook for Improving Practice.
McEwan, E. (2003). 7 Steps to Effective Instructional Leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Press.
Wiles, J. and Bondi, J. (2007). Curriculum Development: A guide to practice. Upper Saddle