Colleagues interested in assessment,
The Chief Education Officer of Pearson, Sir Michael Barber, and a Pearson assessment expert, Dr.Peter Hill, have written a piece on how assessment and testing are being transformed. [Barber, M. & Hill, P. (2014). Preparing for a Renaissance in Assessment. London: Pearson.] It is summarized in this Open Ideas, Research Worth Sharing article: https://research.pearson.com/articles/preparing-for-a-renaissanceinassessment.html
The summary says that according to the authors, these are the big changes we can expect:
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Adaptive testing (for example, tests that evolve in real time on screen) will help generate more accurate tests and reduce the amount of time schools spend on testing
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Smarter, automated marking of exams will help improve accuracy and reduce the time teachers spend marking “rote” answers
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Technology will help combine student performance across multiple papers and subjects.
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Assessment will provide on-going feedback, which, will help personalise teaching and improve learning.
- New digital technologies will minimise opportunities for cheating in exams or “gaming the system”.
Interestingly, some of this is already happening for adults. For example the PIACC international Survey of Adult Skills, which is being conducted in the U.S., is mostly offered on a computer and is an adaptive test. The marking is, of course, automated. Once it is publicly available, perhaps in the summer of 2015, students who take it will get feedback.
Since Pearson is a partner with the American Council on Education (ACE) in offering the GED(r), we are seeing -- and may see more of -- these features on that assessment, and perhaps other bhigh school equivalency assessments.
I wonder if these new assessments will closely measure higher order thinking skills, for example in numeracy and math, that the new CCR standards now expect.
David J. Rosen
djrosen123@gmail.com
Comments
Hi David and all, As you note, several of these changes are already taking place. Automation seems like a positive change in that it saves time for all stakeholders. I like the question you pose about the ability of these new assessments to closely measure higher-order thinking skills. I have not examined enough examples from the new GED(r), for example, to respond to that question. It would be good to hear what those who have been working closely with this new test think about that.
Regardless of whether the test does an adequate job of measuring higher-order thinking or not, it is very important to create learning activities that routinely engage students in critical tihnking that build in effective means to formatively assess those skills. Engaging students in assessing their own skills should be an integral aspect of instruction, too. A positive aspect of the CCRS is that it gets us thinking about the complexity of the tasks, i.e., the kind of thinking required, that we ask learners to engage in.
It would be great to have those who are working with the new GED(r) to weigh in on David's question.
Cheers, Susan
Moderator, Assessment CoP