Authentic assessment

Authentic assessment is the measurement of "intellectual accomplishments that are worthwhile, significant, and meaningful," as contrasted to multiple choice standardized tests. Authentic assessment can be devised by the teacher, or in collaboration with the student by engaging student voice. When applying authentic assessment to student learning and achievement, a teacher applies criteria related to “construction of knowledge, disciplined inquiry, and the value of achievement beyond the school.”

Authentic assessment tends to focus on contextualised tasks, enabling students to demonstrate their competency in a more 'authentic' setting. Examples of authentic assessment categories include:

According to Ormiston, "Authentic learning mirrors the tasks and problem solving that are required in the reality outside of school".

This framework for assessment begins the same way curriculum design begins, with the question: What should students be able to do? Once the instructor answers that question, they can then devise a rubric to evaluate how well a student demonstrates the ability to complete the task. Because most authentic assessments require a judgement of the degree of quality, they tend toward the subjective end of the assessment scale. Rubrics are an "attempt to make subjective measurements as objective, clear, consistent, and as defensible as possible by explicitly defining the criteria on which performance or achievement should be judged."

Traditionally, assessment follows curriculum. Authentic assessment is an example of "backwards design" because the curriculum follows from the assessment.

One case study was presented by Edutopia's Schools That Work series on New York based institution, School of the Future. This school stresses the process of authentically assessing students rather than focusing solely on test results or term papers. The school measures the full range of student ability through formative assessments, presentations, exhibitions, and tests that focus on authentic tasks to assess students' skills and knowledge as they relate to real-world endeavors and skills such as effective group communication and presentation. 98% of students at this school go on to college after graduating.

Teachers from The School of The Future in New York utilize authentic assessment in their school and recommend that other teachers can do the same by following the guidelines outlined below:

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