Moving Beyond Multiple Choice for Effective Classroom Assessment

Moving Beyond Cover200x300Educators know that it is important to assess student knowledge with a variety of question types and methods to obtain the best understanding of student proficiency of learning standards. In addition, the SBAC and PARCC tests incorporate a variety of question types, so it is equally as important for students to be familiar with these types.

For years teachers have relied heavily on multiple choice questions for everyday testing, in no small part due to convenience and ease of scoring with bubble sheet scanners. With ever growing class sizes it has simply been a necessary part of assessment.

The advent of newer, digitally based technologies provides an opportunity to incorporate additional methods, but teachers inexperienced with assessment design may not be confident in creating tests that go beyond multiple choice for use day-to-day in the classroom. How do they know the questions are valid? What guidance should they follow to determine appropriate question types? How and when should they incorporate assessment of higher order thinking skills? These questions help keep teachers in the comfort zone of using multiple choice based tests.…Read More