Here’s how to create new formative assessments to measure complex student comprehension
The rigors of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) ask today’s educators not simply to measure students’ factual knowledge, but instead to accurately assess students’ critical thinking. With such a major transition from multiple-choice testing, it’s important to know how to create assessments for these 21st-century standards.
“The most important question to ask at the onset of assessment creation is: How might we develop and use rich tasks to focus on those outcomes that matter most, and make school more relevant and engaging for learners and teachers?” explained Jay McTighe, consultant and author of the new Lumibook, Core Learning: Assessing What Matters Most, during a webinar hosted by the School Improvement Network.
McTighe emphasized that the aim of the new standards is autonomous transfer, or student comprehension and understanding of concepts, rather than facts.
“Many of the standards are broad and can be applied to multiple subjects, and this is because the standards are meant to teach students the processes of critical thinking as it relates to what they’re learning. I like to see this as a focus on standards of practice: habits of mind and the processes of work,” he noted.
(Next page: Is there a “best” kind of assessment?)
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