Authentic Assessment

Authentic Assessment
Definition
...Engaging and worthy problems or questions of importance, in which students must use knowledge to fashion performances effectively and creatively. The tasks are either replicas of or analogous to the kinds of problems faced by adult citizens and consumers or professionals in the field." -- Grant Wiggins -- (Wiggins, 1993, p. 229).
"Performance assessments call upon the examinee to demonstrate specific skills and competencies, that is, to apply the skills and knowledge they have mastered." -- Richard J. Stiggins -- (Stiggins, 1987, p. 34).
Basic Elements
Authentic assessment accomplishes each of the following goals:
 Requires students to develop responses rather than select from predetermined options
 Elicits higher order thinking in addition to basic skills
 Directly evaluates holistic projects
 Synthesizes with classroom instruction
 Uses samples of student work (portfolios) collected over an extended time period
 Stems from clear criteria made known to students
 Allows for the possibility of multiple human judgments
 Relates more closely to classroom learning
 Teaches students to evaluate their own work
Performance assessment is a term that is commonly used in place of, or with, authentic assessment. Performance assessment requires students to demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and strategies by creating a response or a product (Rudner & Boston, 1994; Wiggins, 1989). Rather than choosing from several multiple-choice options, students might demonstrate their literacy abilities by conducting research and writing a report, developing a character analysis, debating a character's motives, creating a mobile of important information they learned, dramatizing a favorite story, drawing and writing about a story, or reading aloud a personally meaningful section of a story. For example, after completing a first-grade theme on families in which students learned about being part of a family and about the structure and sequence of stories, students might illustrate and write their own flap stories with several parts, telling a story about how a family member or friend helped them when they were feeling sad.