Alternative Assessment: An Annotated Bibliography (excerpt)

Don Robishaw

From the Foreword

Today many adult educators are concerned about mandates from federal, state and local funding sources that call for standardized testing of adults in literacy programs. The various books, dissertations, research reports and articles annotated in this bibliography represent a sample of case studies, descriptions of alternative approaches, tools, opinions and arguments in defense of alternative assessment procedures that better serve the needs of adult learners.

Traditional standardized quantitative approaches to assessment in adult literacy have been deemed inadequate by many in the adult literacy field. standardized tests often close off or lock students out of opportunities to learn. The following arguments have been used in defense of adult educators who believe that alternative procedures need to be developed to better serve adult learners:

1. Tests designed for children should not be used with adults.
2. Standardized tests do not measure how adults
use their new skills in real life experiences.
3. Elementary school grade levels, as a form of
measurement are actually degrading to adults.
4. Adults are intimidated by testing experiences.
5. Tests remind adults of their past failures.
6. Assessment should be participatory.
7. Assessment tools should be designed to assist the adult learners in improving their new skills and to help teachers set up structures for improved learning.

Non-traditional, holistic, learner centered or alternative approaches to assessment contribute to making education a different and more positive experience for adults than the negative experience most adults in ABE programs remember as kids. The movement towards non standardized assessment is a major step in the right direction for adult education.
Alternative approaches introduce procedures that enable adult literacy students to evaluate their own experience and progress. These approaches also help students view their own learning process in reading and writing. They also help teachers identify the strategies students use and how these strategies change as they progress as learners.

The main issue for alternative approaches is to make the assessment process participatory. Creative tools are being designed to assist adult learners to assess themselves as they improve their skills and to help adult educators set up structures for improving learning opportunities. These new and innovative approaches to assessment are designed to be an on- going part of curriculum. They inform thedevelopment of a curriculum which is based on the learners evolving progress. In this way they are more useful to students and teachers than traditional assessments at the completion of a course.

Alternative assessment instruments and methods are used by adult educators to collect information about student knowledge, skills and interests to design a learner-centered curriculum. It is the opinion of many of these authors that assessment should be on-going and designed to be part of the curriculum, not something separate or added on. They combine these tools and methods to assist the learner in progressing in adult literacy progmrns. Examples of some of these tools and methods include:

-Learner goals checklists

-Writing progress checklists

-Reading progress checklists

-Learner's writing folders

-Learner's joumals

-Learning contracts

-Notes teachers make during conferences

-Learning logs

-Anecdotes

-Record keeping devices

To support and enrich teachers' endeavors, the Research and Design unit of SABES has compiled this first edition of an annotated bibliography on alternative assessment approaches in adult literacy. This bibliography is intended to be a resource to teachers who are interested in learning more about the topic as well as those interested in using the various procedures described in these articles in their classrooms.

Sample Annotations

022 ALBSU (1990). "Progress Profile. " Nottingham, England: Center for Research into Education of Adults.

Assessment Adult Literacy Student-centered

This student evaluation profile was developed by ALBSU as a model to illicit and maintain student progress in adult literacy programs. As a framework for student assessment in adult literacy it reflects a student-centered approach.

The progress profile initially tries to get at student goals by asking the question "Where do I want to go?" Students decide on short term learning goalss to work on. these are goals that progress can be made on during a maximum of forty hours of work. From this point students and tutors are expected to continue on with the following questions in order to complete the cycle and then to start the cycle over again with the first question or to continue working on the students present concern until they feel confident about their new learning. the remaining four questions are:

2. What do I need to learn?
3. How am I going to get there?
4. How far have I got?
5. Where to next?

023 Wolf, M. (1988). "Towards a Model of Alternative Assessment: A Progress Report. II Bronx, NY : Institute for Literacy Studies, Lehman College.

Action research Teacher/Learner participation

This short term participatory research project is a case study of an experiment involving teachers and learners from an adult literacy program working together to develop assessment tools for new students. The project was initiated because of the teachers' expressed need for better ways to assess the reading and writing abilities of adult students. The three components of the project were: 1) the selection of a research team including both teachers and learners; 2) a seminar which met for five two- hour sessions; and 3) two sets of interviews of students by student/researchers.

The article might have been more helpful had details on both the seminars and the interview been included. Specifically, the lists of interview questions generated in the seminars as well as the ones finally chosen to be used should have been given.

021 Goodman, K.S. , Goodman, Y. & Hood, W .1. (1989). The Whole Language Evaluation Book. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.

Whole Language Evaluation Curriculum

This book contains a chapter which centers on evaluation in the whole language classroom. Goodman maintains that evaluation is part of the curriculum and, therefore is integral to the teachingl learning process. She underscores the importance of building a professional sense about evaluation in language teaching, including knowing about language and learning and developing intuition about one's work. Goodman refers to the "double agenda" ofevaluation: theteacher'sevaluationand the student's learning and emphasizes that evaluation is an on-going process built into the everyday plans of the teacher. This chapter concludes with a discussion of observing, interacting, and analyzing skills and of the importance of self -evaluation as part of a teacher's professional development.

This book is a primer on whole language teaching, an introduction to the field for the uninitiated. As such, the well-experienced language teacher or the person well-versed in evaluation will find this chapter by Goodman rather shallow and uninspiring. It discusses evaluation in a cursory manner and fails to address many of the complex issues involved.

Notes

As with many works which assemble a collection of readings this bibliography is the result of the efforts of several people--from the development of the initial idea, to the search and collection of books and articles. I am indebted to the following people for their assistance in this project: Loren McGraiI of World Education/SABES who supplied me with many of these resources and Joan Dixon, Literacy Support Initiative Coordinator. In addition the following people acted as reviewers: Janet Kelly, director of the Read/Write/Now program, Janet Isserlis of the International Institute of Rhode Island and the following U. Mass graduate students: Michele M. Sedor, Barbara Huff, Susan Schellenberger, Haleh Arbab, KeyvanKabastioun, and Ed Graybill.

The complete annotated bibliography contains 51 entries and will be updated on an ongoing basis. contributions to the collections are welcome. Each regional center has a collection of these articles. Please contact your Regional SABES Coordinator or Loren McGrail at World Education if you would like to annotate some of the collected articles or add new ones.

Originally published in Adventures in Assessment, Volume 1 (November 1991),
SABES/World Education, Boston, MA, Copyright 2003.

Funding support for the publication of this document on the Web provided in part by the Ohio State Literacy Resource Center as part of the LINCS Assessment Special Collection.