Preparing for the Future: What Educational Assessment Must Do

by Randy Elliot Bennett — 2014

Background/Context: There is little question that education is changing, seemingly quickly and in some cases dramatically. The mechanisms through which individuals learn are shifting from paper-based ones to electronic media. Simultaneously, the nature of what individuals must learn is evolving, in good part due to an exponential accumulation of knowledge and of technology to access, share, and exploit that knowledge. Finally, how education is organized, offered, and administered is undergoing transformation, most apparently—but not only—in higher education. With potentially seismic changes in the mechanisms, nature, and organization of education must also come changes in educational assessment.

Purpose: This paper makes 13 claims about what educational assessment must do if it is to remain relevant in the face of rapid and potentially dramatic changes in education and society.

Research Design: Analytic essay.

Conclusions/Recommendations: If it is to remain relevant, educational assessment must provide meaningful information; satisfy multiple purposes; use modern conceptions of competency as a design basis; align test and task designs, scoring, and interpretation with those modern conceptions; adopt modern methods for designing and interpreting complex assessments; account for context; design for fairness and accessibility; design for positive impact; design for engagement; incorporate information from multiple sources; respect privacy; gather and share validity evidence; and use technology to achieve substantive goals.

There is little question that education is changing, seemingly quickly and in some cases dramatically. The mechanisms through which individuals learn are shifting from paper-based ones to electronic media. Witness the rise of educational games available on the personal computer, tablet, and mobile phone, as well as the attention being given to those games by the academic community (e.g., Gee & Hayes, 2011; Shaffer & Gee, 2006). Simultaneously, the nature of what individuals must learn is evolving, in good part due to an exponential accumulation of knowledge and of technology to access, share, and exploit that knowledge. In the United States, the reconceptualization of school competency in the form of the Common Core State Standards (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010) signals one attempt to respond to that change. Finally, how education is organized, offered, and administered is undergoing transformation, most apparently—but not only—in higher education. The possibility of assembling one’s post-secondary education from free Internet course offerings, with achievement documented through certification “badges,” appears to be rapidly coming to reality (Young, 2012).  

With potentially seismic changes in the mechanisms, nature, and organization of education must also come changes in educational assessment (Bennett, 2002). Otherwise, education and assessment will work against one another in ever increasing ways. This paper offers a set of 13 claims about what educational assessment must do if it is to remain relevant but, even more so, if it is to actively and effectively contribute to individual and institutional achievement. The claims are that educational assessment must:

1.

Provide meaningful information;

2.

Satisfy multiple purposes;

3.

Use modern conceptions of competency as a design basis;

4.

Align test and task designs, scoring, and interpretation with those modern conceptions;

5.

Adopt modern methods for designing and interpreting complex assessments;

6.

Account for context;

7.

Design for fairness and accessibility;

8.

Design for positive impact;

9.

Design for engagement;

10.

Incorporate information from multiple sources;

11.

Respect privacy;

12.

Gather and share validity evidence; and

13.

Use technology to achieve substantive goals.

Each of these claims is discussed in turn.

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Cite This Article as: Teachers College Record Volume 116 Number 11, 2014, p. -
http://www.tcrecord.org