BEYOND TEST : ALTERNATIVES IN

ASSESSMENT

Source:
Brown, D. (2004). Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom
Practices. New York: Pearson Longman.

Yamith J. Fandiño
La Salle University
Bogotá, Colombia
 Introduction
• In Chapter 1, an important distinction was made between testing
and assessing.

• Tests are formal procedures, usually administered within strict time

limitations, to sample the performance of a test-taker in a specified
domain.

• Assessment connotes a much broader concept in that most of the

time when teachers are teaching, they are also assessing.
Assessment includes all occasions from informal impromptu
observations and comments up to and including tests.
 Alternative assessment
Early in the decade of the 1990s, in a culture of rebellion against the notion
that all people and all skills could be measured by traditional tests, a novel
concept emerged that began to be labeled "alternative" assessment.

That concept was to assemble additional measures of students—portfolios,

journals, observations, self-assessments, peer-assessments, and the like
—in an effort to triangulate data about students.

Brown and Hudson (1998) noted that to speak of alternative assessments is

counterproductive because the term implies something new and different
that may be "exempt from the requirements of respon-sible test
construction" (p. 657). So they proposed to refer to "alternatives" in
assess-ment instead. Their term is a perfect fit within a model that
considers tests as a subset of assessment.
 The characteristics of alternatives in
assessment
1. They require students to perform, create, produce or do
something
2. They use real-word context or simulations
3. They are noinstrusive in that they extend the day to day
classroom activities
4. They allow students to be asssesed on what they normally
do in class
5. They use tasks that represent meaningful instructional
activities
6. They focus on processes as well as products
7. They tap into higher-level thinking and problem solving skills
 Dilemma in standardized and alternatives
in assessment
• Formal standardized tests are almost by definition highly practical,
reli-able instruments. They are designed to minimize time and
money on the part of test designer and test-taker, and to be
painstakingly accurate in their scoring.

• Alternatives such as portfolios or conferencing with students on

drafts of written work, or observations of learners over time all
require considerable time and effort on the part of the teacher and
the student.

• But the alternative techniques also offer markedly greater

washback, are superior formative measures, and, because of their
authenticity, usually carry greater face validity.
 Relationship of practicality /
reliability to washback
High

Practicality
and
reliability

Washback

low
 Performance-based assessment
Performance-based assessment implies productive, observable skills,
such as speaking and writing, of content-valid tasks. Such
performance usually, but not always, brings with it an air of
authenticity—real-world tasks that students have had time to
develop. It often implies an integration of language skills, perhaps
all four skills in the case of project work.

The characteristics of performance assesment :

1. Students make a constructed response
2. They engage in higher- order thinking , with open –ended tasks
3. Tasks are meaningful , engaging, and authenthic
4. Tasks call for the integration of language skills
5. Both process and product are assesed
6. Depth of a student’s mastery is emphasized over breadth
 Procedures for performance-
based assessment

Performance-based assessment procedures need to be treated with

the same rigor as traditional tests. This implies that teachers should

• state the overall goal of the performance,

• specify the objectives (criteria) of the performance in detail,
• prepare students for performance in stepwise progressions,
• use a reliable evaluation form, checklist, or rating sheet,
• treat performances as opportunities for giving feedback and
provide that feedback systematically, and
• if possible, utilize self- and peer-assessments judiciously.
 Portofolios

A portopolio is a purposeful collection of students work that

demonstrates students’ efforts, progress, and achievements in
given areas (Genesee and Upshur, 1996).

Portfolios include materials such as

• essays and compositions in draft and final forms;
• reports, project outlines;
• audio and/or video recordings of presentations, demonstrations,
etc.;
• journals, diaries, and other personal reflections;
• tests, test scores, and written homework exercises;
• self- and peer-assessments--comments, evaluations, and checklists.
 Attributes of portofolios
• Gottlieb (1995) suggested a developmental scheme for
considering the nature and purpose of portfolios, using the
acronym CRADLE to designate six possible attributes of a
portfolio:

• Collecting: an expression of students' lives and identities.

• Reflecting: thinking about experiences and activities.
• Assessing: evaluating quality and development over time.
• Documenting: demonstrating student achievement.
• Linking: connecting student and teacher, parent,
community, and peer
• Evaluating: generating responsible outcomes.
 Steps and guidelines
• State objectives clearly
• Give guidelines on what materials to include
• Communicate assesment criteria to students
• Designate time within the curriculum for portfolio development.
• Establish periodic schedules for review and conferencing.
• Designate an accessible place to keep portfolios.
• Provide positive washback when giving final assessments.

It is inappropriate to reduce the personalized and creative process of

compiling a portfolio to a number or letter grade. Instead, teachers
should offer a qualitative evaluation such a final appraisal of the
work, with questions for self-assessment of a project, and a
narrative evaluation of perceived strengths and weakness.
 Journals
• A journal is a log of one’s thought , feelings,
reactions, assessments, ideas, or progress,
toward goals, usually written with little attention
to structure , form, o correctness.

• Journals obviously serve important pedagogical

purposes : practice in the mechanics of writing ,
using writing as a thinking process,
individualization , and communications with the
teacher .
 Steps for journals
1. Sensitively introduce students to the concept of journal writing.
2. State the objective(s) of the journal: Language-learning logs,
Grammar journals, Responses to readings, strategies-based
learning logs, Self-assessment reflections, etc.
3. Give guidelines on what kinds of topics to include.
4. Carefully specify the criteria for assessing or grading journals.
Effort as exhibited in the thoroughness of students' entries will
no doubt be important. Also, the extent to which entries reflect
the processing of course content might be considered.
5. Provide optimal feedback in your responses: cheerleading
feedback, instructional feedback, or reality-check feedback.
6. Designate appropriate time frames and schedules for review.
7. Provide formative, washback-giving final comments.
 Conferences and interviews
• Conferences are not limited to drafts of written work. It
must assume that the teacher plays the role of a
facilitator and guide , not of an administrator of a formal
assesment.

• A number of generic question that may be usefull to pose

in conference are
1. What did you like about this work?
2. What do you think you did well?
3. How does it show improvement from previous work? Can
you show me the improvement?
4. What did you do when you did not know a word that you
want to write/say? (Genesee and Upshur, 1996).
 Guidelines for conferences and
interviews
1. Offer an initial atmosphere of warmth and
anxiety-lowering (warm-up).
2. Begin with relatively simple questions.
3. Continue with level-check and probe questions,
but adapt to the interviewee as needed.
4. Frame questions simply and directly.
5. Focus on only one factor for each question. Do
not combine several objec-tives in the same question.
6. Be prepared to repeat or reframe questions that
are not understood.
7. Wind down with friendly and reassuring dosing
comments.
 Observations
• Observation is a systematic, planned procedure for real-time, almost
furtive recording of student verbal and nonverbal behavior. One of
the objectives of such observation is to assess students without their
awareness (and possible consequent anxiety) of the observation so
that the naturalness of their linguistic performance is maximized.

• Potential observation foci

- sentence-level oral production skills.
- pronunciation of target sounds, intonation, etc.
- grammatical features (verb tenses, question formation, etc.
- discourse-level skills (conversation rules, turn-taking, and other
macroskills)
- interaction with classmates (cooperation, frequency of oral
production)
- frequency of student-initiated responses (whole class, group work)
 Steps for observations
• Determine the specific objectives of the observations
• Decide how many students will be observed at one time
• Set up the logistics for making unnoticed observations
• Design a system for recording observed performances
• Do not overestimate the number of different elements you can
observe at one time
• Plan how many observations you will make
• Determine specifically how you will use the results
 Alternatives in observation
Checklists are a viable alternative for recording observation results.

• The observer identifies an activity or episode and checks appropriate

boxes along a grid. This grid refers to variables such as whole-class, group,
and individual participation, linguistic competence (form, function,
discourse, sociolinguistic), etc. Each variable has subcategories for better
analysis.

Rating scales have also been suggested for recording observations.

• One type of rating scale asks teachers to indicate the frequency of

occurrence of target performance on a separate frequency scale (always
= 5; never = 1).
• Another is a holistic assessment scale that requires an overall assessment
within a number of categories (for example, vocabulary usage,
grammatical correctness, fluency).
 Self and peer assesment
• Self –assesment derives its theoritical justification from a number of well
established principles of second language acquisition. The principle of
autonomy is vital. It consists of the ability to set one's own goals both
within and beyond the structure of a classroom curriculum, to pursue
them without the presence of an external push, and to independently
monitor that pursuit. Developing intrinsic motivation that comes from a
self-propelled desire to excel is at the top of the list of successful
acquisition of any set of skills.

• Peer-assesment appeals to similar principles , the most obvious of which is

cooperative learning. Many people go through a whole regimen of
education from kindergaten up through a graduate degree and never
come to appreciate the value of collaboration in learning.

• Peer assesment is simply one arm of a plethora of tasks and procedures

within the domain of learner-centered and collaboration education.
 Types of self and peer
assessments
1. Assessment of a specific performance
2. Indirect assesment of general competence
3. Metacognitive assesment for setting goals
4. Socioaffective assesment
5. Student generated test
 Guidelines for self and peer
assessments
1. Tell students the purpose of the assessment.
2. Define the task(s) clearly.
3. Encourage impartial evaluation of performance or ability
4. Ensure beneficial washback through follow-up tasks.
 Self- and peer-assessment tasks
Listening Tasks
• listening to TV or radio broadcasts and checking comprehension with a partner
• listening to an academic lecture and checking yourself on a "quiz" of the content

Speaking Tasks
• using peer checklists and questionnaires
• rating someone's oral presentation (holistically)

• Reading Tasks
• reading passages with self-check comprehension questions following
• taking vocabulary quizzes

• Writing Tasks
• revising written work on your own or with a peer (peer editing)
• proofreading