Assessments+of+the+Future

**Why do assessments need to change?**
According to the 2011 Job Outlook survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the top five skills employers want for their employees are:
 * 1) communication skills
 * 2) strong work ethic
 * 3) collaboration
 * 4) critical thinking
 * 5) initiative (Levine, 2010).

Through Problem Based Learning units, students will develop, practice, and hone these skills. However, current standardized tests fail to assess students in most of these skills. Because PBL will be a major aspect of curriculum and pedagogy in the future, better assessments need to be developed in order to accurately measure what students have learned and can do.

How will assessments change?
Instead of the traditional multiple choice, fill in the bubble tests, standardized tests will focus on how students solve problems (Tucker, 2009). The problems will be multi-step and complex and include forms of media that are visual and graphical to get an idea of how a student comes to answer. Teachers will know more about how their students come to an answer and be able to identify gaps in a students problem solving process. Teachers can help students become more efficient at problem solving by filling in those gaps through instruction. The military and medical field is already using these types of assessments, now the education system needs them (2009). In addition, the frequency of testing will not just be limited to once a year. Students may be tested twice a year to chart progress throughout the year (Malone, 2011).

The College Work and Readiness Assessment (CWRA) that freshman students from St. Andrew's School in Delaware took in the 2007-2008 school year is a good example of how students should be assessed in the future. Students were provided with documents of information and asked to use that information to determine solutions to the problems. Not only does this type of test assess content knowledge, but it also allows for measure of critical thinking, analytical, and problem solving skills (Silva, 2008).

Assessments will also become computer-based in the future. Advantages to computer-based assessments include quicker feedback and cost efficiency. Schools will be able to receive feedback in a more timely manner as opposed to paper-and-pencil assessments, which will allow schools to see where gaps exist and address those issues. In addition, Richard Schwartz, of the Educational Testing Service, noted that the cost of producing computer-based assessments are similar to paper-and-pencil tests. However, the cost of grading computer-based tests are much less (//Education Week//, 2003).

This video below is a Katie Couric news excerpt recorded in 2010. In this excerpt, she discussed the development of new standardized tests that will be implemented in 2014. The tests will be computer-based, given at least twice a school year, and will include problems that measure critical thinking and communication skills. There is a commercial at the beginning.

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Portfolio Assessments
In addition to standardized tests, portfolio assessments will be more prevalent in 2025. Portfolios are a collection of "purposely" selected samples of work that can show a student's growth in learning and mastery of skills over a period of time (Mueller, 2011). Since portfolios are developed over time, they give a more accurate picture of each student's abilities and weaknesses rather than one or two "snapshots" taken by standardized tests (Partin, 2009). According to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, assessment includes the use of portfolios to highlight students' abilities to think critically, collaborate, communicate, and use technology for educators and future employers to view (2011).

media type="youtube" key="1_F7N-_pSOk" height="315" width="420" align="right"It is important to note that items that are included in a portfolio should be chosen by the student instead of the teacher. Teachers should serve as a facilitator and coach the students as he or she develops the portfolio (Partin, 2009). This idea is similar to the way the teacher is the facilitator in a PBL unit as mentioned before.

Since students are actively involved in the development of their portfolio, they will be able to reflect on their work and set goals for improvement. These skills are typically neglected in standardized assessments because students do not have the option to see exactly what they need to improve on after being given the final results (Mueller, 2011). Because portfolio assessments provide more samples of student work, are developed by the student, and allow students to self-reflect, they are a key component of assessment in the future to measure growth and development of skills.

In this video, Eli Ghazel explains that portfolio assessments serve as an album of skills and performance. He also addresses the importance of emphasizing skills in education.