Chapter 10: Developing Assessments for Tomorrow’s Classrooms

Innovative technology applications based on learning research seek to foster deep understanding and inquiry skills. The lack of congruence between these learning goals and the content of conventional standardized tests has proven to be both an impediment to the use of research-based learning technologies and a serious challenge for researchers and evaluators. SRI’s Center for Technology in Learning is working to ameliorate this problem by developing technology-based assessment tools that can be used both for classroom assessment purposes and for research and evaluation. This paper describes two prototype technology-based assessments. The first is a Web-based assessment of students’ skills in using technology, reasoning with information, and communicating, within the context of an Internet research task. The second is an assessment of multiple aspects of students’ skills in working in collaborative groups. The latter assessment has been designed to run on a handheld computing device and is being field-tested with both teachers and students acting as assessors.