Chapter 9: Assessment for an Issues-Centered Decision Making Curriculum

In this chapter, ways to evaluate classroom teaching and learning that are consistent with the goals of the proposed curriculum are identified. Evaluation can tell us a great deal about what our student-citizens have learned, what they have not learned and what they need to know. The perspectives about the relationship between this curriculum and the processes associated with assessment are included. When contrasted with more conventional curriculum goals, this relationship is especially important and challenging because learning that results from the study of historic, contemporary and/or future-oriented issues vary from one individual to the next and they are usually at a broader level than the specific facts drawn from a study where everyone must learn exactly the same specific information.