Chapter 7: A Technology for Assessing Multiple Source Comprehension: An Essential Skill of the 21st Century

Success in today’s knowledge society requires the use of multiple sources of information to accomplish personal and professional goals. However, little is known about how young adolescents select, analyze, and synthesize multiple sources to address inquiry tasks. Using evidence-centered design we have constructed and tested web-based assessment activities for the selection of useful sources and for the analysis and synthesis of information across text sets. The activities are contextualized in science or history inquiry topics. The assessment activities are designed to provide formative information about student performance that can be used to plan instruction. The design process and the analyses of student performance on these activities are highlighting the unique challenges and opportunities of multiple source comprehension situations.