More Authentic Assessment Requires Collaborative Efforts

Michelle Windell

CA
CO

Boss, S. (2012). The challenge of assessing project-based learning.District Administration, 48(9), 46-50.

This article presents a number of different project-based learning projects from schools around the country. It refers to the Common Core as the impetus for the shift in pedagogy from the old teacher lecturing method to project-based learning. Assessments necessarily must shift to allow students to demonstrate critical thinking and deeper learning. What I like about this article is the suggestion that teachers will collaborate to assess student work, because assessment will require discussion about what good work is. This professional collaboration will (hopefully) extend nationwide and beyond as teachers create online networks for sharing projects, rubrics, and anchor work. In my own experience, I have found that a lack of anchor work (student samples of different rubric ratings) makes for huge discrepancies in teachers' assessment standards, even within one school setting in which teachers are using the same rubric.