Overview of Alternative Assessment

Definition and purpose

Alter­na­tive assess­ments are edu­ca­tion­al eval­u­a­tion meth­ods that empha­size the appli­ca­tion of knowl­edge and skills in real-world or mean­ing­ful con­texts, mov­ing beyond tra­di­tion­al stan­dard­ized test­ing.

Alter­na­tive assess­ment encom­pass­es var­i­ous meth­ods that dif­fer from tra­di­tion­al stan­dard­ized tests. Alter­na­tive assess­ment includes approach­es like inte­gra­tive and holis­tic assess­ment, focus­ing on stu­dents’ abil­i­ties to apply knowl­edge in nov­el ways. Alter­na­tive assess­ment “is pred­i­cat­ed on the view where­by, the stu­dent, the text, and the con­text impact learn­ing out­comes” (Janisch, Liu, & Akrofi, 2007, p. 222), and strong con­sid­er­a­tion is required to choose the most appro­pri­ate assess­ment to achieve the desired results.

The pri­ma­ry pur­pose of alter­na­tive assess­ments is to pro­vide a more com­pre­hen­sive eval­u­a­tion of stu­dent learn­ing by empha­siz­ing mean­ing­ful tasks that reflect real-world appli­ca­tions. This approach aims to enhance stu­dent engage­ment, pro­mote deep­er under­stand­ing, and devel­op skills that are trans­fer­able beyond the class­room.

Many stu­dents pre­fer this form of assess­ment because it removes the stress of grades to focus on learn­ing. Some schools also use a pass/fail sys­tem, in which a stu­dent either pass­es or fails a class.

Alter­na­tive assess­ments cater to dif­fer­ent learn­ing pref­er­ences and can pro­vide a more holis­tic under­stand­ing of a stu­den­t’s strengths and areas of improve­ment. Alter­na­tive assess­ments also encour­age reflec­tion and metacog­ni­tion.

Colum­bus State Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege has a vari­ety of resources and videos about alter­na­tive assess­ment basics. There are many exam­ples to con­sid­er when chang­ing assess­ment strate­gies.

Hum­ber Col­lege: Guide for Alter­na­tive and Authen­tic Assess­ment [PDF]

The 4 Pillars of Alternative Assessment

David Clark and Robert Talbert’s book “grad­ing for growth” iden­ti­fies 4 pil­lars that are required for alter­na­tive grad­ing with an empha­sis on feed­back. This arti­cle breaks down the 4 pil­lars and is writ­ten by Robert Tal­bert.

Alter­nate­ly, David Clark talks about his expe­ri­ences with alter­na­tive assess­ment, dis­cuss­es ben­e­fits and chal­lenges and pro­vides con­crete exam­ples of how to apply.

You can watch the dis­cus­sion in the 19-minute video below.