How to Assess Authentic Learning

Formerly a SkyLight publication.

Assessment has emerged as one of the major components in the restructured school. "Alternative," "performance," and "authentic assessment" are on the lips of every educator, administrator, and consultant in the country.

Renowned author and educator Dr. Kay Burke supplies teachers with a wide range of alternative assessments that can be implemented easily and immediately into their classrooms, and takes readers step-by-step in building a conceptual understanding of this approach and demonstrates practical applications of assessment strategies.

Teachers will gain insight into:

• Building observation checklists
• What metacognitive reflection is and how to use it
• Developing a unit plan using a multiple intelligences grid
• Designing performance tasks and rubrics
• When and where to use learning logs and journals
• New ways to assess student interviews and conferences
• A more effective approach to using grades
• Constructing better teacher-made tests

Kay Burke has served as an award-winning classroom teacher and a school administrator, university instructor, and international professional developer. She works with Kay Burke & Associates, LLC, to provide workshops for teachers and administrators in standards-based learning, performance assessment, classroom management, mentoring, and portfolio development. For the past 18 years, Burke has presented at state and national conferences such as ASCD, NSDC, NAESP, NASSP, NMSA, and IRA as well as international conferences in Canada and Australia. She is the author of 10 professional development books and coauthor of a college textbook on assessment. Corwin Press published Burke′s best-selling From Standards to Rubrics in Six Steps: Tools for Assessing Student Learning, K–8 (2006), a 2007 finalist for the Distinguished Achievement Award for Excellence in Educational Publishing presented by the Association of Educational Publishers. Other books published by Corwin Press include How to Assess Authentic Learning, Fourth Edition (2005) and What to Do With the Kid Who: Developing Cooperation, Self-Discipline and Responsibility in the Classroom (Third Edition).