The Mindful School: How to Assess Authentic Learning

For courses in assessment, general methods, and select courses in educational psychology. This text presents a wide range of alternative forms of assessment. They are presented in a meaningful and practical format, which makes their use easily applicable to those in schools and classrooms searching for more authentic forms of assessment. They will prove valuable to teaching teams wishing to collect data to evaluate their curriculum and instructional decision making. They will assist in communicating more thoughtfully to parents. Most importantly, they will signal to students that self-assessment is the ultimate goal of the mindful school. Its non-threatening approach offers explanations of learning standards, performance tasks, portfolio development and scoring rubrics. This book was written to help educators expand their repertoire of strategies to provide a more balanced assessment of student learning and to help students increase achievement and meet both knowledge and performance standards.

The time has come for poor test-takers to realize that the ability to perform well on examinations is not always an accurate assessment of understanding and academic capability. Standardized tests measure one's ability to perform under stress, not one's ability to learn and retain information. As researchers gain new knowledge about how the brain works and how people acquire understanding, educators are expanding their repertoire of assessment tools. And as communities work toward developing mindful schools, they also must reorient their concepts about curriculum, policies, organization of time, and assessment strategies. Performance tasks, portfolio development, and scoring rubrics are just a few of the assessment tools that are now being implemented to measure learning. In this volume, Kay Burke presents a wide range of alternative forms of assessment in a meaningful and practical format. Learning logs, reflective journals, graphic organizers, interviews, and peer editing are only some of the authentic assessments offered in this book which help learners develop lifelong learning and problem-solving skills.

Educators, administrators, school psychologists, curriculum planners, and parents. A Skylight Professional Book.