• DOI:10.3102/0091732X14554179
• Corpus ID: 145592665

The Changing Nature of Educational Assessment

@article{Bennett2015TheCN,
  title={The Changing Nature of Educational Assessment},
  author={Randy E. Bennett},
  journal={Review of Research in Education},
  year={2015},
  volume={39},
  pages={370 - 407}
}

• R. Bennett
• Published 1 March 2015
• Education
• Review of Research in Education

O the surface, this chapter concerns the evolution of educational assessment from a paper-based technology to an electronic one. On a deeper level, that evolution is more substantive. As has been noted, that evolution can be viewed in terms of developmental stages (Bennett, 1998, 2010b; Bunderson, Inouye, & Olsen, 1989). In the first section of this chapter, those stages are briefly described and used to place the new generation of assessments being created by the two comprehensive Common Core State Assessment (CCSA) consortia, the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC).1 That placement is primarily employed to make the characteristics of each stage concrete, as well as to highlight key aspects of the consortia’s emerging assessment designs. Next, some of the more substantive factors that differentiate the most advanced stage from the earlier ones are discussed, as well as the challenges in producing assessments fit for that most advanced stage. In that most advanced stage, such innovations are considered as the continuous testing made possible by electronic learning environments (e.g., games, simulations, e-books, massive open online courses). This section identifies, in passing, advanced features that the CCSA consortia are actively incorporating, as well as ones to which they might at some point aspire. Finally, a conclusion is offered, including suggestions for research.