AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT

Authentic Assessment

ABSTRACT

In this study we try to explore the Austin Fire Department's hiring process a holistic context. The Austin Fire Department's hiring process suffered another black eye and was the subject of frustration for firefighter candidates when a list of where candidates were ranked had to be reposted three times because of errors. The errors caused the department to continually re-rank where candidates sat on a list of who's moving forward in the hiring process and who is not. Consequently, it led to some candidates thinking they had made the cut, only to find out a few days later that they had not.

Authentic Assessment

Introduction

Authentic assessment refers to assessment tasks that resemble reading and writing in the real world and in school. Its aim is to assess many different kinds of literacy abilities in contexts that closely resemble actual situations in which those abilities are used. For example, authentic assessments ask students to read real texts, to write for authentic purposes about meaningful topics, and to participate in authentic literacy tasks such as discussing books, keeping journals, writing letters, and revising a piece of writing until it works for the reader. Both the material and the assessment tasks look as natural as possible. Furthermore, authentic assessment values the thinking behind work, the process, as much as the finished produCT.

Working on authentic tasks is a useful, engaging activity in itself; it becomes an "episode of learning" for the student (Wolf, 1989). From the teacher's perspective, teaching to such tasks guarantees that we are concentrating on worthwhile skills and strategies (Wiggins, 1989). Students are learning and practicing how to apply important knowledge and skills for authentic purposes. They should not simply recall information or circle isolated vowel sounds in words; they should apply what they know to new tasks. For example, consider the difference between asking students to identify all the metaphors in a story and asking them to discuss why the author used particular metaphors and what effect they had on the story. In the latter case, students must put their knowledge and skills to work just as they might do naturally in or out of school.

The formats for performance assessments range from relatively short answers to long-term projects that require students to present or demonstrate their work. These performances often require students to engage in higher-order thinking and to integrate many language arts skills. Consequently, some performance assessments are longer and more complex than more traditional assessments. Within a complete assessment system, however, there should be a balance of longer performance assessments and shorter ones.

Case Analysis

In this case, the purpose of identifying issues of a diverse recruitment, it was found that it has been well reported that over the past decades, the diversity of the United States had shifted dramatically. While still a predominately white country, there has been a significant decline in this statistic in past years. In 1990, the U.S. Census bureau reported that 76% of all Americans were classified as Non-Hispanic ...