INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTIONThis publication is designed so that educators can:

use assessment to help make the research process 'visible'.
refer to descriptions of alternative assessment procedures, a collection of sample tools, and examples of measuring classroom information skills activities.
use tools to provide data to students, administrators, specialists, and parents. Choose a combination of tools to collect comprehensive and/or cumulative data.
make performances and a variety of end products as valid as reports and essays by developing appropriate assessment tools.
emphasize developmental learning of information literacy.
contribute to student independence in making decisions.
develop assessment criteria for library program goals.
construct assessment tools to measure information skills and the research process, incorporating performance indicators of local, district, or state educational standards.
help students, educators, and administrators understand and implement the unique strengths of electronic researching.
help students and educators develop the skills to deal with the problems of electronic searching

The roles of educator and learner are in the process of fundamental change. New national and state standards are being mandated or set up as models to foster these changes. Tough accountability measures aim to ensure 'quality' education. Parents are expected to be more involved. Communities are expecting improvement and demanding proof and explanation. In response to and as part of these movements, traditional testing is being supplemented or supplanted by "alternative assessment".

These new approaches have come under fire, from concern that collaborative learning isn't encouraging independence to a worry that Basics will be short-shrifted. Alternative assessment procedures have not been spared from these attacks. Critics say that portfolios are "oversold" as solve-alls, without clear objectives or plans to measure those objectives. Or that peer conferencing is used as babysitting and results only in obstructive criticism or worse, mere gossiping. Rubrics are challenged as thinly veiled A's and B's and C's. Self-evaluation is dismissed as superficially derived, watered-down empty phrases. There is an element of truth to many of these concerns.

Teachers themselves have concerns about innovative assessment techniques. Many feel unprepared and over-burdened. And they find that some students are uncomfortable with such demanding and revealing and different ways of looking at their own development.

= first steps: short, simple activities to familiarize educators and students with alternative assessment options to evaluate information literacy and electronic literacy.

This book approaches assessment with these concerns in mind. It aims not only to develop educators' understanding of methods of alternative assessment but also shows ways of implementing them wisely - so that their full potential is realized. These aims have been placed within the context of the research process and information literacy. The complementary strengths of teachers and librarians lend themselves to integrating this literacy within the entire educational program.

The diagram below illustrates some of their joint interests as well as the unique strengths of each that support those goals.

Updated: August 1997

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