Comprehensive Assessment: What Experts Say

Educators and researchers share their views on why authentic assessment is a critical piece of the learning process.

...Paul Curtis

Paul Curtis is director of school quality for New Tech Network, a national organization that works with communities to develop innovative public high schools. The New Tech model emphasizes project-based learning, a school culture that empowers students and teachers, and the integration of technology into the classroom. During his teaching career, Curtis helped to define the curriculum model and assessment practices at the flagship New Tech High, in Napa, California.
How does the New Tech approach differ from more traditional assessment?

"Traditional assessment tends to oversimplify the data. If a student turns in a major research paper a few days late, it gets graded down -- 10 points a day or whatever the penalty may be. Let’s say it’s a B+ paper but, because he turned it in late, the student receives a C-. When you put C- into the grade book, you’ve lost all meaningful data about the student’s skills or abilities. The grade doesn’t tell you if the essay was poorly written, had poor content, or was just late. In the same way, overall course grades don’t tell us enough about the skills and abilities of a student. They don’t show us how we can intervene and help that student."

"At New Tech, we give an assignment multiple grades, all scored separately in our grade book using rubric-based assessments. A teacher might assess the understanding of content, how well the assignment was written, the critical thinking that was involved, and also the student’s work ethic. Rather than seeing grade-book categories such as tests, homework, and papers, students see categories such as oral communication, work ethic, written communication, collaboration, critical thinking. When you look at students’ grades, you can quickly tell if they’re working hard (by the work-ethic grades), or if they’re struggling with content and need resources or differentiation."

"I like to share a story about a student who was leading a campus tour. An adult visitor asked why she had volunteered to conduct the tour. She said, “My oral presentation scores are low, and I know I need to practice. This is a good opportunity for me to practice speaking in front of people.” There’s a metacognitive awareness that these skills are important, across classes and for life. Rather than avoiding the things they’re not good at, students tend to seek out opportunities to improve those skills."