The gold
standard for authentic assessment is when students begin to develop their own plans for holding themselves accountable and measuring the success of their endeavors.
During the period when Garfield teachers thought they were going to be asked to administer the SBAC Common Core test, Heather Robison, an inspiration in the
struggle for authentic assessment, decided she would be a conscientious test objector.
In addition, the Internet provides better
opportunities for authentic assessment — allowing student work to be more widely published, disseminated, and evaluated than is possible in school literary magazines, yearbooks, portfolios, and other forms of traditional print media.
Steve is also the founder an educational technology startup and has spent the last several years working on a digital collaborative
tool for authentic assessment.
Garfield High School became a leader in the
movement for authentic assessment in 2013 when the staff voted unanimously to refuse to administer the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test, and were joined by the parents and students in a mass opt out campaign.
Many teachers at Garfield knew that as a faculty that helped ignite the
struggle for authentic assessment, it was important to send a clear message against the new SBA testing that in many ways is worse that the MAP test.