Authentic assessment is an emerging field within assessment models. It claims to measure by direct means the student performance on tasks that are relevant to the student outside of the school setting. Most educators will agree with the need to assess learning within the context of applications. This chapter will address the following issues: (1) a vision of an effective assessment system must be articulated--what are the standards (visions) for an effective assessment system?, (2) a well-thought-out plan for designing an effective program must be constructed--what are the components of a process for designing an effective authentic assessment program?, (3) classroom teachers readiness to change assessment plans is crucial to any program of assessment--how do you determine the degree of readiness of classroom teachers for a new assessment plan?, and (4) promises abound in the assessment field but limitations can strangle an assessment program at conception--what are the promises and limitations of recent assessment reforms? A crucial aspect of teaching and learning is knowing what and how much is learned. Assessment should be the source of this information. This chapter will give a glimpse of how to design an authentic assessment plan in statistics education.
The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education