Authentic Assessments Are a Progressive

Authentic assessments are a progressive educational tool. Following in the progressive tradition outlined by Gutek, an authentic assessment is student-centered and highly pragmatic. Students are asked to apply their learning to a meaningful real-life situation or example. The teacher evaluates content acquisition based on how well the student applied course material to the authentic task (Mueller 2008). Whereas traditional assessments assume the absolute authority of the teacher or institution, an authentic assessment allows learners to determine how the course content best applies to them. A traditional assessment is likewise based on an absolute, authoritative curriculum whereas an authentic assessment is flexible. Authentic assessments are therefore one of the hallmarks of a progressive education program.

Authentic assessments reflect the progressive philosophy of education also because they do not assume a static, finite body of knowledge. Progressive education is grounded in constructivism: the learner assembles knowledge through the lenses of experience. Culture, gender, socio-economic class, and age all play a role in the construction of knowledge. Therefore, even educators coming from a Critical point-of-view would be able to use authentic assessments. The progressive standpoint is that all learners construct knowledge individually, and that knowledge is informed at least in part by social and political realities. Authentic assessments prevent bias and help educators create curricula for a diverse student body.

2. The phrase "excellence in education," like No Child Left Behind, sounds terrific. Yet looming beneath the surface is a rejection of the progressive worldview. Used widely by state and federal educational institutions, the term "excellence in education" assumes the validity of the status quo. Without promoting wholesale transformations to the underling philosophies guiding educational policy, an Essentialist or other traditional educator can promote excellence in education.

Excellence in education programs, like the Foundation for Excellence in Education, focus on teaching more so than learning. Emphasis is on rewarding teachers for their performance rather than on showing teachers how to create a more student-centered educational environment. The research funded by the Foundation for Excellence in Education does promote student scholarships. However, those scholarships are awarded in traditional ways: via traditional assessment methods following traditional coursework. A progressive educator would promote excellence in education via structural changes and radical shifts of focus.

3. The Department of Education passed the No Child Left Behind Act during the Bush Administration. Since then the Act has impacted the ways schools receive funding and also, the ways teachers approach their work. No Child Left Behind demands more excellence in education by pressuring students to perform well on traditional standardized assessment tests.

Like Excellence in Education, No Child Left Behind is a catchy phrase but one that denotes an essentialist, traditional, conservative educational philosophy and not a progressive one. Under the Act, educational professionals work within the existing institutional framework. Teaching is still an authoritarian model rather than being student-centered. Learning is assessed using the measures that have failed many children in the past. Instead of changing the methods of teaching and assessment, the No Child Left Behind Act bolsters them.

A far cry from progressive education, No Child Left Behind has become highly controversial and in need of reform. Progressives from all sorts of political and ideological backgrounds can appreciate the need to move away from No Child Left Behind and toward true educational inclusiveness.

4. Educating the whole child is a term used widely in Montessori, which is a progressive philosophy of education. The whole child theory assumes that children are naturally curious and eager to learn (the Montessori School). Moreover, the whole child concept takes into account social development as well as academic skills acquisition. Educating the whole child is a core progressive concept, focusing on the learner and not the teacher. Students learn at their own pace and are free to apply course content to whichever applications they find meaningful to them. Thus, the authentic assessment methods coincide with educating the whole child.