From nationwide standardized testing to school‐based alternative embedded assessment in Israel: Students' performance in the matriculation 2000 project

Abstract

Matriculation 2000 was a 5-year project aimed at moving from the nationwide traditional examination system in Israel to a school-based alternative embedded assessment. Encompassing 22 high schools from various communities in the country, the Project aimed at fostering deep understanding, higherorder thinking skills, and students' engagement in learning through alternative teaching and embedded assessment methods. This article describes research conducted during the fifth year of the Project at 2 experimental and 2 control schools. The research objective was to investigate students' learning outcomes in chemistry and biology in the Matriculation 2000 Project. The assumption was that alternative embedded assessment has some effect on students' performance. The experimental students scored significantly higher than their control group peers on low-level assignments and more so on assignments that required higher-order thinking skills. The findings indicate that given adequate support and teachers' consent and collaboration, schools can transfer from nationwide or statewide standardized testing to school-based alternative embedded assessment. ß

The Development of Authentic Assessments to Investigate Ninth Graders’ Scientific Literacy: In the Case of Scientific Cognition Concerning the Concepts of Chemistry and Physics

“…The notion of authenticity has led many researchers to emphasize the importance of curriculum design for authentic science (Cunningham & Helms, 1998;Driver, Asoko, Leach, Mortimer & Scott, 1994) and the development of authentic assessment (Cumming & Maxwell, 1999;Dori, 2003;Wiggins, 1989Wiggins, , 1993Wolf et al, 1991). Such assessment is sensitive enough to evaluate students' abilities or learning outcomes, and could reflect students' deep and broad understanding (Dori, 2003).…”

“…Such assessment is sensitive enough to evaluate students' abilities or learning outcomes, and could reflect students' deep and broad understanding (Dori, 2003). Currently, standardized and authentic testing have started to merge for evaluating students' higher-order thinking skills, which teachers have tended to neglect when using test-oriented teaching (Dori, 2003).…”

“…Therefore, for the two-year project described in this article, we developed six authentic assessments based on the ideas of the latest curriculum reforms that have been carried out in grades 1-9 in 2001 to investigate whether ninth graders are able to apply school knowledge in a real-life context (Chiu, 2002). In the past decade, standardized testing and authentic assessment have been perceived as two different cultures (Dori, 2003). Standardized testing usually was more quantitative, and authentic assessment was considered qualitative and al-ternative (Wolf, Bixby, Glenn & Gardner, 1991).…”

“…Standardized testing usually was more quantitative, and authentic assessment was considered qualitative and al-ternative (Wolf, Bixby, Glenn & Gardner, 1991). Nowadays, standardized and authentic testing have started to merge for evaluating students' higherorder thinking skills, which teachers have neglected to develop under testoriented teaching (Dori, 2003). Nevertheless, the national entrance examinations of senior high schools and universities in Taiwan are also a kind of standardized testing.…”

How Task Features Impact Evidence From Assessments Embedded in Simulations and Games

“…Players focus on the activity and not the fact that their abilities are being assessed. Note that a game-based assessment may or may not be an embedded assessment in the sense of Dori (2003)—that is, a formative assessment that is integrated within a curriculum to monitor students’ progress. Although alignment between assessment task and curriculum is critically important, the focus of this article is on providing a language to help assessment designers with designing tasks for specific purposes and thinking about which portions of the task can be manipulated in the design process and to what purpose.…”