Alternative assessment is reserved for the small number of children, usually less than 1 percent of the school population, who cannot be fairly evaluated through the use of a standardized test. This includes children who have significant disabilities, usually cognitive in nature, and children who are either multiple levels below expectations for age and grade level or for whom group testing, even with accommodations, is not feasible. Children with special needs will generally have an Individual Education Plan, or IEP. It is the IEP team that determines the need for alternative assessment.
Alternative assessments are nontraditional and focused on meaningful activities. A typical assessment would have some common qualities: The student might perform, create or do something having a real world application; the activity would require the use of problem-solving or higher-level thinking skills; and people, not a machine, would do the scoring. Some common types of assessments include performance- or project-based activities, portfolios and journals.
Within the academic framework of school, alternative assessments often combine essential life skills with academic skills. For example, a math assessment might include activities like making change or balancing a checkbook while a reading assessment might involve reading and interpreting a restaurant menu. Each individual assessment must match a content standard as established by the state in which the student attends school.
The collection of required evidence takes place over the school term. Materials including instructions, binders for collection, tracking forms or others items are distributed to the teachers who will need them and then collected, with the evidence organized by the standard to which it applies, near the end of the term. The alternative assessment may not be scorable if the content is not appropriately linked to a standard, if evidence is insufficient or inaccurate or if entries are missing.
Alternative assessment requires a fundamental change in the role of the teacher as an evaluator. Absent a standardized test, a teacher makes high-stakes decisions about a student's progress and needs ongoing professional development to develop consistency and reliability of assessment results. Alternative assessments are also becoming a part of the educational programs for children without IEPs. Portfolios, journals and observation scales are being used more frequently and, according to the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing, an assessment program made up of a combination of assessment types, including alternative assessments, can produce reliable and credible information that can be used to base decisions about both students and schools. The use of alternative assessments necessitates a significant change in the role of the classroom teacher.