The nature of assessment systems to support effective use of evidence through technology

Abstract

The National Educational Technology Plan 2010 (NETP) presents a model of twenty-firstcentury learning powered by technology, with goals and recommendations in five essential areas: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. This article connects NETP ideas in one of these areas - assessment - with those of the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S) project. Launched by Cisco, Intel and Microsoft, ATC21S released results of a methodological working-group study at the Learning and Technology World Forum 2010 in London. The ATC21S methodological report discusses how the development of a good assessment system is rooted in the inferences the system is intended to support. Assessment is a special kind of evidentiary reasoning with evidence used to support particular kinds of claims. This article will illustrate how key questions and answers for decision-making are influenced by a new era of educational assessment with technology. Areas discussed include the characterization of the constructs to be assessed, the kinds of instruments to be developed, the level of information gathered, and promising avenues for analytic approaches.