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Long fundamental components of K-12 education, assessment and evaluation are vital to improving programs, teaching, and learning. In this report, assessment is defined as the collection of information about student achievement and performance. It includes formative (ongoing and embedded) and summative (end of term or large scale) components. Evaluation in this report refers to the data collected to determine the effectiveness of large-scale and long-term programs in guiding Earth and space science education reform. The goal of these long-term evaluation efforts is to improve classroom, district and organization practices and policies to promote enhanced student achievement.
The reform of assessment is a critical component of the revolution in Earth and space science education. Most states have some form of annual assessment of student learning, and the movement towards assessment and accountability is growing. The nature of each state's assessment is a strong force in defining and shaping a state's priorities. Hence, we need to ensure that Earth and space science is included in science assessments at all appropriate levels.
A second priority is to make sure that the nature and content of the assessments match the emerging new curriculum priorities. The content should encompass the major domains of Earth and space science, such as geology, meteorology, oceanography and astronomy. As a central theme, it should feature Earth as a system as well as other related unifying concepts and processes. Assessment should involve the skills of inquiry and investigation, including the use of remotely-sensed, visualizations and other tools of technology.
Unfortunately most state assessments focus primarily on memorized facts and vocabulary, typically using formats such as multiple choice and short-answer questions. While these have value in assessing factual content knowledge, they generally do not tap the deeper goals of science education that we deem crucial. For example, although "science as inquiry" is a major focus of the National Science Education Standards, traditional tests typically do not assess inquiry and problem-solving skills. Similarly, although remotely-sensed images and visualization technology are essential tools of Earth and space science and enable students to more clearly understand its core concepts, visualizations are rarely, if ever, used in traditional tests. Also, the concept of Earth as a system, now regarded as the central paradigm in Earth and space science, is typically tested at the component and process level with only minimal attention to the critically important interconnections among these components. Hence, the Earth and space science education community should develop and promote assessments that measure the skills and understandings central to the educational reform we envision. These assessments must go beyond traditional assessment, encompassing a richer and deeper view of Earth and space science learning.
We recommend a greater emphasis on performance-based assessment, which can complement or supplant traditional testing. Performance-based assessment forces students to demonstrate and apply their learning in deeper contexts. Giving students opportunities to "show what they know" in real contexts is one of the most authentic forms of assessment and one of the best measures of student mastery.
"[Performance-based] assessment exercises require students to apply scientific knowledge and reasoning to situations similar to those they will encounter in the real world outside the classroom, as well as to situations that approximate how scientists do their work." (NSES, NRC 1996)
Such performance-based assessments also serve as rich resources for classroom teachers to better understand what their students have learned and how they can apply their knowledge and skills in practical and real-world contexts. Such assessments are especially important given the increasing emphasis on educational accountability.
Assessment Recommendations
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Each state should review its science assessment tests to ensure that Earth and space science is included at elementary, middle- and high-school levels, and that the test items align with the state's curriculum priorities.
Almost all states have a program for annual assessment of student progress. However, these annual assessments are generally for reading, writing and mathematics. Science may be included but not typically on an annual basis. These assessments should be reviewed to make sure that Earth and space science content is included at all appropriate grade levels. Also the nature and content of these assessments should be reviewed to ensure that there is a close match between the assessed content and the curriculum priorities. This is especially important for the underlying theme of Earth as a system, science as inquiry and the use of remotely-sensed images and other visualizations.
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Review and analyze Earth and space science related test items on NAEP, TIMMS and other widely used standardized tests to clarify which core concepts and skills in Earth and space science are measured and which are not.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a set of widely-used national tests, including science tests at grades 4, 8 and 12. NAEP is administered every two years, with the results summarized in the "Nation's Report Card." The 1995 Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) and the 1999 TIMMS-Repeat assessed student learning in science (and other subjects) in the US and in about 40 other countries around the world. In each case, the results were used to assess the quality of science education and aggregate levels of student performance. Given this importance, we need to better understand these instruments in terms of the specific Earth and space science content and skills assessed in the test items. Such an analysis will help us understand the potential strengths and limitations of these instruments for monitoring progress in the new aspects of Earth and space science education that are advocated in this report, such as science as inquiry, Earth as a system and the use of visualizations.
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Develop and disseminate a national database of high-quality Earth and space science assessment items, along with tools to help educators and administrators evaluate their own Earth and space science education reform efforts.
A national body of scientists and educators in Earth and space science education should create a databank of assessment items organized so teachers and others can construct high-quality measures of student achievement. This database should include not only good multiple-choice and constructed response items but exemplary, performance-based assessments and scoring rubrics for elementary, middle and high school. These assessments should measure student learning of the core concepts and skills identified for Earth and space science in the National Science Education Standards and Benchmarks for Science Literacy (see recommendation 4 in the Curriculum section of this report, which calls for the development of such core learning goals). These assessments should be developed by specialists in science assessments, and reviewed by scientists and educators. They should be carefully field-tested and revised before dissemination. Special attention should be given to the development of assessments that address the needs and assess accurate understanding of diverse student populations, including persons with disabilities, different learning styles and cultural backgrounds. These next-generation assessments should call on students to: make use of prior knowledge; synthesize information with their understanding of relevant concepts; apply understandings; develop and test hypotheses; and interpret visual, numeric and graphic data.
These assessments should be readily available for large-scale use and by classroom teachers of all levels. The Web offers an ideal way to disseminate them and the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) should serve as the clearinghouse. Web dissemination also enables the assessments to feature the types of visualization resources (images and animations) that are central to our learning goals, and allows for interactive assessments of a deeper nature than are possible with pencil and paper. Internet access has become increasingly common in Earth and space science classes. Hence, Web-based assessments in high-school Earth and space science are not only feasible, they are essential for supporting and evaluating effective student use of the visualization technology and Web-based investigations that are central to Earth and space science education reform. Also, Web distribution enables field-testing to be on larger-scales and more cost-effective than would be possible with hard-copy materials. Some of the assessments should also be available to download and print so students can do the activities when they lack convenient access to computers.
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Foster collaborations between Earth and space science educators and other science, mathematics, geography and language arts educators to develop new assessments that promote learning across the curriculum.
Earth and space science is an integrative field that offers wonderful opportunities for cross-curricular ties with such disciplines as mathematics, geography, social studies, history and even literature. Earth and space science educators should work with their peers in these fields to develop assessments that measure interdisciplinary learning among students.
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Provide opportunities for practicing and pre-service teachers to learn how to assess student learning effectively and identify student misconceptions.
For educational reform within the domain of Earth and space science to succeed, teachers need to understand how to assess student performance in inquiry-based learning, how to write assessments and score assessment items, and use assessment results to improve classroom practice. In addition to making assessment tools and resources readily available to teachers, efforts should be made to train teachers on new assessment strategies and techniques that go well beyond the traditional testing of students' acquisition of content. Teachers must learn how to assess students' development and use of such key skills as problem solving, critical thinking, self-directed investigations and deploying advanced tools and resources. Stakeholders should support the implementation of professional development initiatives like workshops, distance-learning, study groups, action research, mentoring and other approaches that empower teachers to fully assess student learning within new curricular frameworks. This strategy should also help teachers to identify and correct common misconceptions held by students of Earth and space science.
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Support research on student learning of Earth and space science concepts.
To refine pedagogical strategies in Earth and space science classrooms, educators must understand how students learn key Earth and space science concepts and how their understanding can be measured effectively. Research areas should include how student misconceptions arise, the use of visualizations and other technologies to enhance learning, how different types of assessments may bolster or hinder student learning, and comparison of apparent differences in student learning (e.g. the achievement gap) demonstrated by different student populations.
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