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| | Assessment Links
In many respects, assessment in K-6 science is in its infancy. We know more about what we should teach and how we should teach it than we do about how to assess student performance effectively. That is likely to change soon, particularly with current state initiatives to implement science assessments and with the impending legislative and funding impacts of the education law, No Child Left Behind, which mandates testing in science by 2008. As we move forward, we certainly need to be ever mindful of the need to use a variety of science assessments, including a good portion above the knowledge and comprehension levels toward application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. We need to measure what students can do as well as what they know. And we need to assess inquiry and higher level thinking---skills at the very heart of science.
In this series of links you will find characteristics of good K-6 science assessment, research results, and models for alternative assessments including performance, conferences, portifolios, embedded assessments, rubrics and others, including sample test items.
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