The term balanced assessment continues to be a buzzword in the area of educational assessment. But, what does balanced assessment mean? First, I must express my preference for the term balanced assessment system. A balanced assessment system integrates many different assessment types in order to provide the best possible data regarding what a student knows and can do.
Balanced assessment systems synthesize data collected from three assessment types. Each assessment type is described below. I credit Tracy Huebner’s 2009 Educational Leadership article titled Balanced Assessment with helping me provide brief descriptions of each assessment type.
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Summative Assessment – Summative assessments are delivered at the end of instruction and provide data that can be used to evaluate a program or some entity (e.g., school, district, state).
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Interim Assessment – Interim assessments are delivered at fixed points during instruction (e.g., at the end of a grading period) and provide information about whether a student or group of students are on track to pass the summative assessment.
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Formative Assessment – Formative assessments are delivered at frequent intervals during instruction and provide information to the teacher about any need there may be to change instruction.
In my opinion the concept of a balanced assessment system is not new. I learned very early in my educational assessment career is that we (i.e., the assessment community) recommend that stakeholders use multiple measures to determine what a student knows and can do. I believe that the term multiple measures is a predecessor to balanced assessment.
Balanced assessment systems may move from concept to reality over the next few years. The federal government jump started the conversation when defining the rules for the Race to the Top Comprehensive Assessment Competition. The two consortia, in their proposals, provided visions for balanced assessments that are aligned with the Common Core State Standards.
Until we get a better idea of the consortia’s plans for balanced assessment, if you are implementing the concept of a balanced assessment system, please leave a comment and let us know the direction your work is taking.
Reference
Huebner, T.A. (2009). Balanced assessment. Educational Leadership, 67(3), 85-87.