What Is Outcomes Based Assessment?

Posted by Jo Murphy Aug 18, 2007

Outcomes Based Assessment moves fluidly around the idea that educators

• explicitly want to teach some ideas, skills or concepts.
• will be checking in from time to time to ensure that, these concepts are indeed being absorbed by students.
• when checking, will overtly look for evidence of the assimilation of knowledge in a variety of ways.
• will look for evidence of skill development.
• will test using styles that reflect the idea that students access information in a variety of ways
• will allow students to display and be able to talk about this knowledge acquisition in a multiplicity of forms
• It may be helpful to read this article as a guideline when you are thinking about Outcomes Based Assessment.

To ensure justice for those students who may not be able to express themselves in the more left brained manner we can allow them to present a talk, video their play, as well as set multiple choice questionnaires. Different instruments facilitate gathering evidence so that the teacher can make an assessment based on a variety of data collection methods. The visual diary and a digital folio can bring together the information so that it can be gleaned for meaning.

Outcomes Based Assessment System formalizes the idea that the student will always know what to expect and they will be ‘clued up’ to where they are within this system.

To this end, the teacher will provide students with criteria sheets at the beginning of the process. By a process of class collaboration and negotiation teachers will ensure that students know when the check will be or that the teacher or others will be videoing from time to time. Because they expect and understand the reasons, they can relax around these checkpoints and even have fun presenting this material. You might choose to use slogans with them such as Brian Tracy’s “{Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.) In this article I talk about goal setting and helping students with preparation.

In this article, Writing A Fathers Day Class Play, I have pinpointed two check in spots. I use the old racing pit stop as an analogy. Rather than scare the student the process gives them a sense of control and is empowering because they know when and how to prepare for assessment. Good practice will have the teaching setting these pit stops with the students at the beginning of the project.