Capturing student assessment data

One of the hallmarks of the Edusoft Assessment Management System is its innovative use of plain-paper scanning technologies to revolutionize the assessment of students. Edusoft allowed educators to use a standard office scanner and plain office paper to administer tests to students. This innovation freed teachers from the tedium of hand-scoring stacks of papers, and also allowed them to integrate standards-based assessments into their classroom practice on a much more regular basis. Thanks to Edusoft, plain-paper scanning is now a standard feature of most assessment management systems and delivery platforms.

In recent years, more and more educators have started to utilize student response systems (sometimes called “clickers” or learner response systems) as another way to capture student response data in real-time. A growing number of providers, such as Promethean, offer such devices. Such devices have typically been used for more low-stakes and ad-hoc assessment of learning. For example, a classroom teacher might use “clickers” to quickly gauge the effectiveness of an instructional activity, or to rapidly ascertain which specific topics might need immediate remediation. The real-time benefits of such data are powerful and exciting to consider.

Riverside’s Product Innovation team has been thinking about the appropriate role for such devices in more high-stakes or large-scale assessment activities. Could such devices, for example, take the place of paper-based answer documents altogether? Are such devices developmentally-appropriate for testing situations that are part of larger accountability programs? Is the experience of using such a device so different an experience for the student (too different?) that it somehow puts them at a disadvantage when the statewide high-stakes test comes along? We’d like to read your thoughts and experiences with such input devices and what you see as their appropriate role in large-scale assessment programs. Feel free to post your comments…