“Are you teaching today or are the students just doing a lab or taking a test?” I used to dread this question from a former principal when he wanted to observe a class. He was implying that the only classroom activity worth observing was when I was lecturing (which did not happen very often) or leading a large group activity. But I fooled him! One time I asked him to observe during a performance assessment. To his credit, he came to appreciate that the most important thing that happens in the classroom is not just the teacher’s performance, but rather what the students are learning.
And how do we know what the students are learning? We can wait until the yearly state exams (assuming that science is one of them), we can give our own final or end-of-course exam, or we can create/use unit tests. These summative assessments are fine, but they don’t tell us which students are having problems or have developed misconceptions during the course or unit. And by then it could be too late to go back and reteach. Formative assessments, on the other hand, can provide “just-in-time” information on what students know or can do. These include traditional quizzes and assignments, but can also include informal “thumbs up” questions, journal entries, or bell-ringer activities.
Many students see assessments (or “tests” as we used to call them) as something that happens to them in order for teachers to assign grade at the end of a marking period. Perhaps we haven’t done a very good job of identifying the purposes of assessment. In his research on effective instruction, Robert Marzano found that setting goals and providing feedback to be essential. Another issue in student learning is the type of feedback we provide on assessment tasks. If all the students see are red checkmarks, circles around words that are misspelled, and a “grade” at the top of the page, it’s no wonder that they crumple the paper or stuff it into a notebook without paying much attention to it. If you would like more information on what informative feedback looks like, an article in the December/January Educational Leadership has a great article on “Feedback That Fits.”
Rubrics are another way to provide useful feedback to students. This month’s issue of Science Scope has examples of rubrics to use for student presentations and student writing. Going to the SciLinks site and searching on the keyword “assessment” leads to a set of websites. Many of these relate to reading and writing in science, but there are some great resources on rubrics:

• Ideas and Rubrics is provided by the Chicago Public Schools with examples and ideas.
• Formative Assessment Probes from a 2005 issue of Science Scope.
• Rubric Generator has lots of suggestions for rubrics that can be adapted.

A site that science teachers should take a serious look at is PALS (Performance Assessment Links in Science). There are dozens of performance assessment tasks, organized by standard, grade level, and topic. Each one references one or more of the National Science Education Standards (yes, every state has its own science standards, but many of these can be found in a paraphrased version in the NSES documents). Each assessment includes a detailed description for the teacher, a student handout with places to record data and observations, a scoring rubric, and the results of any formal validation. But the best part is there are examples of actual student work at each of the rubric levels. Wouldn’t it be interesting for a department or grade level to choose several of these to use throughout the year to assess (and discuss) student performance? And they’re already created for you to use! The November issue of the Science Teacher and the November 26 blog have resources for starting and using study groups. Students can use this reflecive process, too. The article “Reflecting on the Test” describes some strategies for helping students become co-owners of the learning process. At first, my students were not receptive to this type of self-reflection. After all, this put some responsibility back on them. I had to do a lot of modeling and be persistent, but in order for students to become lifelong learners, they cannot always depend on a teacher for feedback.
As a sidebar, if you’re not familiar with WebQuests, such as described in the article “Cell City WebQuest,” take a look at the WebQuest site from San Diego State University, where the concept originated. You can search their database by grade and subject, or you can get started on creating one of your own. Each of these has an assessment component, including a rubric.