Integrated Assessment Using Muliple
Sources of Evidence

To make a good project, students have to sort through information and make decisions about what is important to include in their projects and what is interesting to know, but should be left out. Because of this, projects alone do not show a complete view of student learning. This is especially true for multimedia where careful selection of a minimum amount of information often conveys a message better than the inclusion of vast quantities of text.

Developing Assessment Criteria

To form a well-rounded assessment, let's think about what students will be learning by doing their projects. As an example, let's borrow two categories from National History Day: historical quality and relation to theme. These categories have criteria attached to them that help students and judges decide how to assess a project.

Historical Quality

• is historically accurate
• shows analysis and interpretation
• places topic in historical context
• shows wide research
• uses available primary sources
• presents multiple perspectives

Relation to Theme

• clearly relates the project's topic to theme
• demonstrates the significance of the topic in the context of the theme and draws conclusions

There's a lot to think about when assessing complex learning. Let's see what the annotated bibliography, the project project itself, and responses to questions can tell us about student learning.

Next:   The Scoring Guide