5 Trends to Watch

for in the Future of

Assessments
This year marks the 80th birthday of the IBM 805 test scoring
machine.  
First sold in 1938, it used a contact plate with an electric
current, along with a standardized exam paper (think multiple-
choice bubble sheets) to detect pencil marks, compare them
against an answer key and automatically pop out a score in
mass quantities. It was a revolutionary piece of equipment that
changed the way we took written tests.
Since then, new technologies have emerged in the classroom to
aid in student learning, but the systems used to assess that
learning has been much slower to adapt. The IBM 805 is no
longer in use, but its legacy remains as the multiple-choice tests
of yore moved onto digital platforms with few changes.
In a world where big data and artificial intelligence are
providing new insights into how the rest of our world works –
from economics to entertainment and everything in between –
we’re on the cusp of an assessment renaissance of sorts, with
new approaches already appearing on the fringes of current
practice.

Those advances bring with them five major trends in how

teachers will assess students. Here’s how we can expect
educational technology to help make our students successful in
our 21st-century world.

1. Holistic measurement
Many aspects of “big picture” student performance aren’t easily
captured by traditional testing, like high-order thinking,
interpersonal development, problem-solving abilities and deep
learning.
To address this, we’re already starting to change the way we ask
questions, pose problems, assign projects and evaluate the
outcomes to allow students the freedom to find a solution in
different ways. Open-ended demonstration or project-based
learning are just two examples of that, where students can take
ownership of their work and show their learning in ways that
interest them.
Improvements in simulations, like those provided by video
games that model real earth physics, promise more freedom and
interactivity in manipulating different variables to reach the
desired outcome.
2. Continuous testing
Sometimes referred to by the inauspicious term “stealth
assessments,” the idea behind continuous testing is simple:
weaving assessments into the fabric of classroom activity in a
natural, unobtrusive way.
That could mean observing students during class work and
routines, or monitoring their responses to instruction, with the
goal of tracking progress on a regular (perhaps daily) basis to
help plan and adjust instruction.
None of this would be possible without the right tools in place –
performing formative assessments that regularly would simply
be too demanding on teachers to sustain over a school year.

3. Real-time, data-driven insights

With data from student work flowing through specialized
software and algorithms, classrooms will benefit not only from
rich analysis across new measures of student performance and
the meaningful insights that result from it, but also from the
speed at which they get that information.
Tools that automate analysis provide results for mountains of
data in real time, meaning teachers can make adjustments
based on what’s happening right now instead of what happened
weeks or months ago. It also takes the burden of analysis off of
teachers, allowing them to spend more time actually acting on
the results.

4. Tailored learning
As we capture more and more student data, from classroom
performance to assessment outcomes, teachers will be able to
track not only what’s happening in their classroom but how
each individual student is learning.
The end goal is to truly tailor instruction based on what a
student knows, assess what they’re ready to learn next or where
they need help, and provide individualized support to get there.
Initiatives like adaptive testing are an example of this gaining in
popularity, as it allows teachers to evaluate student knowledge
and act on it in real time.

5. Shifts in Scoring
Some micro-schools, particularly in New York and Silicon
Valley, are experimenting with alternatives to number or letter
grades.
As they shift student work towards demonstration and project-
based learning, they’re also replacing traditional methods of
evaluation with rubrics that define a set number of criteria all
focused on quality. Some are also focusing on feedback over
grades so students understand how they can make their work
better.