A Parent's Guide to Student Performance in Science and Mathematics
David L. Haury

After all is said and done regarding international comparisons of student achievement, national education goals, and standards for science and mathematics education, most parents simply want to know how their children are doing in class. Are they learning? Do they know what they are supposed to know? How are they doing compared with others their age? Are they ready for science or math in the next grade or class? Will they pass the state proficiency examinations? These are healthy concerns, and schools are becoming better at assessing student performance in ways that provide more helpful feedback to parents, teachers, and, ultimately, students.

This article serves as a parent's guide to student performance in science and math. Not unlike a nature guide, which helps you identify a bird, tree, insect, or flower by recognizing its key features, this guide will help you gauge your child's performance by recognizing and understanding the variety of assessments used in today's science and math classrooms.

How Do I Judge My Child's Performance?

Interpreting test results seemed to be easier in the traditional science and math classrooms of years past. After each unit, children would take a test--usually consisting of multiple-choice, true-or-false, or fill-in-the-blank items--and earn points for choosing correct answers. Earning 90 out of 100 points was very good; earning 49 out of 100 was not. At the end of the grading period, teachers would add up points, calculate percentages, and assign grades. In this scenario, assessment was somewhat narrow in focus, emphasizing the child's knowledge of important facts or the ability to solve structured problems. This type of assessment was also deceptively straightforward--children either got the right answers or they didn't. How they got the right answers--by knowing, memorizing, or lucky guessing--was seldom examined.

Though it is still considered important for kids to know certain fundamental concepts and ideas, the ongoing reform movements in science and math education have greatly influenced state standards and local programs with respect to the content and goals of instruction. The national math standards (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1989), currently in revision for release in 2000; the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council, 1996); and the Benchmarks for Science Literacy (Project 2061, 1993) place increasing emphasis on active, inquiry-based learning and on the cognitive skills associated with critical thinking, decision making, and open-ended problem solving (for a discussion of math and science standards, see the article "National Math and Science Standards: A Primer for Parents").

As a result, success in science and math now requires children to do more than simply recite facts or apply problem-solving procedures in a cookie-cutter fashion. For example, science educators now look to see if children can (1) understand some of the unifying concepts and processes that cut across the traditional scientific disciplines; (2) plan and conduct investigations; (3) identify and solve problems; (4) apply scientific concepts to issues of daily life and make decisions; and (5) understand the nature of science and scientific knowledge.

Like their science counterparts, math educators now look to see whether children can use key ideas to think and reason critically, solve problems, and make decisions. They also expect kids to be able to express mathematical ideas through words, pictures, diagrams, and other forms of communication. To reflect changes in the curriculum, math educators now place greater emphasis on certain content areas, such as estimation and statistics.

The important message for you, as a parent, is that your child needs to know more than just the right answers to succeed in science and math. As you attempt to gauge your child's performance, look for a wide range of skills, not just the number of points he or she scored on a test. Your task will be easier if you recognize the various forms of assessment, understand what each one measures, and realize that they can work together to provide a more complete picture of your child's abilities.

What Forms of Assessment Can I Expect To See?

Given the increasingly widespread use of assessment to guide learning, and the broader spectrum of knowledge and skills required of children, classroom assessments have become more varied and complex. As schools implement national standards and expect more of children, assessments will become more diversified.

Various terms have been used to describe the newer forms of classroom assessment, from alternative assessment and authentic assessment to performance-based assessment (herein, collectively, performance assessment). Though the meanings of these terms may have subtle differences, they all represent a break with past assessment practices.

Unlike traditional tests, in which children select answers from a set of alternatives, performance assessments require kids to perform a task, generate their own responses to questions, or create products that demonstrate both their knowledge and their cognitive or procedural skills. These tasks can take many forms, from doing mathematical computations or an experiment to writing an essay. The more common forms of performance assessment being used in science and mathematics classrooms include the following.

Computer Adaptive Testing

Computer adaptive testing requires children to respond to items or tasks with the aid of a computer. For example, a child may respond to several questions to determine his or her ability and then complete a performance task suitable for that ability level.

Concept Mapping

Concept mapping is a structured method for individuals or groups to clarify or organize their ideas and thoughts in pictorial form. The resulting concept map shows the key concepts of a topic and the relationships among them. As an assessment technique, concept mapping can be used to check student understanding of key ideas and their relationships or to diagnose misunderstandings. For more information about concept mapping, see http://www.to.utwente.nl/user/ism/lanzing/cm_home.htm.

Constructed-Response Questions

Constructed-response questions, which can appear on tests, quizzes, or assignments, require children to construct their own answers rather than select from a set of possible answers, such as those found on a multiple-choice test. Teachers often prepare tests made up of constructed-response questions that can take a variety of forms, from filling in blanks to producing graphs or diagrams to describing steps involved in solving a problem. Extended-response, open-ended questions require the child to produce an extended written response to an item or task that does not have one right answer (for example, an essay or a laboratory report).

Essays

Essays have long been used to determine student proficiency in using facts to make a point, explain an idea, or make the case for some action or decision. Essays demonstrate the child's ability to organize, describe, analyze, explain, or summarize ideas or events.

Experiments or Investigations

Experiments are often used in science classes to test student understanding of both science concepts and skills related to inquiry. Experiments require children to plan and conduct research, test hypotheses, use skills of measurement and estimation, and report findings orally or in written form. Many state proficiency examinations now require children to conduct experiments or interpret experimental results. Investigations in mathematics might involve applying process skills to some real-world situation or interpreting collected data to decide on a course of action.

Interviews

An interview requires the child to respond verbally to questions from the teacher or some other assessor. Sometimes interviewers pose questions according to a standard protocol.

What Is a Rubric? A rubric is a set of scoring criteria that a teacher or other assessor uses to evaluate the responses to a performance assessment task. Since most performance assessment tasks require open-ended responses or individual initiative, a scoring rubric ensures that the responses of different students will be judged on the same merits in a fair and consistent way. This is particularly important with alternative assessment procedures, since ambiguous requirements are confounded by student differences in experiences and expectations based on their ethnicity, primary language, or gender. As an example, here is a simple rubric for assigning points to a portfolio: 10    Portfolio well organized and documented. Format is accurate, complete, and easy to follow. Excellent quality; well-designed portfolio; indicates superior effort. 8    Portfolio fairly well organized and documented. Format is mostly accurate, complete, and easy to follow. High quality; clear design; indicates excellent effort. 6    Portions of the portfolio are poorly organized or inaccurately documented. Not complete or possibly somewhat difficult to follow. Average quality; adequate design; indicates acceptable effort. 4    Portfolio disorganized, poorly documented, significantly incomplete or inaccurate. Difficult to follow. Poor quality; little or no design; indicates insufficient effort. 2    Portfolio incomplete, incorrect, or inadequate. Work indicates little or no effort. 0    Portfolio not submitted. Note: This is a simple example to illustrate how scoring rubrics are used. The actual rubrics used in classrooms may be considerably more detailed. For more information about rubrics, see the following Web site hosted by The Discovery Channel: http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide/assess.html.

Observations

During observation, the child performs a task or procedure while being observed and rated using a rubric, which is an agreed-upon set of scoring criteria (for more information about rubrics, see the box to the right).

Portfolios

A portfolio is a collection or sample of the child's work. This concept derives from the visual and performing arts tradition in which portfolios serve to showcase artists' accomplishments and personally favored works. A portfolio can contain a child's best pieces and the child's evaluation of the pieces. It may also contain one or more works in progress that illustrate the evolution of a product--such as an essay--through the various stages of conception, drafting, and revision. Children typically participate in selecting materials to be included in their portfolios, and they are informed of the criteria to be used for evaluating the portfolio (for more information, see Resources at the end of this article).

Projects

Projects take many forms, from development of class demonstrations or oral presentations to library research and exhibits. Projects are often interdisciplinary and typically require a wide range of skills. Children usually complete projects over an extended period of time. Group projects require kids to work collaboratively in teams that plan, discuss, prepare, and present their findings or product. Teachers often evaluate projects using a rubric, or set of criteria, which informs participants of the expected standards before they begin.

Station Activities

Much like learning centers, station activities require children to move, either individually or in groups, from station to station to perform a sequence of tasks during a prescribed period of time. Children might be asked to sort objects, collect and interpret data, make comparisons, interpret graphs, or make inferences based on observations. Open-ended questions are designed to elicit specific thinking skills or process skills.

Conclusion

You may have already noticed the increased use of performance assessments in your child's math or science classroom. Expect to see a growing emphasis on products that are scored according to rubrics and, in science, increasing evidence of conformity to the national standards for assessment (for more information, see the article "National Math and Science Standards: A Primer for Parents"). As assessments become more refined and closely linked to the new content standards, you should also expect to see assessments that provide more detailed feedback about how to improve your child's performance. This information will help parents, teachers, and students focus on the concepts and skills that require the most attention as they anticipate state proficiency exams and national assessments.

References

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. 1989. Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics. Reston, VA: Author. (Available online at http://www.enc.org/reform/journals/ENC2280/nf_280dtoc1.htm)

National Research Council. 1996. National Science Education Standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. (Available online at http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses/html)

Project 2061, American Association for the Advancement of Science. 1993. Benchmarks for Science Literacy. New York: Oxford University Press.

Resources

Beyond Test Scores: How Can Parents Judge the Quality of Their Schools? (http://www.cse.ucla.edu/CRESST/pages/ptaron.htm)

Making the Grade: What Every Parent Needs to Know About Changes in Assessments and Testing (http://www.pta.org/programs/makegrade.htm)

Some Things Parents Should Know About Testing (http://www.hbem.com/library/parents.htm)

Student Portfolios: Classroom Uses (http://www.ed.gov/pubs/OR/ConsumerGuides/classuse.html)

The State of Performance Assessments (http://www.aasa.org/SA/dec9804.htm)

David L. Haury is Director of the ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics, and Environmental Education and Associate Professor of Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

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National Math and Science Standards: A Primer for Parents