Practicing What We Preach: Authentic Assessment in Mathematics

Individual students within any mathematics classroom possess unique strengths, weaknesses, preferred learning styles, maturity levels, and academic understandings (or misunderstandings). However, each student is expected to progress through the same set of mathematical standards and to achieve at a predetermined level on statewide assessment tests. This article presents authentic assessment and instruction strategies that can be interwoven to ensure that students receive learning opportunities that allow them to seek solutions in a manner that is most consistent with their specific background knowledge and learning styles. Two examples from a fifth-grade classroom are presented and conclusions about the effectiveness of this approach are discussed.