History of Assessment or A Context for Assessment
Condon and Hamp-Lyons do a great job of rooting positivism as a major thrust in assessment in the past 50 years. The role of scientific-based assessment has an even longer history, though. In fact, positivism, I believe, begins to take root with empiricism in the early 1800s. In composition study, with the rise of process, and with the increase in humanistic forms of inquiry like ethnographic stances, valuing the subjective has been increasingly accepted. Two competing influences, and perhaps CUNY folk know this best: there's an interest in serving larger numbers of the population (open and closed admission issues) but to place these groups swiftly and accurately. In other words, big money or state/federal money is behind this.
Okay, enter the three or four groups in chapter one. There are those who assess outside local contexts (and these groups generally have more access to money), and those who are involved in instruction and assessment within these contexts. Those outside need easier management strategies for "valid" and "reliable" measurements, those inside recognize that that process is far to objective and limiting. Enter authentic assessment.
In Indiana a recent push to require k-12 teachers to produce digital portfolios as a form of instruction AND assessment has taken place. By 2006 all teachers will have them, or will not be certified. ALL k-12 teachers; including those who have taught for 30 years. Now, with that, you have to think: are we preparing our students in undergraduate and graduate studies to think more reflectively and holistically about their work, because this model (authentic assessment) is a more lifelong learning model. No. Of course not. We're not adequately preparing students.
There are quite a few states who have tried state-wide adoption of entry and exit portfolios. There are a ton of agencies outside state jurisdiction getting involved, too. See ISTE and their standards projects: http://www.iste.org/standards. This is federally funded. If you have time you'll discover that many of the things we teach freshman at Ball State in composition, like how to make hyperlinks, copy/paste, and word processing, will by 2005 be national standards for grade 3.
In my mind, being digitally fluent increases folk's aptitudes for holistic assessment systems, both local and larger-than-local.