ABSTRACT
Authentic assessment means that the focus is on what students do and produce rather than on tests scores. Solid authentic assessment involves students in the evaluation process, making them aware of what needs to be accomplished and learned. Teachers and students tend to equate terms such as assessment or evaluation with grades. The standards movement in social studies has had a profound influence on how social studies teachers view assessment. Assessment is important to teaching and learning when it helps teachers, students, parents, and administrators improve on what is already being done. Authentic assessment is a foundational construct of the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework and the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) National Standards for the Preparation of Social Studies Teachers. It is an approach that relies on authentic or alternative means of assessment, such as individual portfolios or collections of student work assembled over time.
