ABSTRACT
During the 1990s, new forms of educational assessment rose to prominence and it became necessary to distinguish these new techniques from those that had dominated educational testing since its inception. The assessment methods described in the previous two chapters are called conventional assessment to distinguish them from the alternative assessment methodologies that will be presented in this chapter. There have been several different names given to these new approaches, including alternative assessment, performance-based assessment, performance assessment, performance testing, and authentic assessment. These terms are not synonymous and each has its own nuances. When this new form of assessment was first promoted as an alternative to conventional assessment, several authors used the term authentic assessment. This includes Grant Wiggins (1989) who can be considered a leader in the founding of this movement.
