21st Century Science Assessments

Technology-based science tests are rapidly appearing in state, national, and international testing programs and being mimicked in technology-based, formative classroom assessments that will affect the focus of science instruction. Although most assessment developers are highly experienced in creating static items with no interactivity, they are likely unaware of the field of learning research that has studied how students learn and perform most effectively in interactive multimedia formats. This presentation describes the NSF-funded Foundations of 21st Century Science Assessments (Foundations) project in the context of the SimScientists program at WestEd. The SimScientists program is a focused research and development effort to create formative and summative assessments of student understanding of complex, dynamic science systems. The goals of these projects are to study the designs, feasibility, effectiveness, and quality of simulation-based science assessments.