Horse Race

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Handouts
	Ways to Help Your Child Achieve High Standards for His/Her Work

Horse Race

Description
Participants engage in an abbreviated learning activity (a dice game) related to the concept of probability (somewhat as students would). After this short learning experience, they are given a collection of actual student work from two different tests: one is a multiple-choice test; the other is a performance test. They work in small groups to learn about students’ knowledge by examining the student work. The whole group discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each method. The presenter concludes the discussion by presenting a continuum of learning—from mastery of factual information to the understanding of complex concepts and application of thinking skills. They see how different assessment methods are appropriate depending on the type of knowledge a teacher wants to assess. The limits and benefits of standardized testing are briefly discussed.

Use
Can serve as a stand-alone activity and discussion introducing a key purpose of assessment and contrasting two different assessment types— performance tasks and multiple-choice tests.

Good follow-up to DMV Discussion. Provides good reinforcement of multiple measure concept while providing more depth and information about quality assessment.