Assessment+Feasibility

=Feasibility=

Practical issues of cost and time required to administer and score, complexity, and acceptability are legitimate concerns in selecting from among alternative assessments. It should come as no surprise that selected-response tests are the most efficient users of time and budgets.

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Cost
In general, alternative assessments are more expensive to develop, administer, and score than selected-response tests. Scoring is the greatest added expense of using alternative assessments. Multiple-choice tests can be scored quickly for only pennies per student. Because of their complexity, alternative assessments are time-consuming to score. Essays, for example, can cost several dollars per student to score. Often there are additional costs in training the people who will do the scoring. Offsetting the additional costs of alternative assessments may be two benefits: (1) substantial staff development and (2) greater test validity. Teachers report that scoring alternative assessments improves their understanding of student learning, including their misconceptions and problems, and it is useful for instructional planning. Alternative assessments are also likely to provide more valid information about students' abilities to perform occupationally relevant tasks.

Time
Alternative assessments place greater time demands on administrators, teachers, and students. Alternative assessments frequently require more class time to administer (which may cut into instructional time), and certainly require more time for scoring, which may reduce teacher planning time. On the positive side, teachers learn more about student performance by scoring this type of task. Moreover, when assessments are closely linked to classroom instructional activities, such as senior projects and portfolios, the distinction between assessment time and learning time is blurred, and the time problem may be less troublesome.

Complexity
Alternative assessments are usually more complex than traditional tests. Students respond to more complicated test questions or situations that may be covering a broad range of course content; the method students use for responding is more elaborate; students may use manipulatives and may produce objects/artifacts in response to tasks; higher-order thinking skills are often required; and the scoring procedures are more complicated. Making the arrangements to conduct an alternative assessment is also more complicated than passing out pencils and paper for a multiple-choice test. Training may be necessary to learn to administer or score alternative assessments (and sometimes to develop them as well), and additional equipment and facilities may be needed.

Acceptability
People familiar with traditional types of tests may be reluctant to implement alternative assessments or to accept alternative assessment results as credible. If the measures fail to meet reasonable technical standards or to address accepted curricular material, they may in fact be less credible. On the other hand, one of the advantages of alternative assessments is that employers and other stakeholders may give greater credibility to scores based on authentic performance tasks than to traditional test results.