Authentic Assessment

An assessment composed of performance tasks and activities designed to simulate or replicate important real-world challenges. The heart of authentic assessment is realistic performance-based testing—asking the student to use knowledge in real-world ways, with genuine purposes, audiences, and situational variables. Thus, the context of the assessment, not just the task itself and whether it is performance-based or hands-on, is what makes the work authentic (e.g. the “messiness” of the problem, ability to seek feedback and revise, access to appropriate resources). Authentic assessments are meant to do more than “test”: they should teach students (and teachers) what the “doing” of a subject looks like and what kinds of performance challenges are actually considered most important in a field or profession.

Source:

Wiggins, Grant; McTighe, Jay (2005). Understanding by Design, Expanded 2nd Edition (Page 337). Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.