NEA: National Exhibitions Month Puts Focus on Alternative to Standardized Tests

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Accountability: If Not Standardized Tests, What?

What Are Exhibitions?

Exhibitions are an alternative way to assess student achievement.
Exhibitions are presentations by students to teachers, parents, and other community members.
Exhibitions offer a 360º view of a student's academic performance
Exhibitions demonstrate mastery of academic material, presentation skills, and critical thinking ability.
Exhibitions are often held at the end of the school year-like final exams-to determine a student's ability to complete a course, move to the next grade, or to graduate.
Exhibitions are also held throughout the school year to better understand a learner's strengths and needs, and to plan for further assistance.
Exhibitions show students, teachers, parents, colleges, and employers how well students can do in real-world situations.
Exhibitions can be aligned to meet and exceed State Learning Standards.

One of the most fundamental and important changes NEA is asking Congress to make as it considers reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act is to use more than test scores to measure student learning and school performance. But what are the alternatives to pencil-and-paper tests?

The month of May will be a time to focus on what many educators consider to be a far better way to measure what students know and can do than using standardized tests.

National Exhibition Month is sponsored by the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES), a national non-profit organization "working to create and sustain personalized, equitable, and intellectually challenging schools."

National Exhibition Month is intended to spread the word that "exhibitions" are a better and more comprehensive way than standardized test to measure student performance. The process is fashioned from the traditional PhD defense process -- students present and defend their work to a panel of outside reviewers.

You can see for yourself how it works in a brief video available at the CES Web site.

Hundreds of K-12 schools have formally adopted Exhibitions as an assessment tool and thousands of additional schools have started using various forms of the idea, such as the use of student portfolios, senior projects, and other performance-based assessments.

More information and resources for appreciating and participating in National Exhibition Month are available in a special section of the Coalition of Essential Schools Web site.

Find out more about NEA's position on student and school assessment as it relates to NCLB requirements in our Positive Agenda for the ESEA Reauthorization.

April 2007

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