The goal of the three-year Constructive Assessment Project is to enhance student equity, as well as validation and communication aspects of alternative assessment methods in mathematics. First year project activities will focus on the objective "to enable more in-depth relevant understanding of student achievement on the part of students themselves". This objective will be addressed by investigating the needs, interpretations and values of approximately 200 students who are participating in alternative assessment activities within the constructivist Visual Mathematics programs. The research will proceed at three levels. Ten Teacher-Researchers at five sites will generate research questions, and will investigate these with the support of workshops, monthly meetings and classroom visits by the PI. The PI and a Research Associate will also research the issue across the five sites through observation, interview and textual analysis. And a group of Faculty Associates will explore the issues at the concept level through library research and data analysis. During the second and third years activities will address on the objective "to advance the general state-of-the-art of assessment practices" by using the outcomes of the first-year investigation to develop classroom guidelines which incorporate a learner-oriented, constructivist approach to assessment. The project will provide an integrative model for the constructive involvement of teachers, students and technology in a broad range of assessment methods, and will provide a base of grounded theory for future research.
