Authentic Assessments

While reading through the chapters of the textbook,National Social Science Press, the idea of an "authentic" assessment come up much time. To say it sparked my interest was to be an understatement. I was curious and wonderstruck by this new assessment. What was about this new concept? What made it "authentic" compared to other assessments?

As I kept reading, I learned that an authentic assessment is used to provide clear expectations of the assessed criteria as well as giving students with specific feedback about their progression towards mastering learning goals and objectives. A great quote to describe an example of the "authentic" assessment lies within Chapter 5, when it say, "Rubrics should include specific performance characteristics that are arranged in levels that show the degree to which the objective has been mastered". Another example of a type of authentic assessment are portfolios.