TEAR-FREE MATH ASSESSMENT FOR INFORMAL LEARNING RESEARCH

Assessments are often necessary for justifying making-based education to stakeholders, but traditional assessments rarely align with the values and learning goals of out-of-school time (OST) making-based learning programs.In fact, assessments require that the youth being evaluated genuinely participate in the assessment, something that might be rare or difficult in OST making programs.In this paper, we describe effective, culturally-responsive mathematics assessments designed for youth in OST maker programs and the rationale that led to the assessment development.We then share the design framework that we used to develop these assessments to be camouflaged, appearing to learners to be like other making tasks.We share the results from our pilot with middle schoolers during an afterschool implementation of a math+making program in California, USA.The assessment data relate to measurement, volume, tessellations and transformations, and symmetry.Our research shows that more open forms of hands-on assessments can provide each and every student the opportunity to show what they have learned and leave with something they have made.