Introduction to the Biomass Project: An Illustration of Evidence-Centered Assessment Design and Delivery Capability. CSE Report

• Main Authors: Steinberg, Linda S, Mislevy, Robert J, Almond, Russell G, Baird, Andrew B, Cahallan, Cara, Dibello, Louis V, Senturk, Deniz, Yan, Duanli, Chernick, Howard, Kindfield, Ann C. H
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: For full text: http://www 01.09.2003
• Subjects: Delivery Systems; Design; Evaluation; Evaluation Research; Research Design

This paper describes the design rationale for a prototype of an innovative assessment product, and the process that led to the design. The goals of the Biomass project were to demonstrate: (1) an assessment product designed to serve two new purposes in the transition from high school to college; and (2) the capability needed to produce this kind of assessment product. The conceptual design framework for the project is "evidence-centered assessment design," or ECD for short. This presentation describes the processes by which we designed the Biomass prototype within this framework. We discuss their importance in terms of the design objects and delivery system components, and justify the choices we made as design decisions that serve the product's purposes, in light of the constraints and affordances we have assumed. Fuller discussions of the ECD design process and delivery architecture can be found in Mislevy, Steinberg, and Almond (in press) and Almond, Steinberg, and Mislevy (in press). (Author)