Beyond the Bubble

In history education, multiple choice tests are still the dominant mode of assessment. Document based essays have established a position in the field as well, but we lack assessments at a medium grain size that teachers can implement quickly to gauge students’ developing understanding of complex historical skills and concepts–not just their recall of facts–and build on this in planning new instruction. This fall, the Stanford History Education Group launched a new website, Beyond the Bubble, that presents models for this kind of assessment, called Historical Assessments of Thinking, or HATs. I worked on this project for over a year, in 2009 and 2010 and am excited to see it go live. Take a look and tell me what you think. There’s a lot of meaty content, with more being rolled out and featured at SHEG’s Facebook page.