A Study on the Implementation of Alternative Assessment at SMPN 13 Malang

This study focuses on the implementation of the alternative assessments at SMPN 13 Malang. It was limited to the discussion of kinds/format of alternative assessments used by the teacher, the teacher’s considerations of choosing certain alternative assessments, the setting up of the criteria/rubric of each of the four language skills for assessing her students’ performance, the carrying out of the alternative assessments/the implementation of the chosen alternative assessments in the classroom, and the way of transforming the scores that the teacher got from the students’ daily performance into the students’ final scores The design of this study was descriptive qualitative. To collect data for this study, information was obtained from one source. One of the English teachers teaching at grade 8 at SMPN 13 Malang was chosen as the source of information. To make the process of data collection and analysis easier, the researcher used some instruments: observation, interview, and documentation. The data were collected from May 21, 2007 until June 9, 2007. The findings show that there were some alternative assessments that the teacher applied. Some of them were still implemented in the classroom and some did not because of several considerations that were mentioned previously. The alternative assessments that she applied were story telling, writing samples, portfolio, teacher observation, and conference. The portfolio assessment was no longer done since she found some difficulties and obstacles in applying it. There were two considerations of choosing certain language assessment. The first consideration was the language skills that were going to be assessed. The second consideration was the applicability of an alternative assessment. The teacher had several criteria for each language skill that was assessed. She had made the criteria before giving an assessment. She did not write or transform the criteria explicitly but she was sure that she had the same criteria every time she assessed the students. She said that the criteria were kept in her mind. She admitted that sometimes she had different criteria although she was still assessing the same language skill with the same topic. To obtain her students’ final score, she summed up all the scores she had and took the average score It is suggested that teacher apply portfolio again in the classroom by finding a way to overcome the problems. She is suggested to invite all school faculties and explain to them the clear perception toward the intended assessment. For her better result in scoring, she should define the criteria explicitly so that it will help her define excellence and plan how to help students achieve it, communicate goals and results to parents and others, help the teacher and other rater be accurate, unbiased, and consistent in scoring. To help the implementation of the alternative assessment work well, the authorized people at school (e.g. the headmaster and his or her vice-headmaster) should allocate a space for the students to exhibit their work or give the students freedom to manage their own classroom’s situation as far as it does not make the room dirty. To increase the quality of English teachers, Department of National Education should give more seminars and trainings on alternative assessments (their importance and benefits) to make the English teachers’ knowledge and teaching practice better. Finally, any further research is suggested to know the implementation of alternative assessment in different schools, teachers, and even cities