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We talked before about the need of authentic assessment. Some children can demonstrate their understanding of a subject through an essay, project or discussion but may not be able to on a test. We should give our students to have many opportunities to demonsrate comprehension. On the other hand  we talked before that formal assessments provide documentation that can't be argued with. If an administrator walked in to Paul's lesson with another teacher and asked Paul and the other teacher to assess the students their results will be different.

   It seems when you go out of the box and try to better meet your students needs you need to be able to defend yourself. Paul would have had to explain to the administrator or to the upset parent how he assessed  this lesson with no documentation. It can be a frustring experience.

   We also spoke earlier about how a multiplication test might limit and put bounds of a students learning. Inquiry is learning through questioning and the more students question the more you learn. A student who is inquiring and exploring may not go in the direction of the written assessment. It would be hard to rationalize how a formal assesment gives students freedom to explore.