| Summary: | The alternative assessment has led to several changes in the philosophy of evaluation
on students' academic achievement. This new trend of assessment attempts to measure
students' academic performance in real situation as close as possible, simulating reality,
monitoring their responses and, emphasize on their comprehensive and integrated
development. Notwithstanding the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher
Education (MEl-ill) tries to adopt alternative assessment at elementary schools in Gaza,
there is still lack of government policy on its implementation and many schools are still
practicing the traditional approach of assessment. The implementation of assessment at
schools is still focusing on the cognitive aspect rather than giving more comprehensive
attention involving other aspects of students' growth. Besides, many teachers are still
lacking of awareness and understanding about the concept, principles and practices of
alternative assessment. Therefore, this study aimed to measure the relationship among
teachers' perception on alternative assessment, teachers' alternative assessment
strategy, and students' academic achievement as well as to measure the mediation
impact of teachers' alternative assessment strategy on student's academic achievement.
This inferential study employed quantitative method by using questionnaire as the
research instrument. It used simple random sampling technique involving 120 teachers
from elementary schools in Gaza. The collected data were analyzed through taristical
package for social science (SPSS) 20.0 using Pearson correlation test to measure the
relationship among variables, and using multiple linear regression analysis to measure
the mediation impact of teachers , alternative assessment strategy on students' academic
achievement. This study found that there is a strong positive significant relationship
between: teachers' perception and teachers' alternative assessment strategy, teachers'
perception and students' academic achievement, as well as teachers' alternative
assessment strategy and students' academic achievement. The findings also showed that
teachers' alternative assessment strategy has contributed a strong significant impact as
a mediator on students' academic achievement. The outcomes of this study contribute
to the body of knowledge on the effectiveness of alternative assessment strategies in
improving students' academic achievement at elementary schools in Gaza. MERE
should establish a clear and comprehensive policy on the implementation of alternative
assessment at elementary schools, the teachers have to increase their knowledge, skills
as well as practices of alternative assessment to ensure balanced achievement and
comprehensive development of the students.
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