Student perceptions of changes in the mode of instruction used by teachers who use alternative assessment techniques and changes in student attitudes and beliefs about mathematics after experiencing alternative assessment were studied. Eighteen teachers surveyed their elementary school and secondary school students three times during the school year to measure attitudes about mathematics and participation in classroom activities. At time 1, there were 387 students, with 384 students at time 2 and 137 students at time 3. An attitude score and traditional and non-traditional classroom activity scores were the dependent variables in a repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). Traditional activities were things such as watching the teacher and textbook problems. Non-traditional activities included working in groups and having students make up their own problems. Gender, ethnicity, and ability were blocking variables in a two-way ANOVA. For attitude, there were significant main effects for teacher, time of observation, and ability. Attitudes improved over the year, as did non-traditional activities. There were significant main effects for all groups except ability. Girls, African Americans, Hispanics, and students in the lower and upper grades reported more involvement in classroom activities than did boys, Anglo Americans, and seventh and eighth graders. Five tables and seven figures illustrate the findings. The student survey is also included. (Contains 16 references.) (SLD)