Assessment is often used to hold schools and teachers accountable for student learning. Assessment instruments are used as tools to guide curriculum choices and lesson plans, from districts to individual students. In any discipline, knowing what students know and what they have learned following a lesson is important on multiple levels. This is especially true in subjects like science. Despite recommendations from many leading early childhood education authorities, short answer, paper-and-pencil type, tests often prevail for young learners across many subject areas. This type of assessment may not provide all students with the opportunities needed to fully articulate what they'e learned. This study examined two contexts of assessment following a science investigation, in a second-grade classroom -- existing teacher-driven tests and an interview, or narrative, approach to assessment. The teacher-driven test was a one-dimensional, multiple-choice, test. The post-lesson interview was an open-ended interview where student participants were asked to tell a story about what they learned in science. During the interview, students were provided with an opportunity to use various other "languages" to share what was learned. Although the teacher-driven test proved to be a successful assessment "language" for some students, the post-lesson interview empowered more students to express what they learned with more detail. The post-lesson interview also showed that this type of assessment context has the potential to provide useful feedback on lesson quality, future science investigations, and individual student interests. This study also applied an innovative approach to the assessment data by pairing the teacher-driven test "with" the post-lesson interview. Among other positive results, this unique pairing raised teacher-driven test scores from below average, to above average. This research demonstrated that one-dimensional assessments fail to capture everything students learn. Future research should focus on the creation and application of assessments that allow students to use their preferred assessment "language." [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]