Authentic Assessments

Can authentic assessments be used in every subject area?  I think that some subject areas lend themselves easier to authentic assessments than others.  To me, those  that are more of a "hands-on" environment seem to dictate assessments that are authentic or performance based such as most vocational classes and the arts. What about our traditional science, math, language and social studies classes?  I believe that authentic assessments can be used in all with proper teacher training and time to develop or find already-made such assessments.  Ideally, an authentic assessment will allow students to show mastery of a given topic or skill, but more than likely mastery of several items throughout the assessment.  For me in Algebra 1 class, I have used a few authentic assessments and I really like that students showcase their learning.  I find though, that for a lot of students, they find these assessments very difficult because of the levels of thinking and application involved.  Even those that I would consider top level students at times struggle.  They simply want to complete a task just to get it done, not slowing down to think and synthesize or even determine how to approach the situation.  It seems that Indiana will be using more of these on our state assessments as we are told that more questions with a depth of knowledge (DOK) level 3 will be used in the state standardized testing for math.  So, probably not only math teachers, but all teachers should use some performance assessments to help students gain confidence and practice such skills.