Policy & Research

The purpose of this paper is to present findings regarding the reliability and validity of the performance based assessments used in the state pilot, including the results of three sets of studies: 1) Generalizability studies; 2) Regression analyses to ascertain the relationships between...

This paper is one of eight written through a Stanford University project aimed at summarizing research and lessons learned regarding the development, implementation, consequences, and costs of performance assessments. 

As the paper shows, the bulk of the costs for any assessment system...

This paper offers a retrospective research study of performance assessment initiatives beginning in the 1990s up to today.  The study addresses three specific questions: 

• What were the conditions that helped sustain some of the programs? 

• What were the challenges that led to...

This paper by Raymond L. Pecheone and Stuart Kahl describes efforts by states to use performance assessment in large-scale state accountability systems and highlights promising practices that can a basis for broadening how the nation approaches assessement and accountability. Lessons from...

This report by Ace Parsi and Linda Darling-Hammond is intended to familiarize state boards of education with performance assessments and help policymakers address some of the thorniest issues around these assessments: purpose, sustainability, reliability, accountability, policy...

In this paper, David Miller and Robert Linn outline six aspects of construct validation to guide the validation of performance based assessments: content, substantive, structural, generalizability, external, and consequential. Each aspect is discussed, with the focus on studies that could be...