performance assessment

This issue is an online supplement to VUE 46, which addressed the topic of performance assessment – a personalized and rigorous alternative to standardized testing that allows teachers to build on individual students’ strengths and foster more equitable learning outcomes.   

VUE 47 adds...

There is growing interest among state and local educational leaders in using performance assessment to develop and assess students’ critical abilities—such as inquiry, communication, and collaboration—that are essential for student success but poorly measured by many traditional assessments. In...

Against a backdrop of the opportunities provided by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the challenges for education posed by the new federal administration, this issue of Voices in Urban Education (VUE) proposes performance assessment as a personalized and rigorous alternative to...

The purpose of this tool is twofold: (1) to more deeply understand the SCALE Quality Criteria for Performance Assessments by interacting with an actual performance assessment, and (2) to analyze a performance assessment.

The goal of this paper is to introduce the ways in which dimensions of engagement may be meaningfully incorporated into assessment tasks so that all students are more fully motivated to complete the tasks and perform them well.  This report begins with an overview of research on student...

This task was originally written as a Grade 7 Science, Technology and Society (STS) performance assessment. The STS Expository Essay task was developed to address current science education standards that encourage teachers to teach students how to use the Internet to locate reliable information...

This FairTest report describes how states can overhaul their assessment systems under the Innovative Assessment pilot program in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).  It shows policymakers how to:

• develop assessment systems that minimize standardized testing;
• enhance
...

This template for a performance assessment leads the user through the process of creating a complete curriculum-embedded performance task.

This report, one in a series to be released by Accomplished California Teachers (ACT), a group of National Board Certified Teachers, examines teacher evaluation.

This report offers our recommendations on making teacher evaluation a more useful tool to advance the quality of teaching...

This research paper finds that teacher candidates’ Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT) scores, a performance assessment that measures their capabilities as future teachers, are significant predictors of their later teaching effectiveness as measured by their students’...

In this report, Linda Darling-Hammond outlines an integrated approach for a teaching-career continuum and a professional development system that supports effectiveness for teachers at every stage of their careers. The report includes specific guidance about how performance assessments based on...

In this paper, Linda Darling-Hammond and Beverly Falk describe evidence of how student-performance assessments support teachers' learning from the United States and around the world, particularly in countries that have been recognized for their high-performing educational systems. The authors...

This paper from Linda Darling-Hammond, Gene Wilhoit, and Linda Pittenger recommends an accountability approach that focuses on meaningful learning, enabled by professionally skilled and committed educators, and supported by adequate and appropriate resources, so that all students are prepared...

A number of factors account for the failure of performance assessment to capture a large role in achievement testing in the U.S., and this history can inform educators and education policymakers looking for better ways to test students and schools in an era of standards-based accountability.  ...

In this article, David Conley focuses on how to assess meaningful learning in ways that promote student achievement while simultaneously meeting system accountability needs.  This article presents a vision for a new system of assessments, one designed to support the kinds of ambitious teaching...

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.  This particular resource examines why the use of test-based accountability to...

This paper is the culminating report of a Stanford University project aimed at summarizing research and lessons learned regarding the development, implementation, consequences, and costs of performance assessments.  The focus of this paper is outlines how schools must teach disciplinary...

This paper argues that halting testing won't fix flawed assessment and accountability systems.  Instead, the authors advocate improving the system of assessments to improve what is taught in school.  After outlining performance assessments, the paper outlines political and policy recommenations...

This paper by Linda Darling-Hammond and Ray Pecheone outlines a set of principles that are shared by the systems of high‐achieving nations as well as a number of high‐achieving states in the United States. These systems include the following:

• Assessments are grounded in a thoughtful,...

This paper authored by Anders Jonsson and Gunilla Svingby, investigates whether evidence for the benefits of rubrics can be found in the research literature.

Conclusions are that:

(1) the reliable scoring of performance assessments can be enhanced by the use of rubrics, especially...