Designing Performance Assessments: Challenges for the Three-Story Intellect

Jo Anne Wangsatorntanakhun

Redeemer International School Thailand,  Bangkok, Thailand

Introduction

Performance assessment is a dynamic process calling for students to be active participants, who are learning even while they are being assessed. No longer is assessment perceived as a single event. "The purpose of assessment is to find out what each student is able to do,with knowledge, in context," writes Grant Wiggins (1997, p. 20). To challenge the three-story intellects in our classrooms teachers must also seek out that same illumination which "comes from above the skylight." Our challenge is therefore to create engaging and meaningful assessment tasks.

To assist teachers in designing performance assessment tasks, this article defines performance assessment; provides links to some pertinent internet resources; reviews the design process; and provides templates and models for developing assessment tasks and criteria for the classroom. All the models provided were designed for and implemented in a grade ten English class at Ruamrudee International School.

Defining Performance Assessment

The term which formally describes this type of testing is performance assessment (Allen, n.d.). As such, it is an umbrella term that embraces both alternative assessment and authentic assessment. The term alternative assessment was coined to distinguish it from what it was not: traditional paper-and-pencil testing.There are even now distinctions within performance assessment, a distinction which refers to the fact that some assessments are meaningful in an academic context whereas others have meaning and value in the context of the real world, hence they are authentic.

Performance assessment is a continuum of assessment formats which allows teachers to observe student behavior ranging from simple responses to demonstrations to work collected over time (Rudner & Boston, n.d.). Performance assessments have two parts: a clearly defined task and a list of explicit criteria--a rubric--for assessing student performance or product. Performance assessment is built upon these four assumptions:

1. Knowledge is Constructed

   Research tells us that students show greater interest and perform at higher levels of learning when they are required to organize facts around major concepts and then actively construct their own understanding of those concepts. They also retain knowledge better. Active participation is the key to all performance assessments.

2. The Task is Worthwhile

   According to Sweet (1993), the ideal performance task is "inherently instructional, actively engaging students in worthwhile learning activities." Performance tasks are therefore open-ended and assess an array of knowledge and skills related to the curriculum. Thus the curriculum powers the test, not the other way around.

3. Better Assessments Improve Teaching

   Assessment's overall purpose is "to provide valid information for decision making."(Kulieke, et al, 1990) When teachers prepare students for a performance task, they must carefully describe the task and the standards that will be used to evaluate performance. When teachers are informed of the learning progress and difficulties of their students they can then make better decisions about content and instruction (Fuchs, 1995).

4. Meeting Criteria Improves Learning

   Students should be active participants in their own learning. They perform better when they know what goals they are working towards, when they have the opportunity to examine models of excellence, and when they understand how their own performance compares to a set of established criteria (McTighe, 1997).

Work that Matters: Performance Assessment and the Curriculum

Wiggins (1990) writes that "the best tests always teach students and teachers alike the kind of work that most matters; they are enabling and forward-looking, not just reflective of prior teaching." The main goals of performance assessment are to gather data on students that focus on growth over time rather than comparing them with each other; to focus on what they know rather than on what they don't; and to meet the needs of diverse learning styles, cultural backgrounds, and proficiency levels (Tannenbaum, 1996).

The following articles and resources are a sampling from the internet to show how performance assessment is presented in each curricular area.

• Elementary and Early Childhood Education

  A Developmental Approach to the Assessment of Young Children

  The Portfolio and Its Use: Developmentally Appropriate Assessment of Young Children

• ESL and Second Language Study

  Practical Ideas on Alternative Assessment for ESL Students - suggests a variety of alternative assessment strategies.

  Alternative Assessment and Second Language Study - states implications of authentic alternative assessment.

  Using Alternative Assessment with English Language Learners: References and Resources

• English/Language Arts

  Towards Authentic Writing Assessment - reflects various types of writing as well as levels of complexity.

  Open-Ended Questions in Reading - requires complex thinking and multiple solutions.

  Portfolios: Assessment in Language Arts - presents issues, purposes, goals of portfolio assessment.

• Mathematics

  Tasks: Mathematics Assessment Resource Service - sample performance assessment tasks for elementary, middle, and high school mathematics.

  Authentic Assessment in Mathematics Home Page - contains articles, case studies, examples, lesson plans for Grades 5-12.

• Physical Education

  Assessment Tasks in PE - includes exemplars of PE assessment tasks

• Science

  Assessing Student Performance in Science - focuses on aligning assessment and instruction for the purpose of monitoring learning progress.

  Performance Assessment for Science Teachers - presents exemplars for performance assessment in science.

• Social Studies

  Alternative Assessment: Implications for K-12 Social Studies

  Trends in K-12 Social Studies

• Special Needs

  Using Performance Assessment in Outcomes-Based Accountability Systems - presents considerations for assessing students with disabilities.

• Portfolios in the Classroom

  Electronic Portfolios in the K-12 Classroom

  Portfolios for Assessment and Instruction - guides teachers through the uses of portfolios.

Designing Performance Assessment Tasks and Criteria

A well designed performance assessment task begins with the identification of outcomes. Outcomes which are developed from the adopted standards and benchmarks align the assessment of the performance task with the curriculum. Improved alignment of curricular outcomes and assessment leads to more effective methods of instruction. Thus performance assessment demands accountability, prompting schools to focus on important performance-based outcomes and providing sound data on achievement. (Rudner & Boston, n.d.)

Assessment tasks can relate to real-life experiences, make connections to personal experiences, and require demonstrations of competency and mastery. Ideas for assessment tasks can come from the text, the curriculum, current events, literature, the arts, reference books, even realia such as advertising circulars and menus.

After the task is created, the assessment criteria are developed. Their purpose is to link the curriculum to the assessment task. In order to design effective assessment criteria, consideration should be given to the intended user. They should clearly communicate the standards of achievement.

Assessment criteria are designed to be either:

• product related, for example, a lab report on a photosynthesis experiment;
• content specific, for example, a research project on Japanese American relocation camps; or
• task specific, for example, writing an essay with a thesis statement.

Creating assessment criteria focuses attention on particular student behaviors that are measurable and observable. They reveal the expectations of the teacher to students thereby encouraging them to become independent learners who can create quality work and who have the capacity for improvement.

There are two ways of formatting assessment criteria. Possibly the most familiar format is the rubric. A rubric can be either analytic or holistic (Betts, 1997). Rubrics are generally formatted as a matrix with performance levels and indicators for each level of performance. When exemplars of student work are provided, a rubric is most useful in helping students identify and apply the standards of excellence.Student self-assessments should not be included in their grades since the practice can compromise students' honesty. Heidi Goodrich (1997, p. 17) points out that the true purpose of self- and peer-assessment is "to help students learn more and produce better final products."

Advice for Getting Started

According to Stephen Elliott (1995) "Teachers can use performance assessment to obtain a much richer and more complete picture of what students know and are able to do." The best place for teachers to start is with projects and activities already in use. Adapt these into performance-based tasks by connecting the content, skills, and habits of mind to the real world. (See Recommendations for Teachers)

Does every task have to be authentic? Like building a toothpick bridge in physics, some tasks will always be models of the real world and others will exist for the joy of doing, like writing a sonnet. Models of K-12 classroom-tested performance assessment tasks can be found in A Teacher's Guide to Performance-Based Learning and Assessment. (Hibbald, et al, 1996) These exemplars demonstrate performance assessment in different disciplines and with interdisciplinary approaches in both authentic and academic contexts. For those who are beginning designing performance assessment tasks, the criteria are outlined in Developing Performance Assessment Tasks

To assess these responses that students construct from performance assessment tasks teachers will need more sophisticated instruments than an answer key. In order to make reliable judgments, Arter and McTighe (2000, p. 3)assert we will need "high quality performance criteria that help us focus in on the most telling aspects of performance" which must be consistent with teacher expectations and applied systematically across a range of student work. These assessment criteria or rubrics can be developed from the standards and benchmarks adopted in each subject area. The best criteria for assessing student achievement are those which are teacher-developed and tailored to measure classroom expectations.

Good teachers draw on and synthesize discipline-based knowledge, knowledge of student learning, and knowledge of child development. They use a variety of instructional strategies, from direct instruction to coaching, to involve their students in meaningful activities . . . and to achieve specific learning goals. (Herman, Aschbacher, & Winters in Rudner & Boston)

 
 

Jo Anne Wangsatorntanakhun

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Copyright Jo Anne Wangsatorntanakhun 1997-2007

updated:  November 18, 2007

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