Assessment Model: Performance-Based

What is performance-based assessment? Assessments requiring reasoning about recurring issues, problems and concepts that apply in both academic and practical situations. Students actively engage in generating complex responses requiring integration of knowledge and strategies, not just use of isolated facts and skills.

Is performance-based assessment formal or informal? Performance-based assessments are a type of formal assessment because following the set procedure in completing the project necessitates a conscious effort for the student to meet the requirements of the rubric.

Are performance-based assessments formative or summative? Performance-based assessments can be formative or summative. Assessments can be summative if the final product is assessed. It would be formative, if several assessments were made at designated development stages of an extended project or product.

Are performance-based assessments quantitative or qualitative? Performance-based assessments are qualitative. Students are asked to demonstrate the behavior that the assessor wants to measure.

What types of learning objectives can performance-based assessments address? Problem solving and understanding. Tasks such as essays, oral presentations, open-ended problems, hands-on problems, real-world simulations and other authentic tasks will be used to meet the objectives. 

What teaching and learning strategies will performance-based assessments address? Performance-based assessment is sometimes characterized as assessing real life, with students assuming responsibility for self-evaluation.  Testing is "done" to a student, while performance assessment is done by the student as a form of self-reflection and self-assessment.  The overriding philosophy of performance-based assessment is that teachers should have access to information that can provide ways to improve achievement, demonstrate exactly what a student does or does not understand, relate learning experiences to instruction, and combine assessment with teaching.

How do you gather and evaluate data on student learning with performance-based assessments? Very little inference is required on the part of the assessor to determine the student's level of ability & learning. Also, the quality of students' work will range across a continuum because the tasks students must do requires that students use their judgment to complete the task. It is often the case that this judgment is what is being measured. To score the work requires the use of a rubric which describes the range across the quality continuum, and a comparison of the student work to the levels on that rubric.

What types of decisions could be made and implemented based on this type of assessment? The underlying concept is that the student should produce evidence of accomplishment of curriculum goals which can be maintained for later use as a collection of evidence to demonstrate achievement, and perhaps also the teacher's efforts to educate the child.

What methods of assessment are appropriate for this tool? Performances, portfolios, and projects can be used for both formative and summative assessment.

How do you facilitate the evaluation of the learner's knowledge and skills with performance-based assessments? Scoring of the assessment involves teacher judgment based on stated criteria for performance. The assessment asks a student to perform or produce to demonstrate knowledge and skills. Such assessments will not have one right answer, but instead will result in student work which is across a range of quality. The assessment requires that the student engage in a task of multiple parts or steps.

EmTech Technologies. Alternative/Performance-Based Assessment. Accessed 7-28-04. http://www.emtech.net/Alternative_Assessment.html