Designing Meaningful

Performance-Based
Assessment
• Defining the Purpose of Assessment:
• The first step in designing performance-based
assessment is to define the purpose of assessment.
Defining the purpose and target of assessment
provides information on what students need to be
performed in a task given. By identifying the
purpose, teachers are able to easily identify the
weaknesses and strengths of the students’
performance. Purpose must be specified at the
beginning of the process so that the proper kinds of
performance criteria and scoring procedures can
be established. Basic questions which teachers ask
in determining possible learning competencies to
be considered are listed below.
• Basically, the teacher should
select those learning targets
which can be assessed by
performance which fits to the
plan along with the assessment
techniques to be utilized for
measuring other complex skills
and performance.
• Four Types of Learning Targets Used in
Performance Assessment
• In defining the purpose of assessment,
learning targets must be carefully
identify and taken in consideration.
Performance assessments primarily use
four types of learning targets which are
deep understanding. reasoning, skills,
and products (McMillan, 2007),
• Deep Understanding
• The essence of performance assessment
includes the development of students’ deep
understanding. The idea is to involve
students meaningfully in hands-on activities
to extended periods of time so that their
understanding is rich and more extensive
than what can be attained by more
conventional instruction and traditional
paper-and-pencil assessments. This focuses
on the use of knowledge and skills.
• Reasoning
• Reasoning is essential with
performance assessment as the
students demonstrate skills and
construct products. Typically, students
are given a problem to solve or ar:
asked to make a decision or other
outcome, such as a letter to the editor
or schor newsletter; based on
information that is provided.
• Skills
• In addition to logical and
reasoning skills, students are
required to demonstrate
communication, presentation,
and psychomotor skills. These
targets are ideally ‘ m to
performance assessment.
• Psychomotor Skills:
• Psychomotor skills describe clearly the physical
action required for a given tasks. These may be
developmentally appropriate skills or skills that are
needed for specific tasks: fine motor skills (holding a
pen, focusing a microscope, and using scissors gross
motor actions (jumping and lifting), more complex
athletic skills (shooting basketball or playing soccer),
some visual skills, and verbal / auditory skills for yo
children. These skills also identify the level at which
the skill is to be performed.
• Products
• Are completed works, such
as term papers, projects,
and other assignments in
which students use their
knowledge and skills.
• Process and Product-Oriented Performance-
Based Assessments
• In defining the purpose of assessment, the
teacher should identify whether the students will
have to demonstrate a process or a product. if
the learning outcomes deal on the procedures
which you could specify, then it focuses on
process assessment, in assessing the process, it is
essential also that assessment should be done
while the students are performing the
procedures or steps.
• Usually, the learning objectives start
with a general competency which is
the main target of the task, and it
follows with specific competencies
which are observable on th target
behavior or competencies. This can
be observed also in defining the
purpose of assessment for product-
oriented performance-based
assessment.
• Sometimes, even though you teach specific
process the learning outcomes simply
implies that the major focus is product that
the student produces. Nitko (2011)
suggested focusing assessment on the
product students produce if most or all of
the evidence abou their achievement of the
learning targets is found in the product
itself, and little or none of the evidence you
need to evaluate students is found in the
procedures they use or the way in which
they perform.
• Assessment of products must be
done if the students will produce
a variety of better ways to
produce high quality products,
sometimes, method or sequence
does not make difference as long
as the product’ is the focus of the
assessment.
• Product-oriented competencies
require students to demonstrate
multiple levels of metacognitive skills
which require the use of complex
procedural skills for creating
authentic product. The discussion on
the steps of designing performance-
based assessment shall be focused on
the process and product
assessments.
• Identifying Performance Tasks
• Having a clear understanding of the
purpose of assessment, the next step is
to identify performance tasks which
measure the learning target you are
about to assess. Some targets imply
that the tasks should be structured;
others require unstructured tasks.
Below are some questions that should
be answered in designing tasks:
• What ranges of tasks do the learning targets imply?
• Which parts of the tasks should be structured, and
to what degree?
• Does each task require students to perform all the
important elements implied by the learning targets?
• Do the tasks allow me to assess the achievement
dimensions 1 need to assess?
• What must l tell students about the task and its
scoring to communicate to them what they need to
perform? o Will students with different ethnic and
social backgrounds interpret my task appropriately?
(Nitko 2011)
• Tasks on the other hand should be
meaningful and must let the student he
personally involved in doing and creating
the tasks. This could be done by Selecting
a task which has personal meaning for
most of the students. Choose a task in
which students have the ability to
demonstrate knowledge and skills from
classroom activities or other similar ways.
These asks should be of high value, worth
teaching to, and worth learning as well.
• In creating performance tasks, one
should specify the learning targets, the
criteria by which you will evaluate
performance, and the instructions ‘for
completing the task. Include also the time
needed to complete the tasks. Be sure
students understand how long a response
you are expecting. Some learning targets
can be assessed in a relatively short
period of 20 to 30 minutes.
• But it also depends on the learning
targets which necessitate-a longer
time. Examples are conducting
opinion survey and gathering of data
for research which need more than
two weeks and done outside of the
class. With these activities. the
results can make a valid
generalization of how the students
achieved the learning target.
• Suggestions for Constructing
Performance Tasks
• The development of high-quality
performance assessments that
effectively measure complex learning
outcomes requires attention to task
development and to the ways in
which performances are rated. Linn
(1995) suggested ways to improve
the development of tasks:
• Focus on learning outcomes that require
complex cognitive skills and student
performances. Tasks need to be
developed or selected in light of
important learning outcomes. Since
performance-based tasks generally
require a substantial investment of
student time, they should be used
primarily to assess learning outcomes
that are not adequately measured by less
time-consuming approaches.
• Select or develop tasks that represent
both the content and the skills that are
central to important learning outcomes.
 It is important to specify the range of
content and resources students can use
in performing task. In any event, the
specification of assumed content
understandings is critical in ensuring that
a task functions as intended.
• Minimize the difference of task
performance on skills that are irrelevant
to the intended purpose of the
assessment task.  The key here is to
focus on the attention of the assessment.
Example is the ability to read complicated
texts and the ability to communicate
clearly are both important learning
outcomes, but they are not necessarily
the intent of a particular assessment
• Provide the necessary scaffolding for
students to be able to understand the tasks
and what is expected. Challenging tasks often
involve ambiguities and require students to
experiment, gather information, formulate
hypothesis, and evaluate their own progress in
solving a problem. However, problems cannot
be solved in a vacuum. Students need to have
a prior knowledge and skills required to
address the problem. These prerequisites can
be a natural outcome of prior instruction or
may be built into the task.
• Construct task directions so that the
student’s task is clearly indicated.
Vague directions can lead to such a
diverse array of performances that it
becomes impossible to rate them in a
fair or reliable fashion. By design, many
performance-based tasks give students
a substantial degree of freedom to
explore, approach problems in different
ways and come up with novel solution.
• Clearly communicate performance
expectations in terms of the criteria by
which the performances will be
judged.  Specifying the criteria to be
used in rating performance helps
clarify task expectations for a student.
Explaining the criteria that will be used
in rating performances not only
provides students with guidance on
how to focus their efforts, but helps to
convey priorities for learning outcomes.
• Developing Scoring Schemes
There are different useful ways to record the
assessment of students’ performance. Variety of
tools can be used for assessment depending on the
nature of the performance it calls for. As teacher,
you need to critically examine the task to be
performed matched with the assessment tools to be
utilized. Some ways of assessing the students’
performance could be the utilization of anecdotal
records, interviews, direct observations using
checklist or Likert scale, and the use of rubrics
especially for the performance-based assessment.
• Rubrics as an Assessment Tool
• Rubrics nowadays have been
widely used as assessment tool
n various d p me: most
especially in the field of
education. Different authorities
defined rubrics:
• Set of rules Specifying the criteria used to find out
what the students know and are able to do so. (Musial,
2009)
• Scoring tool that lays out Specific expectations for
assignment (Levy, 2005)
• A scoring guide that uses criteria to differentiate
between levels of student proficiency. (McMillan,
2007)
• Descriptive scoring schemes that are developed by
teachers or evaluators to guide the analysis of products
or processes of students’ effort (Brookhart. 1999).
• The scoring procedures for judging students’ responses
to performance tests (Popham, 2011)
• A rubric that’s used to score students’ responses to a
performance assessment has, at minimum, three important
features:
• Evaluative criteria. These are the factors to be used in
determining the quality of 3 students’ response.
• Descriptions of qualitative differences for evaluating
criteria. F012 each evaluative criterion, a description must
be supplied so qualitative distinctions in students’ responses
can be made using the criterion.
• An indication of whether a holistic or analytic scoring
approach is to be used. The rubric must indicate whether the
evaluative criteria are to be applied collectively in a form of
holistic scoring or on a criterion-by-criterion basis in the
form of analytic scoring. 
(Popham, 2011)
• Rubrics are used also to communicate
how teachers evaluate the essence of what
is being assessed. Rubrics not only
improve scoring consistency, they also
improve validity by clarifying the
standards of achievement the teacher will
use in evaluating. In the development and
scoring of rubrics, Nitko (2011) suggested
some questions which the teacher should
address:
• What important criteria and learning targets do l need to
asses?
• What are the levels of development (achievement) for
each of these criteria and learning targets?
• Should i use a holistic or an analytic scoring rubric?
• Do i need to use a rating scale or a checklist as my scoring
scheme?
• Should my students be involved in rating their own
performance?
• How can I make my scoring efficient and less time-
consuming?
• What do l need to record as the result of my assessments?
• What are some useful methods of recording students’
responses to performance tasks?
• Types of Rubrics
• The structure of the rubrics
changes when measuring
different learning targets
Generally, rubrics can be
classified into two major types:
analytic and holistic rubrics.
• Analytic Rubric.  it requires the teacher to list
and identify the major knowledge and skills
which are critical in the development of
process or product tasks. It identifies specific
and detailed criteria prior to assessment.
Teachers can assess easily the specific concept
understanding, Skills or product with a
separate component. Each criterion for this
kind of rubric receives a separate score, thus,
providing better diagnostic information and
feedback for the students as a form of
formative assessment.
• Holistic Rubric.
 It requires the teacher to make a judgment
about the overall quality of each student response.
Each category of the scale contains several criteria
which shall be given a single score that gives an
overall rating. This provides a reasonable summary
of rating in which traits are efficiently combined,
scored quickly and with only one score, thus,
limiting the precision of assessment of the results
and providing little specific information about the
performance of the students and what needs for
further improvement.
• Rubric Development
• Stevens and Levi s
introduction to Rubrics (2005)
enumerated the steps in
developing rubric. Basically,
rubrics are composed of task
description, scale, description
of dimensions
• Task Description
• Task description involves the
performance of the students. Tasks
can be taken from assignments,
presentations, and other classroom
activities. Usually, task
descriptions are being set in
defining performance tasks.
• Community Development
Task Description; Each student will make a
10-minute presentation on his / her observations,
experiences, analysis and interpretation of
developing community. Student may use his/her
own community as a sample and look into its
changes over the past 10 years. He / She may use
any form or any focus of presentation, but it’s a
must to have a thesis statement, not just an
exposition. The presentation should include table,
graphs, photographs, maps, landmarks, and
conclusions for the audience.
• Scale
The scale describes how well or
poorly any given task has been
performed and determine to what
degree the student has met a certain
criterion Generally, it is used to
describe the level of performance.
Below are some commonly used
labels compiled by Huba and Freed
• Sophisticated, competent, partly
competent, not yet competent
• Exemplary, proficient, marginal,
unacceptable
• Advanced, intermediate high,
intermediate, novice
• Distinguished, proficient, intermediate,
novice
• Accomplished, average, developing,
beginning