PERFORMANCE

ASSESSMENT
1. Characteristics

2. Learning Targets
Learning Outcomes
◦ Identify the essential characteristics of performance assessments and under what
circumstances it would be appropriate to use a performance assessment to measure
student proficiency. Know the strengths and limitations of performance assessments.
◦ Write both restricted and extended performance tasks that are consistent with needed
elements of effective tasks.
◦ Understand the differences between checklists, rating scales, and rubrics; know when
it is best to use each type, and be able to identify effective and ineffective rubrics.
◦ Know the steps that are needed to develop effective rubrics; generate an example of
how each step was utilized in a novel rubric.
 What Is Performance Assessment?
• It involves a student’s demonstration of a skill or competency in creating a
product, constructing a response, or making a presentation (Lane, 2010).

• The term performance is shorthand for performance-based or performance-

and-product.

• Performance assessment simply applying the teaching/learning methods

used successfully for years in the adult world.
Characteristics of Performance Assessments

◦ Students explain, justify, and ◦ Students perform, create,

defend construct, produce, or do
◦ Students use reasoning skills something
◦ Uses engaging ideas of ◦ Use clear criteria and rubrics
importance and substance for scoring
◦ Typically no single correct ◦ Requires sustained work
answer
 Performance assessment sometimes used interchangeably with
alternative assessment and authentic assessment.

◦ Alternative assessment is any ◦ Authentic assessment involves the

method that differs from direct examination of a student’s ability
conventional paper-and-pencil tests, to use knowledge to perform a task that
is like what is encountered in real life or
most particularly objective tests.
in the real world.
◦ Authentic classroom assessment is
Examples: observations, excellent for motivating students— it
exhibitions, oral presentations, gets them engaged and requires
experiments, portfolios, interviews, application thinking skills. But like the
and projects. term performance assessment, what
constitutes authentic assessment varies.
• Frey, Schmitt, and Allen (2012) reviewed of over 100 sources claiming to be about
authentic assessment and found that there are many different conceptualizations.

• They discovered that while the idea of having a realistic, real-world task is essential,, the
literature stresses eight additional characteristics:

1. A performance-based task
2. A cognitively complex task
3. A defense of an answer or product
4. Formative
5. Includes collaboration with others
6. Known scoring criteria
7. Use of multiple indicators for scoring
8. A mastery, criterion-referenced orientation
Strengths and Limitations of Performance Assessments

STRENGTHS:
◦ Performance assessments are better suited to measure complex thinking
targets than are selected-response tests or simple constructed-response
items.
◦ Performance assessments is that multiple, specific criteria for judging
success are identified.
◦ Performance assessment motivates educators to explore the purposes and
processes of schooling. Because of the nature of the assessments, teachers
revisit their learning goals, instructional practices, and standards.
Strengths and Limitations of Performance Assessments

Limitations:
◦ reliability/ precision
◦ sampling
◦ time
Strengths and Weaknesses of Performance Assessments
Learning Targets for Performance Assessments
Four types of learning targets:
1.deep understanding involve in-depth, complex thinking about what is known and
application of knowledge and skills in novel and more sophisticated
2. reasoning ways

3. skills include student proficiency in reasoning, communication, and psychomotor tasks

are completed works, such as term papers, projects, and other assignments in
4.products which students use their knowledge and skills
 Learning Targets for Performance Assessments
1.Deep Understanding

oThe essence of performance assessment includes the development of students’

deep understanding of something.
oDeep understanding in performance assessments focuses on the use of
knowledge and skills.
oStudent responses are constructed in unique ways to demonstrate depth of
thought and subtleties of meaning in novel situations.
oStudents are asked to demonstrate what they understand through the
application of knowledge and skills.
 Learning Targets for Performance Assessments

2. Reasoning
oReasoning is essential with most performance assessments.
oStudents will use reasoning skills as they demonstrate skills and
construct products. Typically, students are given a problem to solve or
are asked to make a decision or other outcome, such as a letter to the
editor or school newsletter, based on information that is provided.
oThey use cognitive processes such as analysis, synthesis, critical
thinking, inference, prediction, generalizing, and hypothesis testing.
 Learning Targets for Performance Assessments

3. Skills
◦ In addition to reasoning skills, students are required to
demonstrate communication, presentation, and/or
psychomotor skills. These targets are ideally suited to
performance assessment. We’ll consider each one.
Examples of Skills:

1.Communication and Presentation Skills

◦ Learning targets focused on communication skills involve

student performance of reading, writing, speaking, and
listening.
 For reading, targets can be divided into process—what students do before, during, and after reading—and product—
what students get from the reading

 Reading targets for elementary students progress from targets such as phone- mic awareness skills (e.g., decoding,
phonological awareness, blending), to skills needed for comprehension and understanding (such as discrimination,
contextual cues, inference, blending, sequencing, and identifying main ideas).

 For effective performance assessment, each of these areas needs to be delineated as a specific target.

 More advanced reading skills include sensitivity to word meanings related to origins, nuances, or figurative
meanings; identifying contradictions; and identifying possible multiple inferences

 All reading targets should include the ability to perform a specific skill for novel reading materials. A variety of
formats should also be represented.
 Writing skill targets are also related to a student’s grade level. The emphasis for young students is
on their ability to construct letters and copy words and simple sentences legibly.
For writing complete essays or papers, elaborate delineations of skills have been developed.

Important dimensions of writing are used as categories, as illustrated in the following writing
targets:

Purpose Clarity of purpose; awareness of audience and task; clarity of ideas

Organization Unity and coherence

Details Appropriateness of details to purpose and support for main point(s) of writer’s response

Voice/tone Personal investment and expression

Usage, mechanics, and grammar Correct usage (tense formation, agreement, word choice), mechanics (spelling,
capitalization, punctuation), grammar, and sentence construction
 Oral communication skill targets can be generalized to many situations or focused on a specific type of
presentation, such as giving a speech, singing a song, speaking a foreign language, or competing in a
debate.
 When the emphasis is on general oral communication skills, the targets typically center on the following
three general categories (Russell & Airasian, 2012):

Physical expression Eye contact, posture, facial expressions, gestures, and body
movement

Vocal expression Articulation, clarity, vocal variation, loudness, pace, and rate

Verbal expression Repetition, organization, summarizations, reasoning,

completeness of ideas and thoughts, selection of appropriate
words to convey precise meanings
A more specific set of oral communication skill targets is illustrated in the following
guidelines for high school students1:

A. Speaking clearly, expressively, and audibly C. Developing ideas using appropriate support materials
1. Using voice expressively 1. Being clear and using reasoning
2. Speaking articulately and pronouncing processes
words correctly 2. Clarifying, illustrating, exemplifying,
3. Using appropriate vocal volume and documenting ideas
B. Presenting ideas with appropriate D. Using nonverbal cues
introduction, development, and conclusion 1. Using eye contact
1. Presenting ideas in an effective order 2. Using appropriate facial expressions,
2. Providing a clear focus on the central gestures, and body movement
idea E. Selecting language to a specific purpose
3. Providing signal words, internal 1. Using language and conventions appropriate
summaries, and transitions for the audience
 Examples of Skills:

2. Psychomotor Skills
Two steps in identifying psychomotor skill learning targets.
1. to describe clearly the physical actions that are required

five categories of
psychomotor skills
Examples of Skills:

2. Psychomotor Skills
Two steps in identifying psychomotor skill learning targets.
2. to identify the level at which the skill is to be performed
 One effective way to do this is to use an existing classification of the
psychomotor domain.
 This system is hierarchical.
Level 1 -there is guided response, which essentially involves imitating a
behavior or following directions.
Level 2 - students show more adaptability and origination, a greater ability
to show new actions and make adjustments as needed.
Learning Targets for Performance Assessments
4. Products
oPerformance assessment products are completed works.
oFor years, students have done papers, reports, and projects. What makes these
products different when used for performance assessment is that they are
more engaging and authentic, and they are scored more systematically with
clear criteria and standards.
 Learning Targets for Performance Assessments
4. Products
Example 1: Rather than having sixth graders report on a foreign country by
summarizing the history, politics, and economics of the country, students write
promotional materials for the country that would help others decide if it would
be an interesting place to visit.
Example 2:In chemistry, students are asked to identify an unknown
substance. Why not have them identify the substances from a local landfill,
river, or body of water?
Example 3:In music, students can demonstrate their proficiency and
knowledge by creating and playing a new song.
Performance Products and Skills Varying in Authenticity
As a learning target, each product needs to be clearly described in some detail so that there is no
misunderstanding about what students are required to do.

Insufficient to simply say, for example, “Write a report on one of the planets and present it to the
class.”

Specific elements of the product and how they will be evaluated.

Example: length, types of information needed, nature of the audience, context, materials that can be used,
what can be shown to the audience
Show examples of completed projects to students.
These are not meant to be copied, but they can be used to communicate standards and expectations. If the
examples can demonstrate different levels of proficiency, so much the better.
 A good way to generate products is to think about what people in different occupations do.
What does a city planner do? What would an expert witness produce for a trial? How does a mapmaker
create a map that is easy to understand? What kinds of stories does a newspaper columnist write? How
would an advertising agent represent state parks to attract tourists?