PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS Measurement & Assessment: Chapter 8

Essential Questions: What are performance assessments? How can performance assessments be used in my discipline? What are the elements of valid and useful performance assessments? How do I design useful and valid performance assessments?

Learning Objectives: Define and give examples of performance assessments. Explain why performance assessments have become popular in schools in recent years. Describe differences in the ways educators define performance assessments and identify some characteristics common to most definitions.

Learning Objectives Describe the principles involved with developing effective performance assessments. Develop effective performance assessments for a given content area. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of performance assessments.

Learning Objectives: Describe the principles involved w/ developing effective portfolio assessments. Develop effective portfolios for a given content area. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of portfolios.

Performance Assessment What is Performance Assessment? Are there certain subjects that lend themselves more easily to Performance Assessment?

Performance Assessment How would you use Performance Assessment with your discipline? Come up with three strategies for assessing performance that might be useful in your future classroom.

Performance Assessment Performance assessments more closely reflect real-life settings and applications than traditional paper and pencil assessments. Actual Performance Assessment: Ex: driver’s license examination.

Performance Assessment: Analogue Performance Assessment: Ex: simulations, Renaissance Fair, etc. Artificial Performance Assessment: Ex: Create a week’s worth of menus.

Performance Assessment: Responsible Assessment practices are: Evaluative, reflective, and supported (Strong, Silver, and Perini, 2001) Relevant to Content: adding to student knowledge and act as a motivating factor.

Performance Assessment Higher-Order Thinking Skills: contains higher- order thinking skills such as application, evaluation, and synthesis. Collaborative in Nature: integration w/ content areas (and colleagues) make the assignment richer and more meaningful.

Authentic Assessment Characteristics: Big Ideas, rather than micro-facts In-depth, leading to other questions Feasible, w/in a school or classroom Interactions between teacher and students

Authentic Assessment Characteristics: Multiple ways to demonstrate learning Allow individual learning styles, interests Involve cooperation, self/peer evaluation Scoring focuses on essence of task Calls on professional judgment of assessor.

Categories of Authentic Assessment:  Investigation: follows investigative process for problem solving:  (a) identification of problem  (b) statement of problem  (c) plans for investigation  (d) evaluation of the results of the investigation w/ future plan of action.  Ex: Science Projects  Research: analysis of a wide range of complex issues. Ex: Thesis

Types of Performance Assessment: Portfolios: A systematic collection of artifacts that display the abilities and successes of the creator. Gathered to show growth and accomplishment. Assessment Tool. How might you use portfolios within your own area of discipline to illustrate student growth and accomplishment?

Types of Performance Assessment: Product: represents as nearly as possible a real-world application of specific learning. Ex: essays, novels, art, lectures, articles, books, compositions, models, plays, designs, dances, interviews, videotapes, maps, diagrams, blueprints, newspapers, diaries, surveys, interviews, study cards, photographs, experiments, mobiles, etc.

Types of Performance: Assessment   Student Products good assessment tools:  Demonstrate originality, knowledge.  Reflect growth not seen in formal tests.  Engage students differently, connect to real life, memorable.  Share ‘concrete products’ w/ community.  Integration of skills.  Thoughtful, creative work.  Permit students to work cooperatively. (Shurr, Thomason, and Thompson, 1995)

Types of Performance Assessment: Presentations: Oral presentation in front of peers, teacher, group, community. Ex: Teaching, role-playing, skits, television shows, movies, advertisements. Other examples? Uses critical thinking skills to process information before it is presented.

Selecting Appropriate Performance Tasks: Select performance tasks that provide most direct assessment of educational objectives you wish to measure. Select performance tasks that maximize you ability to generalize the results of the assessment. Select performance tasks that reflect essential skills.

Selecting Performance Tasks: Select performance tasks that encompass more than one learning objective. Select performance tasks that focus your evaluation on the processes/products you are most interested in.

Performance Assessment: Select performance tasks that provide a desired degree of realism. Select performance tasks that measure skills that are ‘teachable’.

Selecting Performance Tasks: Select performance tasks that are fair to all students. Select performance tasks that can be assessed with time and resources available. Select performance tasks that can be scored reliably. Select performance tasks that can’t be assessed using traditional measures.

Measuring Performance: Rubrics: display scoring standards for authentic assessments to assist students in planning their projects to meet highest standards. Rubrics and be designed to be very specific to class or individual needs. Checklists: Have a scale for evaluation, do not describe behavior in detail.

Theoretical Roots: John Dewey (1916): learning takes place when students are involved in authentic experiences that allow the application of facts to demonstrate understanding. Constructing learning, leads to understanding. Learning through doing. Exploration of environments, solving real-world problems.

Theoretical Roots: Wiggins & McTighe, Build consensus about how students learn Commit to teaching for deep understanding. Design ‘backwards’ to ‘unpack’ your standards. Create overarching & topical understandings. Identify declarative and procedural knowledge Use a range of assessment tools. Promote application using culminating projects Promote ‘understanding’ through instruction Use Peer Coaching and Action Research

Theoretical Roots: Howard Gardner (1983+) Authentic assessment w/ multiple intelligences: Linguistic, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, naturalist, philosopher, self- knowledge, other-knowledge. Importance of reflection on improving future behaviors and performances.

Performance /Authentic Assessment: Application of knowledge to gain a greater and deeper understanding. Assignments mirror life problems. Assessment becomes a way to measure student’s understanding and to assist in future plans for student.

Performance: Authentic Assessment Assessment should primarily support the needs of learners (Wiggins, 1990) Authentic tasks and assessments provide clarity and meaning to students. (Ibid.)

Strengths: Performance assessments can measure abilities that are not assessable in other ways. Use of performance assessments is consistent w/ modern learning theory.

Performance Assessment: Strengths Use of performance assessments may result in better instruction. Performance assessments may be more meaningful and motivating to students.

Strengths: Performance assessments allow you to assess process as well as products. Use of performance assessments broadens your approach to assessment.

Weaknesses: Scoring performance assessments in a reliable manner is difficult. Performance assessments provide limited sampling of the content domain, making it difficult to generalize about student skills.

Weaknesses: There are practical limitations that may restrict the use of performance assessments.

Portfolio Development: Decide on the purpose of the portfolio. Decide what types of items will be places in the portfolio: best work? Growth or learning process? Etc. Decide who will select the items to include in the portfolio.

Portfolio Development: Establish procedures for evaluating or scoring the portfolio. Promote student involvement in process.