Performance Based Assessment Lindsay Archambault Carolyn Gould Jennifer Tinson Learning is complex. Assessments should be, too.

What are performance-based assessments? Authentic assessment where students are expected to demonstrate or perform a relevant, meaningful, or real-world task. Tasks used in performance-based assessment include essays, oral presentations, open-ended problems, hands-on problems, real-world simulations and other authentic tasks. Examples: Art work, documentary reports, experiments, games, inventions, journals, letters, maps, model construction, musical compositions, oral reports, plays, poetry, photos, puppet shows, recipes, scale models, story boards, performances, science experiments,etc...

Examples of performance based testing currently used professionally Medical internships DMV driving test Teacher education internships

What Does The Research Say? Research suggests that learning how and where information can be applied should be a central part of all curricular areas. Also, students exhibit greater interest and levels of learning when they are required to organize facts around major concepts and actively construct their own understanding of the concepts in a rich variety of contexts. Performance assessment requires students to structure and apply information, and thereby helps to engage students in this type of learning. Increased engagement in learning and strong performance on performanced based assessment better prepares students for real world tasks. Facilitate assiting students in learning instead of only measuring what the students have not mastered. Have the capacity to enable deeper learning and promote reasoning skills.

Pro's for Performance Based Assesment Performance assessments are able to assess higher order thinking skills. Performance assessments are engaging and allow the instructor to assess and address students needs immediately. Students assess their own knowledge and progress and are more responsible for their learning and education. Research indicates that performance based assessment provides a more accurate view of what students actually understand and can do. Performance based assessment meets the needs of the NCLB mandate better that standardized testing since it measures higher order thinking skills (NCLB, Sec 1111, b, I, vi= “multiple up-to-date measures of student academic achievement, including measures that assess higher-order thinking skills and understanding”).

Florida Performance Assessment System for Students with Disabilities Identify instructional goals Develop instructional and assessment activities Develop rubric for scoring performance Create form(s) for tracking student performance Develop a rating scale for reporting student performance Florida Alternate Assessment: Based on SSS Access Points and designed for students with significant cognitive disabilities who cannot take the FCAT

Cons of Standardized Assessment Standardized assessment narrows the academic curriculum and experiences of students. Standardized tests focus on low level thinking skills. Over reliance on standardized testing could be a major contributing factor in why the US has such low international educational rankings. Wrote memorization provides less opportunity for long term recall. Mass implementation of standardized assessment has led to higher drop out rates, decline of teacher professionalism, and the trivializing of curriculum. Standardized tests cannot take into consideration non-school factors that can affect learning such as poverty, safety, or student mobility.

References: Bennett, E. (2008). Performance-based Assessment. Utah State University. Sweet, David. (1993). Peformance Assessment. Education Research Consumer Guide. Wood, G., Darling-Hammond, L., Neill, M., & Roschewski, P. (2007) Refocusing accountability: Using local performance assessments to enhance teaching and learning for higher order thinking skills Florida. Performance Assessment System for Students with Disabilities:Introductory.Revised. Tallahassee:State of Florida, X

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