Performance Assessment

Assessment of student performance is emerging as a crucial ingredient in the recipe for on-going improvement of school science. As programmatic change is occurring, there is a need to align student assessment practices with curricular aims, instructional practices, and performance standards. In the words of Iris Carl (1993), “What we teach must be valued; what we test is what must be taught.”

Before considering alternative approaches to assessing student performance, it is important to consider the various functions that assessment serves. Various reasons for assessing student performance have been described in both specific and general terms, with distinctions being made between assessment for reporting purposes and for purposes of diagnosis and program evaluation.

On assessment in the service of instruction, its purpose is to help students, teachers and parents monitor learning (Haury, 1993). Assessment plays an important part in the learning process, having both formative and summative aspects. Formative assessment involves the use of assessment as a diagnostic tool so teachers may appropriately cater for the individual needs of their students and so students can determine their areas of strengths and weaknesses, celebrating their strengths and giving greater attention to improving their weaknesses. Summative assessment is used to report progress, for certification, for accountability or for monitoring (Caygil & Eley, 2001).

But educational reforms in the recent years resulted to changing theories of learning, changes in curricula, changes in technology, and changes in assessment practices. Current reform in assessment is to view it as a means to improve and systematically help students to self-correct (educate) their performance and not merely “audit” or measure learning as most school tests currently do (Religioso, 2002).

Performance assessment is one of the newest forms of testing that requires students to perform a task rather than select an answer from a ready-made list. Rudner and Boston as cited by Wangsatorntanakhun defined performance assessment as a continuum of assessment formats which allows teachers to observe student behavior ranging from simple responses to demonstrations to work collected over time.

According to Jorgensen (1993) as cited by Haury (1993), performance assessment is a form of test that requires the student to complete, demonstrate, or perform the actual behavior of interest. Brualdi (2000) cited Hibbard et. al (1996) on their definition of performance assessment as a set of strategies for the application of knowledge, skills, and work habits through the performance of tasks that are meaningful and engaging to students. This type of assessment provides teachers with information about how a student understands and applies knowledge (Brualdi, 2000). In performance assessment, a student may be asked to explain historical events, generate scientific hypotheses, solve math problems, converse in a foreign language, or conduct research on an assigned topic. This new form of assessment is most widely used to directly assess writing ability based on text produced by students under test instructions. Some of the methods that have been successfully used in assessing performance are: open-ended or extended response exercises which are made up of questions or other prompts that require students to explore a topic orally or in writing; extended tasks which are assignments that require sustained attention in a single work area and are carried out over several hours or longer like drafting, reviewing, and revising a poem, conducting and explaining the results of a science experiment or even painting a car in auto shop; and portfolios which are selected collections of performance-based works which may include students’ best pieces and the students’ evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of several pieces or some works in progress that illustrate the improvement the students have made over time (Andrade, 1997). These examples of performance assessments require students to actively develop their approaches to the task under defined conditions, knowing that their work will be evaluated according to agreed upon standards. This requirement distinguishes performance assessment from other forms of testing (“Performance Assessment,” 1998).

Performance assessment is built upon the assumptions that knowledge is constructed, the task is worthwhile, better assessment improves teaching, and meeting criteria improves learning. The following were citations of Wangsatorntanakhun of Thailand from various authors:

• · Research reveals that students show greater interest and perform at higher levels of learning when they are required to organize facts around major concepts and then actively construct their own understanding of those concepts. They also retain knowledge better. Active participation is the key to all performance assessment (Sweet).
  
  · The ideal performance task is inherently instructional, actively engaging students in worthwhile learning activities. Performance tasks are therefore open-ended and assess an array of knowledge and skills related to the curriculum. Thus the curriculum powers the test, not the other way around (Sweet; Kulieke et al.).
  
  · Assessment’s overall purpose is to provide valid information for decision making (Kulieke et al.). When teachers prepare students for a performance task, they must carefully describe the task and the standards that will be used to evaluate performance. When teachers are informed of the learning progress and difficulties of their students they can then make better decisions about content and instruction (Fuchs).
  
  · Students should be active participants in their own learning. They perform better when they know what goals they are working towards, when they have the opportunity to examine models of excellence and when they understand how their own performance compares to a set of established criteria (McTighe).
  
  

The table below shows the difference between a typical assessment and authentic tasks assessment (Religioso, 2002).

Differences Between Typical Assessment and Authentic Assessment
Typical Assessment
Test in history
Write an essay
Test on polynomials and
Graphing
Speak in public
Compute for interest
Solving for volume of an object
Write a paper on…

Authentic Assessment
Research on a controversial account in history
Get an op-ed published
Examine cancer data and calculate the trend for
fatalities, finding the best fit curve
Speak to raise fund or get elected
Design and make a plan to set-up a cooperative store
Design and make boxes that can fit the pants, shirts
and hats
Write a proposal to be presented to ____;
to change/modify ________

--------------------------------------------

Recommended Citation: Fetalvero, E. G. (2006, July 26). Performance Assessment. Retrieved Month accessed Day accessed, Year accessed, from Journey of a Filipino Biology Teacher: http://m-agent-a.blogspot.com/2008/11/performance-assessment.html