Performance Assessments

A performance assessment can evaluate students who are demonstrating their skills by performing certain tasks, or it can evaluate products that students have produced to demonstrate their knowledge.According to the CCSSO (Council of Chief State Officers), “performance assessments are ways to measure students’ knowledge and skills that go beyond asking them to answer multiple-choice or fill-in-the-space questions. Typically, students are asked to complete a hands on task that can take 40 minutes or can be completed over several class periods. For example, students might be asked to research and write a magazine article or to conduct and explain the results of a scientific experiment.” Performance assessments can be activities such as science experiments and lab procedures, essays, speeches, computer programming, and so forth. Constructing performance assessment rubrics and applying these assessment strategies to the school program will enable students to demonstrate their basic skills through a real-world application. 
 
Before constructing a performance assessment, the designer must decide on the time length for the assignment, which could range from one class period to a week, or even a month for assessments that require extensive research. Next, the designer must select the performance modes that the task will require, such as speaking, writing, problem solving, and so forth. The designer must also decide how the students will participate in performing the task, for example, individually, in pairs, or in small groups.

The actual process of designing performance assessments varies depending on the complexity of the task and the availability of time. The Designing Performance Assessment template, along with the performance assessment worksheet will help assessment designers to create their own specific assessments. It should be noted that assessment techniques can be designed by using either traditional or alternative methods of assessment. Alternative assessment refers to new assessment techniques that require students to construct a response to an open-ended problem or task. In the case of both tradition and alternative assessment, the task and the assessment should be closely aligned to the Common Core Standards. Below are resources to help you construct both formative and summative assessments.

Formative and Summative Assessment Defined

 Formative assessment is a self-reflective process that Intends to promote student attainment [1]. Cowie and Bell [2] define it as the bidirectional process between teacher and student to enhance, recognize and respond to the learning. Black and Wiliam [3] consider an assessment ‘formative’ when the feedback from learning activities is actually used to adapt the teaching to meet the learner's needs. Nicole and Macfarlane-Dick[4] have re-interpreted research on formative assessment and feedback and shown how these processes can help students take control of their own learning (self-regulated learning). In the training field, formative assessment is described as assessing the formation of the student. Facilitators do this by observing students as they: 

• Respond to questions
• Ask questions
• Interact with other students during activities, etc.

Summative assessments are cumulative evaluations used to measure student growth after instruction and are generally given at the end of a course or unit in order to determine whether long term learning goals have been met. Summative assessments are not like formative assessments, which are designed to provide the immediate, explicit feedback useful for helping teacher and student during the learning process. High quality summative information can shape how teachers organize their curricula or what courses schools offer their students.  Although there are many types of summative assessments, the most common examples include:

• State-mandated assessments
• District benchmark “Mastery Checks” or interim assessments
• End-of-unit or -chapter tests
• End-of-term or -semester exams
• Scores that are used for accountability for schools (AYP) and students (report card grades)²
• Summative assessment – longer time between - assesses more information. A more formal process gauging where students are at a point in time

Difference between the two is the frequency of and information which you assess