These discussions of performance-based student assessment provide a record of a decade-long exploration of unsettled issues in assessment. The first section provides the elements of a basic rationale for performance-based assessment, while the second section contains accounts of efforts to develop new performance-based systems in one city and four…

In a series of essays, the author analyzes and comments on the perceived weaknesses of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) testing program. The basis of his criticism is that the NAEP has attempted to establish national norms, thereby disregarding the pluralistic nature of American society and the historical basis for community…