Authentic assessments used in response to accountability demands in higher education face at least two threats to validity. First, a lack of interchangeability between assessment tasks introduces bias when using aggregate-based scores at an institutional level. Second, reliance on written products to capture constructs such as critical thinking…

In the United States, colleges of education are responding to demands for increased accountability. The purpose of this article is to describe one teacher education program's implementation of a performance evaluation tool during final internship that measures teacher candidates' development across four domains: Planning and Preparation,…

After passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, states assumed greater responsibility for designing their own accountability and assessment systems. ESSA requires states to measure "higher order thinking skills and understanding" and encourages the use of open-ended performance assessments, which are essential for…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) opened up new possibilities for how student and school success are defined and supported in American public education. States have greater responsibility for designing and building their assessment and accountability systems. These new opportunities to develop performance assessments are critically important…

The adoption of Common Core State Standards has increased the need for assessments capable of measuring more performance-based outcomes. This monograph brings together the current literature and resources for the development and implementation of performance assessment. The text was written as part of a project-based graduate course and has…

Teacher preparation programs (TPPs) are where prospective teachers gain a foundation of knowledge about pedagogy and subject matter, as well as early exposure to practical classroom experience. Although competence in teaching, as in all professions, is shaped significantly by on-the-job experiences and continuous learning, the programs that…

This annotated bibliography on performance assessment in schools lists 16 journal articles and 2 reports which were published between 1991 and 1993. Citations address the following aspects of performance assessment: conditions for alternative assessments, validity and reliability issues, accountability issues, performance assessment in science and…

Provides a general framework for examining the consequences of assessment programs, especially statewide programs that intend to improve student learning by holding schools accountable. The framework is intended for use with programs using performance-based tasks but can be used with programs using traditional item formats as well. (SLD)

Contemporary assessment practices in science education have undergone significant changes in recent decades. The basis for these changes and the resulting new assessment practices are the subject of this two-part paper. Part 1 considers the basis of assessment that, more than 25 years ago, was driven by the assumptions of decomposability and…

The idea that validity should be considered a property of inferences, rather than of assessments, has developed slowly over the past century. In early writings about the validity of educational assessments, validity was defined as a property of an assessment. The most common definition was that an assessment was valid to the extent that it…

How portfolio-based conclusions about student learning might be used to communicate with audiences outside the classroom is explored. Procedures and criteria for investigating validity in portfolio use are discussed. Ten portfolios from an eighth grade language arts class are used as an example. (SLD)

This article examines one of the challenges to the integration of classroom and large-scale portfolio assessment, a challenge posed by the use of a student's classroom portfolio for large-scale assessment of his or her individual competencies. When work is composed with the support of peers, teachers, and parents, whose work is being judged? The…

Student assessment, from the classroom to the state and national levels, is changing. The era of norm-referenced, multiple choice, standardized tests may be coming to an end, to be replaced by other forms of assessment, not all equally good. This guide outlines a vision of what assessment in the service of learning can be and provides ideas,…

The current trend toward site-based management in education, with its accompanying shift toward decision making at the individual school level, means new responsibilities and roles for principals. Principals are now required to be intimately involved in budgeting, personnel recruitment and hiring, selection of curricula and textbooks, and many…

In this article, the authors describe various rationales for accountability testing programs over the past century. This history forms the backdrop for current test-driven reforms, including Public Law 107-110, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), which was signed into law in January 2002. The goals of the authors are first, to illustrate…