This report provides an overview of what was known about alternative assessment at the time that the article was written in 1991. Topics include beliefs about assessment reform, overview of alternative assessment including research knowledge, evidence of assessment impact, and critical features of alternative assessment. The author notes that in…

To provide an accurate reading of students' and schools' rates of progress, and to provide cues for instruction, assessment at every level should be connected to explicit learning goals and standards. To show how this requirement can be fulfilled, and how research-based assessment can effectively support learning and instruction, this article…

In this article we examine empirical evidence on the criterion, predictive, transfer, and fairness aspects of validity of a large-scale language arts performance assessment, referred to as the Performance Assignment (PA). We use multilevel models to avoid biased inferences that might result from the naturally nested data. Specifically, we examine…

Validation of assessments intended to improve instruction and learning should include evidence of instructional sensitivity. This study investigated the instructional sensitivity of a standards-based ninth-grade performance assessment that required students to write an essay about conflict in a literary work. Before administering the assessment,…

This focus of this newsletter asserts that if one accepts that accountability systems are intended to serve both symbolic and technical functions, one can ask how well they are operating symbolically to motivate action and how well they are doing in providing adequate technical information to support intended inferences. In this column, it is…

Discusses values ascribed to performance assessment and recent criticisms of assessment and suggests model-based performance assessment for remedying and avoiding these criticisms. The paper explains the merits of a systematic approach to developing performance assessments and rubrics based on general models across ages and subject areas for…

Ongoing research finds that alternatives to formal tests carry hidden costs and require trade-offs. National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) is studying how performance assessments work so that they may be designed to help students reach their highest potential. This article raises priority questions,…

National educational reform presents an unprecedented opportunity to combine policy options, the best technological knowledge, and American concerns about equity and fairness. There are three principal concerns regarding equity in assessment of Limited-English-proficient (LEP) and other student populations: (1) if students are not assessed because…

This article describes performance-based assessment as expounded by its proponents, comments on these conceptions, reviews evidence regarding the technical quality of performance-based assessment, and considers its validity under various policy options. (JDD)

This paper discusses the implications for educational reform in the United States of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) comparative study of performance standards. To provide some context for the reader, the paper briefly reprises major shifts in the intellectual underpinnings of U.S. educational reform and reports on…

This discussion of the use of expert performance as the basis for inferring assessment scoring criteria in evaluating student performance considers characteristics of experts and difficulties in use of adult expertise to evaluate student performance. The use of gifted students' performances as benchmarks is suggested as possibly providing…

Teachers must learn to distinguish among performance assessments of different quality and appropriateness. Design criteria (cognitive complexity, linguistic appropriateness, content quality and coverage, and meaningfulness) are judged by examining assessment tasks and scoring rubrics. Effects criteria (transfer, generalizability, instructional…

This study investigated how domain specifications controlled topic and rater reliability. History students completed three performance tasks. For each topic, they took prior knowledge tests, read primary materials, and wrote explanatory essays. Using a theory-based scoring rubric, four raters scored all essays. The rubric worked similarly on the…

Results from a performance assessment in which 68 high school students wrote essays support the use of latent variable modeling for estimating reliability, concurrent validity, and generalizability of a scoring rubric. The latent variable modeling approach overcomes the limitations of certain conventional statistical techniques in handling…

A prototype simulation measure of the negotiating skill of interpersonal competence is described, and results of an initial validation study are reported. Of eight negotiating skills identified by the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills of the U.S. Department of Labor, two were the focus of the measure: proposing and examining…