Students may not fully demonstrate their knowledge and skills on accountability tests if there are no stakes attached to individual performance. In that case, assessment results may not accurately reflect student achievement, so the validity of score interpretations and uses suffers. For this study, matched samples of students taking state…

Multiple-choice (MC) reading comprehension test items comprise three components: text passage, questions about the text, and MC answers. The construct validity of this format has been repeatedly criticized. In three between-subjects experiments, fourth graders (N[subscript 1] = 230, N[subscript 2] = 340, N[subscript 3] = 194) worked on three…

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 article describes the findings of studies conducted on a large-scale, classroom-based performance assessment of literacy for the early grades designed to provide information that is useful for reporting, as well as teaching. Technical studies found the assessment to be a promising instrument that is reliable and valid. Follow-up studies of…

Examined reactions of 246 parents to the use of a curriculum-embedded performance assessment, the Work Sampling System (WSS) with children in kindergarten through grade 3. The majority of parents preferred the WSS reports to conventional report cards and expressed approval of WSS use. (SLD)

Explores the perceptions of 29 candidates for National Board Certification for Early Adolescent Generalist (National Board for Professional Teaching Standards) of the value of case-based and performance synthesis feedback in a high-stakes assessment of teaching. Teachers learned from both types of feedback, but preferred case-based feedback and…

Synthesizes literature on performance assessment for individual-level, high-stakes tests and the error variance associated with a person x task interaction. Proposes a research agenda based on this literature. (SLD)

Studied reasoning dimensions underlying science achievement in a test made of items from three national and international examinations and items from only one of the tests (National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988; NELS:88) and in performance test results for 35 students from the larger study. Findings provide tentative support for three…

A group's average test score is often used to evaluate different educational approaches, curricula, teachers, and schools. Studies of group test scores over time often try to measure "value-added" by holding constant certain student characteristics such as race, parents' education, or socioeconomic status; however, the important…

Some of the measurement issues encountered in the equating of performance assessments designed for use in teacher certification decisions are described. Analytic strategies based on examinee data that involve modification of existing procedures and judgmental strategies involving the judgments of experts to determine score equivalence are also…

Investigated item-by-item, holistic, and "trait" scoring with three mathematics performance-based tasks completed by 53 to 79 junior high and senior high school students per task. Results suggest that holistic scoring and item-by-item scoring methods provide similar information, but that trait score tapped into different aspects of…

Develops a conceptual framework that addresses score comparability for performance assessments, adaptive tests, paper-and-pencil tests, and alternate item pools for computerized tests. Outlines testing situation aspects that might threaten score comparability and describes procedures for evaluating the degree of score comparability. Suggests ways…

The two articles in this special section, combined with two previous articles, discuss the use of portfolios in large-scale assessment. Ten years ago, there was great interest in portfolio assessment in state testing programs, but no large-scale program relies on portfolios at the present time. These articles continue to consider their uses. (SLD)