This book is a collection of nine commissioned papers that consider the educational reform represented by performance assessments, their advantages and disadvantages, and the challenges of successful implementation. Both theoretical and practical issues are addressed. (SLD)

Alternative assessments have sometimes been used for such purposes as external control of schools. Equitable use of alternatives such as performance-based assessment depends on top-down support for bottom-up reform, careful design, and how well assessment is interwoven with the goals of authentic school reform and effective teaching. (SK)

Examines some of the policy implications for the proposed assessment systems to replace multiple-choice tests in education as part of educational reform movement. Notes that, like multiple-choice formats, the origins and assumptions of performance assessment methods have implications for the usefulness of the data that result. (Author/NB)

This paper presents a study of primary and secondary mathematics teachers' changing assessment practices in the context of policy, stakeholder, and personal presses for change. Two cohorts of teachers, one of 35 elementary, middle school, and high school teachers and the other of 24 elementary and middle school teachers participated. Using survey…

The implications for educational and employment testing of recent measurement, social, and policy issues are compared and contrasted. Changes are proposed relative to technical conceptualization of assessment, an increased focus on performance-based evaluation, and expanded expectations and uses of assessment. (SLD)

This paper provides an extensive literature review and recommendations for authentic assessment, and then provides recommendations for administrators in order to implement authentic assessment in elementary schools. A lack of comfort, with the way in which standardized tests seems to dictate what teachers teach as part of the curriculum, was a…

Advocates for change in educational assessment recommend that assessments of achievement should be designed to reflect real-life performance more precisely than traditional standardized tests can. This paper raises questions about the claims that are frequently made by advocates of assessment reform. It is agreed that assessment practices are in…

This study explored the sensitivity of a multilevel approach in detecting outcomes of a hands-on science program, exploring whether the instruction of a hands-on unit had any impact on students' performance and whether the estimated magnitude of the impact was different according to the proximity of the assessments to the unit taught. Also studied…

This article provides an historical perspective on current interest in alternative assessment in the United States and identifies critical qualities that good assessment should exemplify. The paper then reviews research results regarding the technical quality and consequences of using this new form of assessment for large-scale accountability…

Current successes and failures in U.S. educational measurement are reviewed, focusing on criterion-referenced testing. Pluses and minuses are listed for the following: (1) the move toward authentic assessment; (2) the dominance of criterion-referenced assessment; and (3) item response theory applications. Each area is a double-edged sword. (SLD)

This is an age of backlash, as illustrated by many developments in the field of education. Backlash against performance assessment is very evident, but it must be remembered that backlash has its uses. It forces advocates to rethink, reformulate, and restate why they put so much faith in the program under attack. Events have pushed advocates to…

The use of performance assessment for instruction and accountability and the support for its use provided by the school district were studied in three suburban school districts in Colorado, New York, and Illinois. Two were elementary and secondary districts, but the Illinois district was a high school district. All three districts have employed…

In a previous paper the authors presented a model of assessing portfolios, the Cognitive Model for Assessing Portfolios (CMAP), as a lens to view, think about, and make decisions about portfolio projects. Two projects in which the CMAP has been used are described. One is an authentic assessment project in mathematics and science by the Educational…

This book is an effort to examine the theory and practice of educational assessment while taking a step toward the development of a new paradigm. Fundamental changes in the way education is conceptualized must accompany the effort to rethink assessment theory and practice. The following chapters are included: (1) "The Need for a New Science…

The chapters in this collection contribute to the debate about the value and usefulness of radically different kinds of assessments in the U.S. educational system by considering and expanding on the theoretical underpinnings of reports and speculation. The chapters are: (1) "Assessment Reform: Promises and Challenges" (Nidhi Khattri and…