Administrators can structure successful transitions to standards-based curriculum and performance assessment. By thinking about this reform initiative's implications, building opportunities for thoughtful experimentation and dialogue, and anticipating dilemmas teachers might encounter during experimentation, administrators can design responsive…

By expanding her teaching and assessment strategies according to multiple-intelligence principles, a New Hope, Pennsylvania high school teacher has reinvigorated her social studies classes. To evaluate her work and her students' progress, she developed a form called the Multiple Intelligences Inventory. She generally alternates a…

Although a constructivist approach to learning calls into question the adequacy of norm-referenced, multiple-choice tests, these tests will persist into the 21st century. This article describes a classroom-based study that helped collaboratively oriented fifth graders develop problem-solving strategies to select answers to test questions. This…

The development of an online performance assessment instrument, the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills, is reported. Issues addressed include development, implementation, and validation of the scoring rubric in an extended Rasch model, rater training, and implementation of the assessment in a computerized program. (SLD)

Examined the performance of middle school students with learning disabilities (N=86) or without (N=39) on the Science Appraisal Battery. Questions required either verbal answers or hands-on activities with no time limits. Regular education students outperformed students with learning disabilities on all portions of the test and on both verbal and…

Describes the use of portfolios, which include student test scores, GPAs, samples of class work, and student surveys, as tools for assessing student ability and success at the Colorado School of Mines. Discusses the strengths and weaknesses of portfolio assessment as well as instructional and institutional changes brought about by the evaluation…

The accuracy of statistics based on performance assessments that represent percentages of students reaching standards is explored using data from a large-scale performance assessment, the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program. Results with students in grades 3, 5, and 8 support the accuracy of pooling results to produce the statistics.…

Conceptual, practical, and logistical issues in the development of science performance assessments (SPAs) are discussed. The conceptual framework identifies task, response format, and scoring system as components, and conceives of SPAs as tasks that attempt to recreate conditions in which scientists work. Developing SPAs is a sophisticated effort…

Discusses how one teacher encouraged students to communicate mathematically when discussing the lyrics to the song "Billy Boy." Students' problem solving was assessed by means of classroom discussion. (MKR)

The experience of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards illustrates how issues of assessing the content representativeness of performance assessment can be addressed to ensure validity for certification procedures. Explores the challenges of collecting validation evidence when expert judgments of content are used. (SLD)

This paper describes an alternative portfolio practicum option for veteran teachers seeking certification and/or a graduate degree in special education while on the job. It explains eligibility for students to participate in the Portfolio Practicum, mandatory components and learning activities (e.g., seminars and consultations), and outcomes for…

Notes that across the United States, a growing number of higher education institutions and local public school districts have formed school-university partnerships to improve teacher preparation and public school student achievement. Explains that performance-based standards have had a profound impact on how undergraduates are prepared to meet the…

Through the standard error, rather than a reliability coefficient, generalizability theory provides an indicator of the uncertainty attached to school and individual scores on performance assessments. Recommendations are made to apply generalizability theory to current performance assessments, emphasizing practices that differ from usual…

This article discusses using performance based assessment in the social studies classroom. The intent is to show how performance assessment in a social studies classroom can be the basis for providing integrated social science instruction using state standards to address student academic diversity. Elements of classroom performance assessments are…

Used Rasch analytic procedures to study item bias or differential item functioning in both dichotomous and scalar items on a test of English for academic purposes. Results for 139 college students on a pilot English language test model the approach and illustrate the measurement challenges posed by a diagnostic instrument to measure English…