In July 2001, the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) agreed to the development of assessment instruments and key performance measures for reporting on student skills, knowledge and understandings in primary science. It directed the newly established Performance Measurement and Reporting Taskforce…

This report is one of nine detailed case studies of small urban high schools that served as the foundation for the Education Resource Strategies (ERS) report "Strategic Designs: Lessons from Leading Edge Small Urban High Schools." These nine schools were dubbed "Leading Edge Schools" because they stand apart from other high…

This study was undertaken to describe ways in which "performance oriented" teachers in Maryland communicate learning targets, elements of quality, and standards for performance to their students. Surveys were distributed to approximately 90 participants at the annual meeting of the Maryland Assessment Consortium and to 72 scoring team…

The cost of including hands-on tasks in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) science assessment was analyzed. In recognition of growing interest in performance assessment in science, the framework for the NAEP science assessment called for the inclusion of hands-on tasks with hands-on activities and questions about the…

This report describes the development of a new tool for assessment research in graduate education. The tool, the Algebra Assessment System, is based on GIDE, a pre-existing program that diagnostically analyzes complex constructed responses to algebra word problems. The project had three goals. The first goal was to build a generically usable…

In March 1992 the Arizona State Department of Education and educators across the state conducted a pilot study of 67 performance assessments developed for the Arizona Student Assessment Program (ASAP). This report describes various aspects of the reliability and validity of the 67 assessments (primarily constructed response) developed by The…

In the Dutch Educational Assessment Program, the students' language proficiency is measured in grade 9, at age 15. Writing performance is measured through several performance-based writing tasks, rated on numerous aspects such as content, style, organization, punctuation, spelling and grammar. As a consequence, national performance levels are…

The National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching is working with the New York State Education Department to develop an assessment system that addresses both instructional and accountability concerns. The new system is intended to move the state to a system of performance assessments used in the service of ongoing teaching and…

Intended for teachers of students in grades 4 through 8 and beyond, this book offers a simple process for teaching students to think critically and write logically. Each lesson in the book provides three different writing templates: the beginning template is intended for third- and fourth-grade students; the intermediate, for grades 4 through 6;…

This book contains a set of authentic performance assessments that offer students the opportunity to demonstrate knowledge and multiple science abilities through communication, problem solving, inventiveness, persistence, and curiosity. The specific knowledge and science abilities are drawn from those identified in Benchmarks for Science Literacy…

The development and use of Oregon's Proficiency-Based Admission Standards System (PASS) are described and results of some evaluations of the PASS system are presented. PASS is to be used for college entry in Oregon and is designed to promote the seamlessness of high school and college education by guaranteeing that students would have the…

Because traditional performance measures may not accurately assess what students learn or are taught, some K-12 classroom teachers, states, and teacher preparation programs are beginning to use portfolio assessment to document learning and growth in learning over time. Portfolio assessment is considered a more authentic way of evaluating and…

This book grew out of a conference sponsored by the Educational Testing Service and the University of Wisconsin's National Center for Research in Mathematical Science Education that focused on assessment issues in mathematics education. The book's 16 chapters focus on clarifying and articulating the goals of assessment and instruction. They are…

The degree to which performance assessments meet their dual mandate to evaluate student learning and inform instructional practice is not adequately addressed through traditional concerns for reliability and validity. A possible approach is suggested for examining the cognitive activity students engage in during a performance assessment. The…

This report is one of a series that documents progress in understanding the effects of new assessment based on case studies in three elementary schools. It presents the preliminary analyses of interviews with teachers about their knowledge, beliefs, and practices related to assessment and instruction in reading and mathematics. Changes in beliefs…