The Reference Desk, using available evidence and research, provides quick-turnaround responses to questions submitted by education stakeholders around the Northeast and Islands Region. Every Friday, REL-NEI highlights one or two questions submitted to its Reference Desk.
Question of the Week
Are Performance-Based Assessments Effective for Measuring Student Learning?
The Reference Desk frequently receives questions related to student assessment. Recently, the Reference Desk received a request for information about the use of performance-based assessments for measuring student learning. The requestor was particularly interested in performance-based assessments that address “higher order thinking” and “21st Century skills.”
Question
What does the research say about the use of performance-based assessments for measuring student learning?
Research Synthesis
Reference Desk researchers found several resources related to performance-based assessments. Three descriptive articles presented below highlight different approaches to this subject (Wren, 2009; Silva, 2008; Moskal, 2003). Additionally, Reference Desk researchers found a study of direct writing assessments—one example of performance-based assessments—that “investigated the level of generalizability across a few high quality assessment tasks and the validity of measuring student writing ability using a limited number of essay tasks. … The research team found that three to five essays were required to evaluate and make a reliable judgment of student writing performance” (Chen, 2007; see below).
Publicly Available Resources
- Performance Assessment: A Key Component of a Balanced Assessment System. March 2009; Wren, D. G.; Research Brief #2, Virginia Beach City Public Schools, Department of Research, Evaluation, and Assessment; 12 pages.
From the abstract: “Performance assessment is used to evaluate higher-order thinking and the acquisition of knowledge, concepts, and skills required for students to succeed in the 21st century workplace. A review of relevant literature on performance assessment was conducted for this report, which includes a clarification of the term ‘performance assessment,’ a comparison of traditional assessments and performance assessments, and a description of the procedures involved in developing performance assessments as well as the rubrics used to score the assessments.”
- Measuring Skills for the 21st Century. November 2008; Silva, E.; Washington, DC: Education Sector Reports; 11 pages.
From the Creative Measure section: “Most existing tests measure only whether a student possesses a particular piece of knowledge, not whether the student can analyze this information, evaluate its utility, or create new knowledge from it—the core of 21st century skills. But new models of assessment that measure both basic skills and more advanced skills are emerging to challenge the assumption that such skills can not be measured and to move us toward an assessment system that is more aligned with what students now need to know” (p. 6). Pages 6 through 8 provide examples of assessments that the author suggests measure 21st century skills.
- Recommendations for Developing Classroom Performance Assessments and Scoring Rubrics. 2003; Moskal, B. M.; Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, Vol. 8, No. 14.
From the introduction: “This paper provides a set of recommendations for developing classroom performance assessments and scoring rubrics. … The recommendations are divided into five categories: 1) Writing Goals and Objectives, 2) Developing Performance Assessments, 3) Developing Scoring Rubrics, 4) Administering Performance Assessments and 5) Scoring, Interpreting and Using Results. A broad literary base currently exists for each of these categories. … Each section concludes with references for further reading.”
- Examining the Generalizability of Direct Writing Assessment Tasks. June 2007; Chen, E., Niemi, D., Wang, J., Wang, H., and Mirocha, J.; CSE Technical Report 718; National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST), Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, University of California Los Angeles; 16 pages.
From the abstract: “This study investigated the level of generalizability across a few high quality assessment tasks and the validity of measuring student writing ability using a limited number of essay tasks. More specifically, the research team explored how well writing prompts could measure student general writing ability and if student performance from one writing task could be generalized to other similar writing tasks. … The research team found that three to five essays were required to evaluate and make a reliable judgment of student writing performance.”
Although the following resources do not specifically address performance-based assessments, the Reference Desk found these REL-NEI reports to be helpful in learning more about student assessment in general:
- Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands: Accountability and Assessment
REL-NEI’s Research Portfolio on Accountability and Assessment includes the following research projects on student assessment:
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