Clearly, assessment is a popular topic encountered in publications, workshops and inservices, college training courses, and discussions in the teacher's lunchroom. Why is there a sudden interest in assessment strategies? The interest in multiple intelligences, research and new discoveries on how the brain learns a language, and new technologies (i.e. the Internet) now available in many classrooms have forced us to re-evaluate and often to modify our teaching methods. Especially influential has been the emphasis on relevance, which acknowledges the effect context has on performance, and which leads us to want assessment strategies that reflect this new emphasis.

The main point is, if you are trying to include a variety of activities for all the different learning styles in daily activities in your classroom, you should also include them in your testing. Many of us do a great job of varying teaching activities, and then use the same old paper-and-pencil, fill-in-the-blank assessments. Doesn't make much sense, does it?

What is an assessment?

In many classrooms, the primary purpose of assessment is to determine a student's grade. Teachers tend to think of "assessment" as being synonymous and interchangeable with "testing", "grading" and "evaluation" but it's more than that!

A good assessment is not an end result of the instructional process, but an evaluation that could occur at the beginning, to test what a student already knows or remembers, at the middle to evaluate how much progress has occurred, or at the end.

PURPOSES OF ASSESSMENT

• Monitor progress
• Clarify expectations
• Motivate
• Educate
• Communicate outcomes
• Document results
• Evaluate content programs

Things to consider when choosing an assessment:

Standard 2: Sound assessments are specifically designed to serve instructional purposes.
Who will use the results of this assessment, and how? Each assessor has his/her own needs.

Standard 3: Quality assessments provide a representative sample of student performance that is sufficient in its scope to permit confident conclusions about student achievement.
A fine balance must be achieved between having a representative sample of different activities and having a large enough sample to determine how a student would be able to handle any possible situation related to the topic. The smallest amount possible of necessary examples should be used so that students are not overly stressed, and testing does not exceedingly monopolize class time.

Why use a performance assessment?

Assessments, especially performance assessments, are used to motivate. A well-constructed performance assessment will additionally motivate a student because it will elicit a unique individualized response, which is hopefully authentic and perhaps even creative, and which will therefore stimulate the student to produce a quality response.

A performance assessment is a visible manifestation of a student's proficiency or lack of it, a graphic example that can be shared with a student (or even be student-generated) to evaluate progress, or shared with a parent who asks about a student's performance. Assessment products may be displayed in the classroom, the hallway, or the newspaper, to advertise learning taking place in the classroom.

Virtually all teachers report improved quality of student work when they begin using performance assessment. This in due to several factors:

• Clarity. When students know exactly what is expected, they are more likely to be able to produce it.
• Confidence. When understanding the criteria for the assignment provides students with clear guidelines and due dates for their work, they are sure of doing the job correctly. This tends to increase student engagement, as well as pride in the end result.
• High expectations. A well written rubric defines what an excellent product is, and sends the powerful message that anyone can produce work of that quality by adhering to those standards.
• Student engagement. Especially when a performance assessment is highly authentic, students are more motivated to do the assignment, and the quality of student work is generally high.
• Parent understanding. Performance assessments better document student proficiency (or lack of it). Performance assessments are invaluable for parent conferences or open houses, to validate the teacher's judgment, especially when a teacher is concerned about a student and needs to persuade a parent that action is needed. (Note: this is also true for communications with guidance personnel or administrators.)

What is a performance assessment?

• conversing in a foreign language
• assembling a model
• writing a story
• conducting research
• using a map
• using software on the computer
• painting a mural
• performing a dance . . . and the list goes on and on.

A performance assessment can be defined as any procedure that asks a student to create or construct an answer. In a nutshell, performance assessments require a student to show us what they know and can do, hopefully in a meaningful, real-world application that is based on the curriculum's listed "student outcomes". Students know in advance what the criteria for their performance are, and often have input in deciding what those will be.

A good example that would contrast a performance assessment with a regular test is the constructed-response answer. In a regular test, students routinely select from an array of possible answers, i.e. a listening selection that asks a question, and students select the "best" answer from three or four possibilities. In a constructed-response question the student, with the same prompt, would be required to produce his or her own answer. A constructed-response question may have just one correct answer, or it may be more open ended, allowing a range of responses. The form can also vary, ranging from filling in a blank or writing a short answer to drawing a picture of what took place, indicating their agreement or disagreement with the speaker on a graph or diagram or writing out all the steps in a tea ceremony.

Performance assessment forms include not just tests, but also journals, projects, portfolios and a host of other activities that require an individualized and authentic response. An existing activity you do now can usually, with a few changes, be turned into a performance assessment.

In any case, an assessment provides feedback for the teacher, the student, or any other interested party, on how well things are going. It is a good idea to build some sort of assessment into every lesson plan, every day.

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