Performance assessment, a personalized and rigorous alternative to standardized testing, provides an opportunity for teachers to build on individual students’ strengths and foster more equitable learning outcomes.
Performance Assessment: Fostering the Learning of Teachers and Students
2017, NO.46
Against a backdrop of the opportunities provided by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the challenges for education posed by the new federal administration, this issue of VUE proposes performance assessment as a personalized and rigorous alternative to standardized testing. Performance assessment provides an opportunity for educators in public schools and districts to more equitably meet the needs of students through the use of more relevant, engaging curriculum and instruction that prepares students for complex problem-solving and collaboration.
Feedback from students and teachers shows performance assessment’s potential for improving teaching and learning and better preparing all students for college, career, and life.
The story of the Institute for Health Professions at Cambria Heights illustrates the positive impact of using performance assessments rather than relying on the state Regents exams.
In New Hampshire, a new performance assessment system focuses on reciprocal accountability and shared leadership among teachers and leaders at the school, district, and state levels.
Leaders from the Office of Hawaiian Education reflect on their process in developing a culturally responsive assessment framework rooted in Hawai‘i’s indigenous context, values, and beliefs.
An international school in Maryland shares their process for developing performance assessments for English language learners.
Micro-credentials, a new form of personalized professional development for teachers, offer a unique solution to the challenge of training school staff to design and implement performance assessments.
Capstone projects serve as the centerpiece for an assessment system that values problem-solving and frames assessment as learning opportunities for students and teachers.
Consortium leaders discuss how their model – based on collaboration among districts, teachers unions, and community organizations – aims to change the way school quality is assessed.
Performance assessments must be culturally responsive in order to truly serve the needs of students from all backgrounds.