This paper examines several issues and challenges associated with performance-based assessment in science through experiences with two large-scale student assessment projects. The first is the Common Core of Learning (CCL) Science Assessment Project designed to explore the use of classroom-embedded performance assessment for the evaluation of…

This article examines one of the challenges to the integration of classroom and large-scale portfolio assessment, a challenge posed by the use of a student's classroom portfolio for large-scale assessment of his or her individual competencies. When work is composed with the support of peers, teachers, and parents, whose work is being judged? The…

The Performance Standards of the Oregon Certificate of Initial Mastery are described and discussed. Performance standards define how well students must perform on classroom and state assessments that lead to Oregon's Certificate of Initial Mastery. Students must complete classroom and state assessments that show what they know and can do in…

The Clark County (Nevada) School District introduced performance assessments into its assessment program for grades one through six as part of an effort to bring the assessment program in line with the revised curriculum. To study the effectiveness of these assessments, reading performance assessment results for grades three through five were…

This article reports on a study of a new performance-based test mandate in the state of Arizona. The measurement-driven reform provided an opportunity to examine the interplay of policy and practice, specifically the use of testing to effect educational change. Attempts to reform schools through mandating assessments are categorized as behaviorist…

The use of standardized tests within the Chicago (Illinois) Public School System and elsewhere is discussed in the context of school reform efforts. Standardized tests have been criticized as: being too general to assess all valued outcomes; being too general to fit with local curricula; and directing instruction only to test objectives. Recent…

This document argues that current efforts to establish a national test to measure progress toward the nation's educational goals will inhibit, rather than advance, educational reform. Proponents of a national test have asked for single, primarily multiple-choice tests, or for performance assessments to measure progress toward the nation's…

This manual contains information about the contents of a database that provides information about efforts to match changing goals for student achievement to ideas about instruction. The database, available on disk, contains descriptive information on alternative assessments in science and mathematics. The database uses a broad definition of…

These discussions of performance-based student assessment provide a record of a decade-long exploration of unsettled issues in assessment. The first section provides the elements of a basic rationale for performance-based assessment, while the second section contains accounts of efforts to develop new performance-based systems in one city and four…

This updated guide to using portfolios in educational assessment incorporates current teaching practices and new technology. The portfolio is defined as a systematic and organized collection of evidence used by the teacher and the student to monitor the growth of the student's knowledge, skills, and attitudes. The guide offers: (1) clear…

The effects of performance assessment on student learning were studied in third grades in three suburban schools and matched control schools. Performance measures did not produce clear and immediate improvements in student learning, but some positive changes were seen in mathematics. (SLD)

The University of California's (Los Angeles) Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing survey of state assessment directors reveals that about 25 states currently study or develop performance assessments. Obstacles to statewide use of performance assessments were expressed. The new Student Assessment Exchange should…

Analyses of 10 raters' reasoning during think-aloud interviews provided evidence to support a model of the fundamental processes involved in rating standards-based, nonprescriptive portfolios. This process model provides a framework within which to conceptualize sound-rater reasoning and to identify reasoning that distorts the meaning of scores.…

Student assessment, from the classroom to the state and national levels, is changing. The era of norm-referenced, multiple choice, standardized tests may be coming to an end, to be replaced by other forms of assessment, not all equally good. This guide outlines a vision of what assessment in the service of learning can be and provides ideas,…

California was a pioneer in new forms of student assessment through a system entitled the "California Learning Assessment System" (CLAS). For different reasons, several interest groups objected to the CLAS, which has been discontinued. The history of the CLAS program sheds light on the future of testing policy in California and perhaps…