Evaluating student achievement through performance assessments is not a new strategy. Good teachers have always judged and monitored their students' progress through observations, experiments, written assignments, and research projects. What is new in the current reform effort is the systematic shift toward schoolwide performance assessments and away from multiple-choice tests for measuring instruction and accountability.
- provide pedagogical templates that help teachers to develop effective instructional techniques; and
- provide comprehensive information about student progress, including students' strengths and weaknesses.
Evidence is beginning to accrue that performance assessments indeed provide the means for improving teaching and learning. (see, for example, Borko et al. 1993, Falk and Darling-Hammond 1993, Gearhart et al. 1993, Kentucky Institute for Education Research 1995, Koretz et al. 1993, and Smith et al. 1994). For example, research indicates that teachers in Vermont and Kentucky are asking their students to write more and to do more work together in groups. Such research is providing the empirical information needed to examine the tenets underlying assessment reform efforts.
Following is a summary of what we learned from Studies of Education Reform: Assessment of Student Performance, a three-year national study about the impact of performance assessments on teaching and learning (Khattri et al., In press).
For this study, we visited 16 schools across the United States. These schools were developing and implementing performance assessments as a result of national-, state-, district-, or school-level assessment initiatives. At each school, we interviewed school personnel, students, parents, and school board members. We also collected and reviewed student work and conducted observations of classrooms and professional development sessions. In general, our findings show that the effect of assessments on the curriculum teachers use in their classrooms has been —al, although the impact on instruction and on teacher roles in some cases has been substantial.
Few Changes in Curriculum
We found that even when teachers adopt the format of performance assessments (for example, portfolios, projects, exhibitions), the content and sequencing of the subject matter remain largely unchanged. This is because existing state and district frameworks dominate the curricular choices teachers make. Only two of the elementary schools we visited had made a conscious change in the curriculum. At a school in New York City, teachers use the Primary Learning Record as an instrument to support the child-centered philosophy of teaching espoused at the school. At a school in California, teachers have undertaken simultaneous curriculum and assessment reform.
In a few cases, teachers said the use of performance-based portfolios and projects (extended tasks that typically require students to research a topic and to demonstrate their understanding through essays, exhibitions, experiments, oral presentations, and so on) has had the effect of curtailing content coverage. For example, at a school in New Mexico, teachers discovered that the integrated instruction and assessment program they had developed led them, unintentionally, to devote less time to teaching mathematics. They realized that they did not yet know enough about integrating mathematics into project-based instruction. Consequently, they have, at least for the time being, returned to teaching mathematics as a discrete subject.
An Array of Instructional Strategies
In general, performance assessments have had a significant impact on instruction. Teachers are using a wide array of instructional strategies modeled on the performance assessments that their states, districts, and schools have developed. The success of their efforts, however, depends in large part upon the opportunities they have to experiment with the assessments.
Performance-based assignments. The extensive use of performance-based projects that integrate writing, content knowledge, and social or scientific problem solving marks a noticeable change in instruction in many of the schools we visited. In an Oregon high school, for example, one social science teacher required his students to weave economics terminology into a story about being stranded on a desert island after a plane crash. The teacher designed the project to help students acquire an understanding of economics while developing their problem-solving and writing skills.
The nature of the assessments themselves drives the project-based instructional mode. Teachers are using portfolios or other performance-based techniques that require students to create different types of reports and products. Hence, teachers must develop and assign tasks that elicit the dimensions to be assessed and enable students to demonstrate their abilities. In many such assignments, the student's role as an active learner is evident—the student seeks information from several sources and applies it to his or her assignments.
Writing. Portfolios and other performance assessments that require students to produce reports also emphasize writing skills. In Vermont and Kentucky, for example, where language arts portfolios are an assessment requirement at certain grade levels, the teachers we spoke with said portfolios are prompting their students to engage in the writing process (writing, editing, and rewriting). These teachers noted, however, that they have not yet achieved an appropriate balance in teaching both the mechanics of writing and the stylistic, expressive aspects of composition.
Performance expectations. In some respects, the use of scoring instruments has had the most significant impact on performance-driven pedagogy. Many teachers we spoke with said that they use scoring rubrics as “scaffolding” for setting performance expectations for their students. That is, they share them with their students to communicate the important aspects of the performance or product to be assessed. Students, in turn, can use them to determine the focus and boundaries of their work. Some teachers also require students to judge their own and their peers' work in order to help them understand the assessment process.
The role of teachers. Education reformers see the teacher's role as changing from disseminator of information to facilitator of learning. They see teachers as professionals who need the feedback and support of fellow professionals. Our findings indicate that the use of performance assessment also has facilitated changes in teacher roles.
The need to establish common frames of reference and to coordinate ongoing assessment efforts has resulted in increased teacher collaboration in several schools. For example, in the Vermont middle school we visited, where some of the language arts portfolio pieces involve other subject areas, the language arts teacher has helped other teachers devise scoring criteria and performance-based assignments. At three of our elementary schools, melding performance assessments with the philosophy of a child-centered approach to education has encouraged teachers to collaborate on broad issues of instruction and curriculum.
The Effect on Learning
Performance assessments affect learning as well as teaching. Students are more motivated to learn and are more engaged with project-based tasks than with other types of assignments. Teachers at the schools in our study that employ writing portfolios and literacy-based assessments also say students are developing better writing skills and habits.
We found that a simple change in the format of assignments and assessments is not enough to increase student motivation, however; the content must be challenging as well. In one school, for example, some students reported that performance assessments were better suited to low-performing students (meaning that the assessments did not require much intellectual effort).
Only a few teachers said performance-based teaching and assessment helped students learn more and develop a fuller multidisciplinary understanding. They indicated a need for more help in devising meaningful and effective performance tasks and assessments. The teachers who did see improvements in student learning were already comfortable with and adept at performance-based teaching.
Barriers to Effective Classroom Use
The effects of performance assessments on teaching and learning were not uniform in the schools we visited. We found that a lack of time and poorly defined content and performance standards hindered teachers' efforts to adopt performance assessments. Teachers who did not have access to adequate professional development and support had even greater difficulty. All the teachers expressed concern about the lack of time for planning and developing performance-based tasks, and for scoring and interpreting the information gained from the assessments.
The lack of clearly defined content and performance standards, especially for the state- and district-initiated assessments, was a second major concern. For example, in the Oregon school, teachers were enthusiastic about the use of the state scoring rubrics, but were unsure what constituted acceptable performance on outcome dimensions such as conceptual understanding and effective communication in mathematics and science.
We also found that if performance assessments are —al to the school because of the way they are implemented (for example, they are one-shot accountability mechanisms), they will not provide the foundation for instructional reform. In three of our schools, for example, teachers administer performance assessments only once a year. These assessments have not affected teaching and learning in any fundamental way.
On the other hand, teachers who are using portfolios and other types of ongoing assessments have adapted and integrated the assessments into their classrooms. Portfolios—and other assessments that involve teachers and students in some form of record keeping—provide the structure for documenting student work and progress on an ongoing basis. Such methods also provide teachers and students some measure of control over assessment tasks.
We found that a supportive environment—where time, professional development, and informal assistance were available to teachers—was an important factor in helping teachers work with the assessment. At such schools, teachers met on a regular basis—during or after school or at professional development sessions—to discuss assessments and instruction. In those schools where teachers did not receive support or were not encouraged to participate in the reform efforts, little collaborative activity occurred.
Defining a Sound Approach
- Portfolios and other ongoing performance assessments encourage students to write and to complete project-based assignments.
- Project-based assignments motivate students to learn.
Problems do remain, however, and educators must consider them in conjunction with the original assumptions undergirding the performance assessment reform movement. We found that the relationships among domains to be assessed and the tasks, performance processes, and evaluation criteria are not necessarily clear. Teachers still struggle to define knowledge domains, develop good pedagogical strategies, and set the parameters of acceptable student performance. They do not yet fully understand what constitutes an instructionally and developmentally sound approach to student assessment.
These problems have arisen because the proponents and designers of performance assessments made several assumptions about the ease of adopting them. They assumed that educators: (1) possess a clear understanding of the domains of knowledge to be assessed by the new assessments; (2) are knowledgeable about the most effective approaches of teaching to these assessments; (3) have expertise in a variety of teaching modalities; and (4) know what constitutes evidence of critical thinking skills and multidisciplinary understanding. Our most startling finding is that there is no evidence that assessment and instructional changes are driven by a clear understanding of these issues.
Our study has demonstrated the need for professional support and development at the local level. Teachers need training in how to use these different instructional strategies. They need to learn how to develop projects and performance assessments that effectively address multidisciplinary understanding and critical thinking skills.
The impact of performance assessments on teaching and learning has, on the surface, been substantial. Students are now writing and engaging in projects that cut across traditional subject areas—and they are engaged in and excited about learning. However, reforms in curriculum, performance standards, and professional support and development for teachers also are essential if we are to attain the ultimate goals of assessment reform.
