Showing What They Know

Matt Akkaoui discusses his senior project on alternative energy before a panel of judges at Barrington High School in Rhode Island. This year’s senior class is the first to face a state mandate requiring students to pass two performance-based assessments to graduate.
—Photograph by Stew Milne for Education Week

In Rhode Island, performance-based assessments are now required for high school graduation.

When it came time for Rachel Patterson to show what she’d learned during her eight-month senior project on sign language, the Barrington High School student didn’t just turn in a research paper.

Before a panel of five judges on a recent afternoon, the poised 17-year-old delivered a 10-minute presentation on the use of sign language to communicate with babies and people with autism. And in an approach particularly suited to her subject matter, Ms. Patterson expressed her thoughts by speaking and signing at the same time.

“It’s a really cool concept to show that you can make your thoughts and...