Performance Assessment

Learn more about testing where students apply their knowledge to authentic problems and create a deliverable graded against specific criteria

Explainer

What Is Performance Assessment?
Here's a handy glossary on terms like project-based learning, competency-based learning, and standards-based grading.
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Images shows colorful speech bubbles that say "Q," "&," and "A."
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Assessment Opinion Q&A Collections: Assessment
Scores of educators share commentaries on the use of assessments in schools.
Larry Ferlazzo, August 2, 2021
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5 min read
Images shows colorful speech bubbles that say "Q," "&," and "A."
iStock/Getty
Assessment Opinion Alternatives to Standardized Tests During a Pandemic Year
Three educators suggest alternatives to federally mandated standardized testing during this year undercut by COVID-19.
Larry Ferlazzo, March 24, 2021
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7 min read
Assessment Spotlight Spotlight on Assessment 2021
In this Spotlight, dive into best assessment practices
and more.
January 15, 2021
Assessment Video K-12 Performance Assessment Terms Explained
Interest is growing in assessing students’ learning by having them show what they can do with what they know. But educators often disagree about what terms like performance assessment and project-based learning really mean in the classroom. In an effort to clear up some of the confusion, Education Week writers developed definitions for six performance-assessment related terms, including proficiency-based learning, project-based learning, standards-based grading, and portfolios. See the results in this animated glossary.
February 25, 2019
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2:21
Tue., February 19, 2019, 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. ET
Assessment Online Summit Testing for Real-World Performance
Education Week offers a big-picture look at the current state of performance assessment and pinpoints some best practices.
Register
February 19, 2019
Special Report v38 20 PerformanceAssessment
Special Report Projects, Portfolios, and Performance Assessments
Alternatives to traditional testing aren’t new to schools but interest in them is resurging. What lessons did educators learn from the last go-around with performance measurement? What’s new now?
February 6, 2019
A+ in chalk on a traditional blackboard.
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Assessment Exploring Ways to Say So Long to Traditional Letter Grades
Some teachers are ditching grades or using "no zero" policies to keep students more focused on learning and less intent on grade-grubbing.
Madeline Will, February 5, 2019
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8 min read
Fremont High School teacher, Maya Brodkey, left, talks with senior Cristy Gonzalez-Hernandez about her senior capstone project during class at the Oakland, Calif., school. The district has had a policy since 2005 requiring students to complete a “serious research project or exhibition” in order to graduate.
Fremont High School teacher, Maya Brodkey, left, talks with senior Cristy Gonzalez-Hernandez about her senior capstone project during class at the Oakland, Calif., school. The district has had a policy since 2005 requiring students to complete a “serious research project or exhibition” in order to graduate.
Ashley Crichton for Education Week
Teaching Can 'Capstone Projects' Deepen Learning for High School Seniors?
Educators in Oakland, Calif., say the yearlong graduation projects are helping students master oral, writing, and research skills that will serve them well for whatever comes next.
Stephen Sawchuk, February 5, 2019
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7 min read
Griffin Walsh plays Kindville at Newnan Crossing Elementary School in Newnan, Ga. Some schools in the state, including Newnan Crossing, are piloting Kindville, a new formative education assessment program which looks, and plays, just like a video game, but will eventually spit out qualitative math and reading scores.
Griffin Walsh plays Kindville at Newnan Crossing Elementary School in Newnan, Ga. Some schools in the state, including Newnan Crossing, are piloting Kindville, a new formative education assessment program which looks, and plays, just like a video game, but will eventually spit out qualitative math and reading scores.
Dustin Chambers for Education Week
Teaching Performance Assessment: 4 Best Practices
This isn't the first time states and schools have turned to projects, portfolios, exhibitions, and essays to measure students' learning. Here are lessons from the last go-around.
Stephen Sawchuk, February 5, 2019
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8 min read
Assessment Video Experience Education Week’s Summit on “Testing for Real-World Performance”
Assistant Managing Editor Debra Viadero talks about the latest turn in education toward performance-based assessment and invites educators to the “Testing for Real-World Performance” summit on Tuesday, February 19, at 1 p.m. In this online event, Education Week journalists and guests will staff online “discussion rooms” on a host of topics, including: the problems and pitfalls of performance-based testing measures, ways to assess group work, alternatives to traditional grades, how some college admissions offices weigh performance-based measures, and video game-based formative assessments for elementary schools. You will get a unique opportunity to interact directly with the writers and experts who helped shape coverage of our new special report on performance assessment. After the discussions, watch writers and editors sum up the discussion in a series of livestreamed interviews.
January 24, 2019
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1:30
College & Workforce Readiness New Tools Help Track Common-Core Learning
PARCC and Smarter Balanced have formative assessments that enable teachers to see if students 'get it' long before the tests.
Catherine Gewertz, November 9, 2015
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8 min read
Sony Gomez, a 4th grade student at Gust Elementary School in Denver, uses a red pen and a rubric, or scoring guide, to assess a classmate’s writing sample.
Sony Gomez, a 4th grade student at Gust Elementary School in Denver, uses a red pen and a rubric, or scoring guide, to assess a classmate’s writing sample.
Nathan Armes for Education Week
Assessment Students 'Self-Assess' Their Way to Learning
In a growing number of schools, student self-assessments are just another part of the learning process.
Jaclyn Zubrzycki, November 9, 2015
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5 min read
Teaching Learning Progressions: Maps to Personalized Teaching
In Denver and elsewhere, learning progressions offer one tool teachers can use in the formative-assessment process.
Holly Kurtz, November 9, 2015
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7 min read
Alan Velazquez, a 5th grader at Gust Elementary School in Denver, helps a peer with a math equation. Gust is among a growing number of schools that are teaching students to look at their own work and their classmates’ work to figure out where they are in the learning process and where they need to be. Some consider such evaluations to be one form of formative assessment.
Alan Velazquez, a 5th grader at Gust Elementary School in Denver, helps a peer with a math equation. Gust is among a growing number of schools that are teaching students to look at their own work and their classmates’ work to figure out where they are in the learning process and where they need to be. Some consider such evaluations to be one form of formative assessment.
Nathan W. Armes for Education Week
Assessment Searching for Clarity on Formative Assessment
Ask five teachers what formative assessment is and you're likely to get five different definitions.
Catherine Gewertz, November 9, 2015
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5 min read
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