Performance Assessment
Learn more about testing where students apply their knowledge to authentic problems and create a deliverable graded against specific criteria
What Is Performance Assessment?
Here's a handy glossary on terms like project-based learning, competency-based learning, and standards-based grading.
Assessment
Opinion
Q&A Collections: Assessment
Scores of educators share commentaries on the use of assessments in schools.
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.
Assessment
Spotlight
Spotlight on Assessment 2021
In this Spotlight, dive into best assessment practices
and more.
and more.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Assessment
Searching for Clarity on Formative Assessment
Ask five teachers what formative assessment is and you're likely to get five different definitions.
Assessment
Q&A
Q&A: Misconceptions About Formative Assessment
Richard J. Stiggins, an advocate of classroom assessments in the service of learning, identifies misconceptions about formative assessment.
Assessment
Should Formative Assessments Be Graded?
Experts warn against grading formative assessments, but teachers sometimes worry that students won't take the tasks seriously any other way.
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.