Performance Assessment

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

Explainer

Illustration of papers and magnifying glass
What Is Performance Assessment?
Here's a handy glossary on terms like project-based learning, competency-based learning, and standards-based grading.
View Explainer
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
Image of students taking a test.
smolaw11/iStock/Getty
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.
Catherine Gewertz, November 9, 2015
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5 min read
Caroline Wylie
Caroline Wylie
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.
Liana Loewus, November 9, 2015
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5 min read
Assessment Technology Fed Growth in Formative Assessment
Education-technology tools have made it easier for teachers to keep tabs on students' understanding.
Michelle R. Davis, November 9, 2015
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3 min read
Tiffany Palmer, a 4th grade teacher at Candeo Schools, a K-8 charter school in Peoria, Ariz., participates in an online professional development program with her colleagues. The program aims to help teachers identify where their students are in the learning process and how they might tailor their teaching to meet students’ needs.
Tiffany Palmer, a 4th grade teacher at Candeo Schools, a K-8 charter school in Peoria, Ariz., participates in an online professional development program with her colleagues. The program aims to help teachers identify where their students are in the learning process and how they might tailor their teaching to meet students’ needs.
Nick Cote for Education Week
Assessment Arizona Leans In on Formative Assessment
In the Grand Canyon State, teachers are getting a leg up in their efforts to improve the on-the-spot assessments and instructional decisions they make in the classroom.
Liana Loewus, November 9, 2015
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8 min read
BRIC ARCHIVE
Gregory Ferrand for Education Week
Accountability Opinion We Aren't Using Assessments Correctly
Testing data should be used as a tool to enhance instruction and learning for teachers and students, writes John Hattie.
John Hattie, October 27, 2015
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5 min read
BRIC ARCHIVE
College & Workforce Readiness 'Authentic' Assessment Shapes Learning at a New York City High School
We profile a high school where students have to explain and defend their ideas in major year-long projects in order to earn their diplomas.
Catherine Gewertz, July 17, 2015
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1 min read
BRIC ARCHIVE
iStockphoto
Assessment Opinion We're Racing Through K-12 Education
Learning takes time, so rushing children to finish assignments is not the answer, writes speech-language pathologist Rebecca Givens Rolland.
Rebecca Givens Rolland, March 31, 2015
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4 min read
Diana Marcus, a 5th grade teacher and president of Burlington Educators Association, sets up the computer lab at the Marshall Simonds Middle School in Burlington, Mass., where teachers from the Burlington school district sampled the PARCC field test. The field tests for PARCC and Smarter Balanced began in March, marking an assessment experiment of unprecedented scope.
Diana Marcus, a 5th grade teacher and president of Burlington Educators Association, sets up the computer lab at the Marshall Simonds Middle School in Burlington, Mass., where teachers from the Burlington school district sampled the PARCC field test. The field tests for PARCC and Smarter Balanced began in March, marking an assessment experiment of unprecedented scope.
Gretchen Ertl for Education Week
Assessment Photo Essay A Lens on PARCC Field-Testing
Boston-based photographer Gretchen Ertl documented how the Burlington, Mass., school district was preparing for PARCC field-testing.
Education Week Photo Staff, May 8, 2014
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3 min read
Seventh graders at Marshall Simonds Middle School in Burlington, Mass., including Nimra Mian, reflected here in an iPad, look at a practice PARCC test to gain familiarity with the format before a field test of exams tied to the common-core standards. The field tests for PARCC and Smarter Balanced began last month, marking an assessment experiment of unprecedented scope.
Seventh graders at Marshall Simonds Middle School in Burlington, Mass., including Nimra Mian, reflected here in an iPad, look at a practice PARCC test to gain familiarity with the format before a field test of exams tied to the common-core standards. The field tests for PARCC and Smarter Balanced began last month, marking an assessment experiment of unprecedented scope.
Gretchen Ertil for Education Week
Standards Vision, Reality Collide in Common-Core Tests
Political, technical, and financial factors have constrained some of the original, and more ambitious, plans for the assessments being developed by two state coalitions.
Stephen Sawchuk, April 21, 2014
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12 min read
Teaching Teachers Learn to Judge Formative-Testing Tools
Educators gathered recently for training on how to size up instructional resources for possible inclusion in a digital library that a common-core testing consortium is developing.
Catherine Gewertz, March 11, 2014
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6 min read
Special Report New Directions in Assessment
Addressing an area of both frustration and possibility for many teachers, this online story package explores new developments and trends in the practice of testing and assessment in schools. The stories focus on initiatives designed to link assessment more closely with classroom learning and instruction and thus provide integral solutions for teachers.
March 5, 2014
Courtney Horan, a 1st grade teacher at P.S. 173 Fresh Meadows School in Queens, N.Y., conducts a reading conference with a student. Fresh Meadows uses a performance-assessment program designed by Teachers College, Columbia University, to measure students' reading skills and understanding.
Courtney Horan, a 1st grade teacher at P.S. 173 Fresh Meadows School in Queens, N.Y., conducts a reading conference with a student. Fresh Meadows uses a performance-assessment program designed by Teachers College, Columbia University, to measure students' reading skills and understanding.
Melanie Burford for Education Week
Assessment Performance Assessment Re-Emerging in Schools
Looking for better ways to measure the "deeper learning" goals of the common standards, schools are increasingly turning to formalized performance tasks.
Ross Brenneman, March 4, 2014
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8 min read
Special Education Advent of 'Smart Drugs' Raises Safety, Ethical Concerns
Should healthy students have access to the growing variety of chemicals that can boost attention, memory, concentration, and other abilities related to academic performance?
Sarah D. Sparks, October 19, 2012
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7 min read
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