1

Examining the Many

Purposes of Assessment

How can I be sure that my students learn what I am teaching and

what they are supposed to be learning? How can I involve
students in their own growth and understanding? What kinds of
tests should I be giving? How do I construct a test? How often
should I give tests? What if my students do not do well? What if
I don’t like giving tests? Do I have other choices? And what do
my comments on daily work and tests actually mean to my
students? What do my assessments tell me about my teaching?

D o these questions sound familiar to you? Inquiries like these

questions challenge most teachers, and like them, you may not
feel adequately prepared to assess your learners. You tend to spend
most of your time reviewing your content, perfecting your teaching
strategies, and collecting resource materials. Then, as you get ready to
put it all into action, you realize that your assessments need attention.
As a middle-level and/or secondary school teacher, you want to
develop the most valuable activities and successful assignments so
your students actively engage in the learning, easily connect new learn-
ing to their personal lives, and eagerly generate appropriate evidence

5
6 Developing Performance-Based Assessments, Grades 6–12

showing that they truly understand or “get it.” Your mission is to check
their learning using appropriate performance-based assessments that
are purposeful for you and your learners.

Demystify Performance-Based Assessments

Before delving into when, what, and how to assess to answer the
questions posed at the start of this chapter, let’s look at 12 general
concepts related to assessment that establish a firm foundation.
Teachers spend 30 percent to 40 percent, maybe as much as 90 percent
of their time preparing, administering, analyzing, intervening, docu-
menting, and reporting assessments (Campbell & Evans, 2000), so
understanding performance-based assessments is critical.
However, experience reveals that many classroom teachers have
found both the conversations and the processes related to developing
performance-based assessments to be complicated and perplexing.
Therefore, some teachers tend to avoid using performance-based
assessments, while other teachers have adopted some misconceptions
about performance-based assessments. It is important for us to
demystify and clarify these ideas early in this text, so that developing
performance-based assessments will be easy for you.

Define Performance-Based Assessments

1. Assessment means much more than just a test. Every time you
check to see if your learners understand or “get it,” you are con-
ducting an assessment. You assess when you observe activities,
listen to discussions, read written responses, view drawn illustra-
tions, watch performances, and pay attention to body language.
You assess before the learning, during the learning, and after the
learning; you assess formally and informally, directly and indi-
rectly, by choice and by chance. You spend most of your teaching
time assessing your learners. This text describes many different
practices, and the suggestions guide you in using performance-
based assessments to improve the learning and, consequently, to
enhance the teaching and the schooling.
2. Almost all assessments are performance-based assessments. You
may have come to believe that only when learners are demonstrating
outcomes such as reading aloud, calculating a math problem, con-
ducting a science experiment, giving a speech, or turning a cartwheel
that they are involved in performance-based assessments. Asking
 Examining the Many Purposes of Assessment 7

learners to respond to a discussion question, to complete a worksheet,

or to take a written test are other viable forms of performance-based
assessments that you use frequently. After all, the learners are per-
forming by demonstrating outcomes through speaking and writing.
3. Assessment involves the learning, the teaching, and the schooling.
During assessment, you are collecting all sorts of feedback and data
describing the effectiveness of everyone involved in the classroom.
Learning cannot happen effectively unless teaching and schooling are
working effectively too. Assessments do not pertain solely to your
classroom and your learners’ achievements. When you visualize your
classroom, it is essential that you always view assessments holisti-
cally within a specific context occurring before, during, and after
instruction; happening in your classroom, extending throughout the
school, and connecting with the entire community; as viewed by the
learners, the learners’ families, the teacher, the school administrators,
the school community, and the state.
4. Assessment drives learning, teaching, and schooling. As you
develop your curriculum and design your instruction, you should be
asking yourself four vital questions:
a. What do my learners need and want to know?
b. How should and could my learners show what they know?
c. What should and could my learners do and when?
d. Where will the assessments and feedback tell me to go
(with my curricular design, instructional practices, resource
materials, learning community, individual needs, program
organization, and professional development)?

The four key words are know, show, do, and go. In the planning
process, you decide what to teach, how to teach it, when to teach it,
and so forth; you also must decide how your students will demon-
strate or could show you what they have learned all along the way.
And from each assessment, you must decide where to go next.
As you teach, ask yourself: Did I cover everything? Did I include
enough depth, breadth, and connections? Were my directions clear? Do the
students understand the reasons for learning? Do I need to reteach any of
the curriculum? Do I need to repeat, revise, or rearrange any of the instruc-
tion? Are the learners ready to integrate and apply their accomplishments
in new and different ways? You cannot make your next moves without
deliberately collecting evidence and carefully analyzing where you
are now, before you begin. It is essential that you view assessments
holistically, as a shared process with ongoing reflection, inspection,
8 Developing Performance-Based Assessments, Grades 6–12

and communication; assessments are not just an end to your learn-

ing experience (aka, lesson plans) or unit of learning.

Involve Learning Options and Opportunities

5. Assessments need to be appropriate and authentic. When you are
checking the learning, you want to use a practice of assessment that
best fits the specific learning situation. For example, if you want to
elicit authentic feedback about your learners’ spelling abilities, you
could give a traditional spelling test listing words in isolation, you
could ask your learners to incorporate the words into a description or
story that features the words, or you could integrate the words into
various parts of the curricular content so your learners use the words
in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The last two suggested
practices are the most appropriate and authentic, as they are realistic
for learning the words and using them in context to be remembered
for future learning and applied for life.
6. Learners should be given (and should help develop) alternative assess-
ments. Too often the word alternative conveys learning situations with less
academic rigor or reduced scholarly expectations developed for learners
who have been identified as unable to succeed in the “regular” class-
room. In performance-based assessments, alternative merely means dif-
ferent ways or other choices and options. Perhaps the assessment would
be unique or unusual, but alternative assessments do not entail or
require unconventional or scary methods. The ideas offered throughout
this text explore how to develop alternative assessments for and with
your learners that are appropriate and authentic. When you include your
learners, they will be quite impressed and resonate once you give them
voice, choice, and a sense of ownership or agency (Bandura, 1989).
Giving learners voice, choice, and ownership will greatly increase student
attendance, engagement, achievement, and completion.

Incorporate Teaching Principles and Practices

7. Assessments must include salience—that is, assessments must be
important and relevant. The forms of appraisal that you are using and
the types of information that you are seeking should match the learn-
ing and learners, the teaching and teacher, and the curriculum and
context. You want to develop assessments that you can describe as the
best investment of everyone’s time and energy. Try to avoid conduct-
ing assessments just to gather and record data because you presume
you should. Your students (and their families) need to know why,
when, how, and on what learners will be assessed before you begin the
 Examining the Many Purposes of Assessment 9

instruction. Your forms of appraisal must be germane to the content

and processes; the outcomes must be significant for the learning to be
recognized now, integrated later, and used throughout life.
8. Assessments must include validity—that is, assessments must be
suitable and applicable. Again, it is all about a justified fit. You must be
able to defend how the selected form of appraisal will elicit a partic-
ular type of information. At some point, a learner, parent, colleague,
and/or administrator will ask you to explain your choices based on
legitimate purposes and detailed procedures. And you want to be
sure your learners can demonstrate proficiency with the content and
processes in ways that are developmentally appropriate and right-
fully showcase their accomplishments and achievements.
9. Assessments must include reliability—that is, assessments must be
dependable and consistent. To be reliable means you can count on the
assessment every time you use it to give constant results. You want to
be able to explain the significance or why this assessment is the most
effective and efficient. Once you begin teaching, most likely you will
create a group of 5 to 10 forms of appraisal probing 5 to 10 types of
information that you will use nearly every time you assess your
learners. Your learners (and their families) will appreciate consistency
in your practices of assessment, and you can refine and expand your
routine with time and experience.
10. Assessments must include fidelity—that is, assessments must be
understandable and objective. Fidelity ensures the purpose(s) of your
assessments. Your assessments must be planned, prepared, and con-
ducted so that you and your learners clearly comprehend what is being
assessed, how it will be assessed, and why it is being assessed. In order
for your assessments to be effective, you must attend to the clarity and
fairness of your communications in the directions and questions on the
assessments followed by the feedback and scoring after the assessments.
11. Assessments must include robustness—that is, assessments must
be deliberate and mindful of depth, breadth, and opportunity. Assessments
should be long enough to cover the subject yet short enough to be
interesting. Learners must be allowed to provide adequate evidence
of their learning with assorted ways of expressing their knowledge,
skills, and dispositions. You want your assessments to serve as the
capstone to the immediate learning and to provide the connection to
the next adventure.
12. Assessment must include expectations. You need to determine
through narrative description, checklist, percentage, and so forth the
levels of proficiency that are satisfactory and unsatisfactory for each
10 Developing Performance-Based Assessments, Grades 6–12

assessment. You have to decide in advance of the assessment, scoring,

and feedback if and how learners will have demonstrated mastery of
each objective.

Assessments are easy to understand and to apply in both concept and

practice. By aligning your curriculum and instruction with the assess-
ment, you will find that the learning, your teaching, and the schooling
will make much more sense to your students, their families, you, and
your administrators. Now your assessments are positive, productive, and
practical. What more could you want? Plus, your classroom will become
more alive and engaging; and you will enjoy your work much more.
Table 1.1 recaps the 12 concepts about performance-based assess-
ments. As a quick preassessment to check your entry-level awareness

Table 1.1 12 Basic Concepts About Performance-Based Assessments

1. Assessment means much more than just a test.

2. Almost all assessments are performance-based assessments.
3. Assessment involves the learning, the teaching, and the schooling.
4. Assessment drives the learning, teaching, and schooling.
5. Assessments need to be appropriate and authentic.
6. Learners should be given (and should help develop) alternative assessments
to ensure learner voice, choice, and ownership (agency).
7. Assessments must include salience—that is, they are important and
relevant. Salience relates to the description: What assessments match the
content and processes?
8. Assessments must include validity—that is, they are suitable and applicable.
Validity relates to the justification: How do these assessments showcase the
learners and learning?
9. Assessments must include reliability—that is, they are dependable and
consistent. Reliability relates the significance: Why are these assessments
effective for the teacher and teaching?
10. Assessments must include fidelity—that is, they are understandable and
objective. Fidelity relates to the purpose: Do these assessments communicate
clearly and fairly?
11. Assessments must include robustness—that is, they are deliberate and mindful
of depth, breadth, and opportunity. Robustness relates to richness: Do these
assessments allow learners to provide adequate evidence of their learning.
12. Assessments must include expectations that are prepared in advance to
determine multiple levels of proficiency for each objective.
 Examining the Many Purposes of Assessment 11

about assessments, examine your thinking related to each concept. Do

you agree? How do you incorporate these concepts into your practices?

Understand the
Six Components of Assessment
Since performance-based assessments drive the learning, the teach-
ing, and the schooling, they operate in a unified balanced that includes
the following six interconnected components:

1. Each learner’s individuality and background

2. Each learner’s prior knowledge and experiences as part of the
group of learners with constructed knowledge and shared
experiences
3. The teacher’s (your) expertise and expectations
4. The teacher’s (your) organization and readiness
5. The curricular content and academic standards, and
6. The learning community context

These six components provide you with valuable information

that unlock the secrets to your learners’ achievement and your own
success during your preassessments, formative assessments, and
summative assessments. Figure 1.1 provides a frame for the overall
assessment process.

Know Your Learners

In Assessment Component 1, you focus on each learner’s indi-
viduality and background. You want to know all you can about your
learners, both individually and as members of various groups. You
want to familiarize yourself with their cultural backgrounds, per-
sonal interests, and learning styles. This component might seem like
the most obvious one for teachers to understand. Ask yourself: How
can my students learn effectively and efficiently unless I know them as indi-
vidual people? However, too often teachers focus more on themselves
and on the curricular content rather than on their learners as individ-
uals, almost as if they were teaching in a vacuum.
For example, if you are teaching about nutrition, you want to dis-
cover the kinds of foods that your learners eat; the kinds of foods they
like, dislike, and realize are good for them; foods they eat during
12 Developing Performance-Based Assessments, Grades 6–12

Figure 1.1 Six Components of Assessment

1. Each learner’s
individuality and
background

2. Learner’s
prior knowledge
6. Holistic learning
and experiences
community context
within shared
experiences
Assessment
Data for Effective
Learning, Teaching,
and Schooling

5. Curricular
3. Teacher’s
content and
expertise and
academic
expectations
standards

4. Teacher’s
organization and
readiness

family celebrations; and the ways they prefer for investigating

unknown foods, such as smelling, touching, and tasting different
kinds of foods. Effective teachers become acquainted with their learn-
ers as unique people. You and your learners will enjoy delving into
getting to know one another as individuals.
Assessment Component 1 works closely with Assessment
Component 2. Now you focus on each learner’s prior knowledge and
experiences. You want to find out the content and processes each
student has already learned and the various ways the students have
either applied or connected the learning to prior learning in this con-
tent area, other content, and the world around each one of them.
Getting to know your learners academically extends into the con-
structed knowledge and shared experiences that have occurred
within prior classroom learning. Ask yourself: How can my students
learn effectively and efficiently unless I know them as individual learners?
For example, if you are teaching your students about adjectives
and adverbs, you want to explore and recognize the kinds of learners
they are, that is, English language learners (ELL), gifted and talented
learners (G/T), special education learners (SPED), and so forth. If the
 Examining the Many Purposes of Assessment 13

learners are new to you, you can read the students’ cumulative files,
talk with their former teachers, engage in conversations with the
learners, and give them opportunities to produce and share brief
writing samples.
Effective teachers tend to pursue all four of these assessment
practices. Then, continuing our example, you want to investigate
your learners’ knowledge and experiences with adjectives and
adverbs. This is the time to conduct a quick KWHL, asking the learn-
ers what they Know, what they Wonder, ways they will confirm How
they learn, and what they would like to Learn next. You can preassess
using the KWHL strategy as a formal or informal class conversation
with or without writing. Organizing your preassessments is your
choice and should fit your purposes.

Reflect on Your Practices

Some teachers spend disproportionately large amounts of time
and energy on Assessment Components 3 and 4: the teachers’ own
expertise and expectations paired with the teachers’ organization and
readiness. Teachers tend to teach what they know, what they can do,
and what they want to teach rather than focusing on the students as
people with personal interests and learners with prior knowledge
and experiences. Ask yourself: How can my students learn effectively and
efficiently if I am overly concerned with my own expertise and readiness?
Likewise, many teachers place too much emphasis on Assessment
Component 5: curricular content and academic standards. Responsibly,
each teacher should refer to the student learning expectations guid-
ing the state and school district. However, many teachers teach to the
standards and assess the learning expectations almost exclusively of
or away from the learners and their individual accomplishments.
Regrettably, the learning may be taught in isolation and not inte-
grated across the curriculum; the learning may not relate to the lives
of the students and/or the real world. When these events occur, many
students fail to retain the learning, apply it appropriately at a later
time, or appreciate its contributions to our world. Ask yourself: How
can my students learn effectively and efficiently if I concentrate exclusively
on the state standards?
Assessment Component 6, the learning community context,
emphasizes connections between and among the learners, the teach-
ing, and the world—near and far; yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
You will teach many different topics and issues that will be new and
different to your learners (and perhaps new and different to you too).
14 Developing Performance-Based Assessments, Grades 6–12

In order for your students to use the vocabulary, understand the con-
cepts, and apply the practices, you have to make meaningful connec-
tions and model the joy of learning.
That means that you place the learning experiences or units of
learning within a learning community context. Your students will
gain much more understanding and apply the learning much more
quickly and authentically when you put the learning into an environ-
ment and situation enriched with multiple perspectives; then the
learners can identify and apply to their own contemporary lives. Ask
yourself: How can my students learn effectively and efficiently unless I cre-
ate an inviting, exciting, and igniting sense of place? Unfortunately, many
teachers overlook the value of a student-centered learning commu-
nity context when assessing their learners.

Clarify Responsibilities for Learner Progress

The responsibilities for recording learner progress can be discussed
using three different terms: assessment, evaluation, and accountability.
Unfortunately, many educators use these three terms interchangeably,
showing their newness and discomfort with performance-based
assessments. While the concepts are closely related, each word serves a
distinctly different responsibility necessary for recording learning
progress and achievement. It is helpful to establish the definition of
each word and to describe it thoroughly so you can discern and apply
its individual meaning and usefulness.

Assessment: Collecting evidence for measuring understanding of and progress

toward learning short-term or immediate objectives
Evaluation: Analyzing and deciding the degree to which learners have achieved
understanding and have mastered proficiency of long-term outcomes toward
learning goals
Accountability: Documenting results and communicating accomplishments;
recording and reporting findings to others

Each responsibility for recording student progress fulfills unique

tasks for measuring, determining, and reporting learners’ outcomes
and achievements. Yet the three responsibilities operate holistically,
so it does not matter where you start your thinking about the three
responsibilities. You may want to focus on the methods of accountability,
then move to systems of evaluations, and return to your practices of
 Examining the Many Purposes of Assessment 15

assessments. As you concentrate on your practices of assessments,

simultaneously you want to think about your systems of evaluations
and methods of accountability. You cannot accomplish any of the three
responsibilities without involving the other two responsibilities of
learner achievement as reflected by your assessment practices, evalu-
ation systems, and accountability methods. You can remember the
three responsibilities as they are shown in Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2 Three Responsibilities for Recording Learner Progress

Measuring Documenting
Progress and Reporting
Assessment Determining Progress
Practices Progress Accountability
Evaluation Systems Methods

A diamond represents your assessment practices; you strive for

each of your learners to shine. Plus a diamond has four sides, noting
the four stages of your assessment practices: (1) as you plan, (2) before
the learning, (3) during the learning, and (4) after the learning. A trian-
gle represents your evaluation systems. The purpose of assessment is
to provide feedback relative to the three sides of the triangle: (1) the
learners and learning, (2) the teacher and teaching, and (3) the learning
experience and environment corresponding to the six components of
assessment. A hexagon, the shape of a stop sign, represents your
accountability methods. You are the final stop for maintaining docu-
ments and reporting progress to students, families, and administration.

Picture the Continuous Flow of Assessment

We now know that assessment means collecting evidence of progress.
Assessment encompasses a continuous flow of practices that occur
before, during, after, and long after the learning and teaching.
Stakeholders include the teacher, the learners in the classroom, and
everyone outside the classroom, such as families, administrators,
community members, and so forth. Information or data gathered
from assessments should inform the teacher about all six components
of assessment.
16 Developing Performance-Based Assessments, Grades 6–12

Most teachers, learners, and parents think of assessments primarily

as pencil-and-paper tests. However, written assessments certainly
can be constructed in many different ways and definitely play impor-
tant roles in assessment practices (O’Malley & Valdez Pierce, 1996).
Some teachers think that performance-based assessments include
only activities during which learners do something to demonstrate
or show their achievement, such as giving a speech, writing a story,
calculating a math problem, conducting a science experiment, or
navigating a computer program. Sometimes performance-based
assessments are called “alternative assessments,” indicating that they
are not the usual, normal, or frequently used assessments. Alternative
assessments may be viewed as not being as important for evaluating
final outcomes.
Therefore, there are three main points to keep in mind about
assessments when you picture the continuous flow of assessment:

1. Nearly every assessment is a performance-based assessment

(Stiggins, 2008).
2. Every kind of assessment practice is equally important and
should be selected to accomplish complex and significant tasks,
to apply to realistic situations, or to solve authentic problems
(Herman, Aschbacher, & Winters, 1992).
3. Pencil-and-paper tasks, including tests, may qualify as performance-
based assessments that should and must be used, albeit, judi-
ciously (Airasian & Miranda, 2002).

Throughout this text, references to performance-based assess-

ments include all varieties of evidence and feedback.

Start With Assessments and Objectives

You will spend most of your time as a teacher assessing in one of
three ways: observing, listening, and reading. You are assessing short-
term outcomes or immediate objectives. You can assess a single learning
experience or several learning experiences collectively. The key to
effective assessment is frequency; you want to assess often so you are
sure your learners comprehend the immediate knowledge, skills, and
dispositions necessary to continue the learning and make meaningful
connections.
You will determine the objectives for each learning experience
that you facilitate throughout the school day. Simultaneously you will
 Examining the Many Purposes of Assessment 17

be assessing academic as well as behavioral expectations. You will

collect evidence, provide feedback, and record progress many times
each day. Later chapters will equip you with a multitude of strategies
to conduct formal and informal assessments as well as offer many
cautions to consider throughout the process of assessment, evaluation,
and accountability.
As you prepare to assess your learning objectives, it is essential to
ensure that salience, validity, reliability, fidelity, and robustness are
present in every assessment; think about the 12 basic concepts intro-
duced in the first part of this chapter. Let’s consider a learning expe-
rience when you are assessing your learners’ progress in identifying
the main ideas in a written passage. Check for

• Salience. Selected passages feature main ideas that are impor-

tant for learners to know (remember . . . salience describes
what).
• Validity. Identified main ideas have meaning for the learners
and connect with prior learning (validity justifies how).
• Reliability. Identified main ideas give you the evidence you are
seeking (reliability signifies why).
• Fidelity. Selected passages are readable and meaningful,
directions are clear and achievable, feedback to learners is
positive and productive (fidelity ensures comprehension and
objectivity).
• Robustness. Assessment instrument includes an adequate
number and variety of passages to demonstrate proficiency at
multiple levels (robustness encompasses breadth, depth, and
opportunity).
• Expectations. Descriptive checklists of expectations account for
multiple levels of proficiency that may apply to the whole group
or to individual learners.

Differentiate Assessment From Evaluation

After you have finished teaching a series of learning experiences,
a whole unit of learning, or the entire course of study at the end of the
quarter or school year, you conduct an evaluation by analyzing and
deciding the degree to which learners have achieved understanding
and have mastered proficiency of long-term outcomes toward learn-
ing goals.
As you design your curriculum and instruction, you identify big
ideas that you want your learners to take with them into the future. Big
18 Developing Performance-Based Assessments, Grades 6–12

ideas are called goals. For example, if you are teaching a unit of
learning in math about long division, your objectives for your
learners might be to calculate the quotients. You could assess
your learners’ progress toward fulfilling the objectives daily, as
your objectives expand from simple division to more complex divi-
sion problems.
Throughout the unit of learning, you assess your learners’
progress frequently. Your assessments match the objectives or
short-term outcomes. You could administer written tests with mul-
tiple choice, true/false, and calculations. You could ask your learn-
ers to show you the process, and/or you could conference with
each learner, asking her or him to explain the process orally. Most
likely, you will include a combination of assessments. Then you
review all of the assessments collected throughout the unit, and
you decide, that is, evaluate, if each of your learners fulfilled the
goals for the unit.
The goals probably included knowing when or the most impor-
tant times to divide, recognizing correct and incorrect quotients, com-
pleting the steps required to calculate the quotient, and applying the
numbers in the quotient to answer the question in a word problem. If
your learners have achieved all of the goals, then you can assign a let-
ter grade on some type of report form. During the evaluation process,
you review all of the formal and informal assessments that you have
collected, and record the results (see Figure 1.3).

Figure 1.3 Relationship of Assessment, Evaluation, and Accountability

Goals for the Learning Experience (Lesson Plan) or Unit of Learning (Unit Plan)

Objective #1 leads to Assessment #1

Objective #2 leads to Assessment #2

Objective #3 leads to Assessment #3

Assessment Set #1 leads to Evaluation #1

Assessment Set #2 leads to Evaluation #2

Assessment Set #3 leads to Evaluation #3

All Assessments and Evaluations lead to Accountability

 Examining the Many Purposes of Assessment 19

Connect With Accountability

Throughout the assessment and evaluation processes, you record
progress and report your findings in various ways. Evaluation is an
analysis of an accumulation of many different assessments related to
the same topic frequently taught over several weeks called a “unit of
learning.” Evaluations usually become the final grade in a course or
the completion of requirements in a particular program or course of
study. The purpose of evaluation is to provide feedback relative to the
three sides of the triangle (refer back to Figure 1.2).
Once a unit of learning has ended, you need feedback about each
of the learners and the learning experiences integral to the unit. You
also need to know if you and your teaching were effective and effi-
cient. Not all teachers connect with all learners and vice versa; you
want to reflect on your patterns so you can make changes and
improvements. Finally, you need feedback about the curriculum and
content related to the learning experience, sequence of learning expe-
riences, and the learning environment.
These events lead to accountability. Accountability refers to docu-
menting results and communicating accomplishments; recording and
reporting findings with others. You will communicate with learners,
their families, your colleagues, and your administrators when neces-
sary; plus you will document results in learners’ records. There are
many different ways to communicate results of both the assessments
and evaluations: on the assessment items, daily or weekly progress
report notes, checklists or rubrics, report forms, conferences, tele-
phone calls, e-mail messages, and digital postings. Accountability is
explored in greater depth in Chapter 10.
Expanding the graphic organizer on accountability (see Figure 1.4)
helps you to make the connections between and among assess-
ments, evaluations, and accountability. This text provides you with
all of the vocabulary, concepts, and practices related to performance-
based assessments to strengthen the learning, teaching, and school-
ing. However, you must identify and organize your assessment
practices to meet the needs and interests of each learner and the set-
ting. You are also responsible for your accountability to the learn-
ers, their families, the school, district, and state, documented in
various systems of evaluation. None of your assessments, evalua-
tions, or accountability records will make any sense if you do not
consider your particular classroom of learners and the community
context first.
20 Developing Performance-Based Assessments, Grades 6–12

Figure 1.4 Elements of Assessment, Evaluation, and Accountability

Measuring Documenting
Progress and Reporting
Assessment Determining Progress
Practices Progress Accountability
Evaluation Systems Methods

Baseline
Multiple and
Formative
Varied Assessments: Feedback to Learners,
Summative
Self/Peer/Teacher/ Families, School,
Formal/Informal
Standardized District, State, Nation
Objective/Subjective
Qualitative/Quantitative
Standardized

The good news is you can do it! And the guidelines in this text are
here to help you. As you prepare for a particular grade level and all
your subject areas, simultaneously you need to consider a variety of
learning needs and interests. Most likely, you will have students whose

• Reading and writing abilities range from nonreaders to accom-

plished readers and writers
• English-speaking abilities and communication skills range
from non-English speakers or hesitant English speakers to
refined articulate English speakers
• Learning abilities range from learners with various learning
disabilities to learners with few or no disabilities; to learners
who are gifted and talented and combinations of abilities
• Attention span and emotions range from highly distracted to
highly focused
• Knowledge and experiences in all areas of the curriculum
range from no background to advanced experiences, multiple
applications, and extended connections
• Cultural diversity and family configurations range in every way
possible; family success and interest in school range from mar-
ginally absent and pained to highly rewarding and exciting

As soon as you can get to know your learners, you can begin
tailoring your performance-based assessments to your learners,
balancing motivation and engagement with the curriculum and
instruction.
 Examining the Many Purposes of Assessment 21

Know the Reasons for

Selecting Your Assessments . . .
If there is one essential nugget of information to be mined from
this chapter, it is the importance of knowing why you are doing
what you are doing. First, you select assessments that supply the
numbers and tell the stories that you are seeking for ongoing
accountability. Second, you develop your year-long curriculum
and instruction to show that you are planning the appropriate
variety of evidence to substantiate your evaluations. Third, you
select the kinds of assessments that invite, ignite, and excite the
learning and learners, the teaching and teacher, and the curricu-
lum and community for overall accountability. In these ways, you
will be successful in measuring, deciding, and communicating
learner achievement.
It may be helpful for you at this time to read the Standards for
Teacher Competence in Educational Assessment of Students found in
Appendix A.

Extend With Questions and Activities

Frequently Asked Questions
1. Assessment is extremely important. How can I assess my
learners properly?
Each teacher develops a unique approach to assessment, evalua-
tion, and accountability. You want to be you. After all, you teach who
you are. This text will share many different ideas that you are encour-
aged to incorporate into your repertoire to enrich your classroom and
career, expand your preparation and practices, and enhance your suc-
cess and satisfaction.
2. Why do teachers use the terms assessment, evaluation, and
accountability interchangeably?
Many teachers have not studied performance-based assessments
closely, and they simply do not realize that the three terms differ in
meaning and purpose. You will strengthen your teaching expertise,
your learners will demonstrate greater achievement, and your com-
munications with learners and family members will benefit when you
clarify the terms and practices.
3. How can I be sure that I know the purposes for my assess-
ment systems, evaluation practices, and accountability methods,
and I am using the right one?
22 Developing Performance-Based Assessments, Grades 6–12

Try some “teacher self-talk.” That means just like it sounds.

Pretend you are teaching your learning experience to yourself. Can
you clearly identify the assessment, evaluation, and accountability
associated with your teaching, learning, and the learning experience?
Does each area make sense to you? Here is a little secret: You want
your assessment systems, evaluation practices, and accountability
methods to be visible, viable, and valuable. That means, everyone
should be able to see (visible) how you are going to monitor each
learner’s progress during and after the learning and check each
learner’s outcomes. The assessment systems should be appropriate
and practical (viable). And, all assessment systems, evaluation prac-
tices, and accountability methods must be important (valuable).

Activities
1. Reflect on your own middle-level and/or secondary school
learning experiences and the various practices of performance-
based assessments that teachers asked you to do. Which ones
did you think were appropriate and fair? Why did you feel this
way? Then, which assessments did you think were inappropri-
ate and perhaps unfair? Why did you feel this way? Write a few
sentences in response to each question.
2. Show a colleague the practices of assessments that you liked
and the practices of assessments that you disliked. Discuss the
features of each kind.
3. Identify an objective for one learning experience you are plan-
ning to teach soon. Connect it to a practice of assessment, then
to a system of evaluation, and, finally, to a method of account-
ability. Are your choices the most effective and efficient ones?
4. Select a unit of learning you are going to teach. Identify
examples of feedback and data you would like to collect. Now
relate your example with the basic concepts about performance-
based assessments to understand the concepts and put them
into practice.