​​One key feature of all performance assessments is that they require students to be active participants. They also focus attention on how students arrive at their answers and require students to demonstrate the knowledge or skills needed to obtain a correct answer. To illustrate, if high school juniors are asked to demonstrate their understanding of interest rates by shopping for a used-car loan (i.e., comparing the interest rates of banks and other lending agencies and identifying the best deal), a teacher can easily see if the students understand the concept of interest, know how it is calculated, and are able to perform mathematical operations accurately.

 

What Are the Advantages of Assessing My Child This Way?

Instruction in most subject areas is being altered to include more practical applications of skills and to incorporate a greater focus on the understanding and combining of content and skills.

 

Performance assessments closely tied to this new way of teaching provide teachers with more information about the learning needs of their students and enable them to modify their methods to meet these needs. They also allow students to assess their own progress and, therefore, be more responsible for their education.

 

Advocates of performance assessment believe these tests will prompt educators and school officials to identify the skills and knowledge they want their students to acquire and to focus on teaching students this information. It also provides educators with information about what students have learned, not just how well they can learn.

 

What Are the Disadvantages of Assessing My Child This Way?

Performance assessments usually include fewer questions and call for a greater degree of subjective judgement than traditional testing methods. Since there are no clear right and wrong answers, teachers have to decide how to grade and what distinguishes an average performance from an excellent one. This potential disadvantage can be avoided if teachers set up an evaluation rubric (rating scale with several categories) that clearly defines the characteristics of poor, average, and excellent performances so teachers can score them in a consistent manner.

 

Critics argue that performance assessments will not improve schooling and could be harmful. The following concerns have been expressed about performance-based assessments: teachers might teach only to the test, thereby narrowing the curriculum and reducing the test's value. When using performance assessments such as portfolios, teachers and other individuals who are grading the work may differ greatly in their evaluations. Students may be unintentionally penalized for such things as having a disability, being from a certain cultural background, or attending classes at a school with limited resources.