Including Performance Assessments in Accountability Systems: A Review of Scale-Up Efforts

Center for Collaborative Education. 33 Harrison Avenue 6th Floor, Boston, MA 02111. Tel: 617-421-0134; Fax: 617-421-9016; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://www.cce.org

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60

Nellie Mae Education Foundation

Performance Based Assessment; Performance Tests; Accountability; Educational Opportunities; Literature Reviews; Program Descriptions; Use Studies; Barriers; Performance Factors; Success; Improvement Programs; Program Improvement; Educational Practices; Change Strategies; Foreign Countries

Australia; California; Kentucky; Nebraska; New York; Rhode Island; Vermont

The purpose of this literature and field review is to understand previous efforts at scaling up performance assessments for use across districts and states. Performance assessments benefit students and teachers by providing more opportunities for students to demonstrate their knowledge and complex skills, by providing teachers with better information about student progress, and by encouraging schools to build professional collaborative cultures through integrating curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Despite these benefits, performance assessments in accountability systems are still relatively rare in the U.S. This review of such systems found that the main challenges facing educators interested in using performance assessments at scale, and for accountability purposes, are the technical quality of performance assessments, the sustainability of implementation through strong professional development models, and political buy-in. Through the wealth of their collective experiences, the knowledge and capacity to tackle each of the challenges exists, and those lessons should be applied to the next generation of accountability systems. Through a systematic description of seven performance assessment scale-up efforts, as well as descriptions of analogous efforts from teacher certification, medicine, and law, this review concludes with implications for future endeavors to integrate performance assessments into accountability systems. Some of these implications include: (1) Develop and provide schools and districts with criteria and guidelines for achieving technical quality in performance assessments; (2) Use external partnerships and experienced teachers to create professional development models in assessment literacy, assessment design, and scoring; (3) Use state and district policy incentives to support the regular collection of technical quality evidence for each assessment; and (4) Build public and political support for including performance assessments in accountability systems. (Contains 5 tables and 3 footnotes.)

As Provided

41

2010

ED509787