Performance (-based) Assessment

DEFINITION
The definition of performance-based assessments varies greatly depending on author,
disciple, publication, and intended audience (Palm, 2008). In general, a performance-based
assessment measures students' ability to apply the skills and knowledge learned from a unit or
units of study. Typically, the task challenges students to use their higher-order thinking skills to
create a product or complete a process (Chun, 2010). Tasks can range from a simple
constructed response (e.g., short answer) to a complex design proposal of a sustainable
neighborhood.
THE PURPOSE OF PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT
STUDENTS:
• Evaluate the actual process of doing an object of learning
• Apply knowledge learnt in class to solve problems in the task
• Use the students’ thinking skill in order to complete the task
• Tasks that are meaningful may enhance interest towards mathematics learning as they could
make sense of what they learnt while performing
• Apply concepts learnt in real life context
• Well-guided on their level of achievement as they get immediate feedback based from the
rubric assessed by their teachers.
• Self and peer assessment are also encouraged in order to acknowledge their level of
competencies in that particular topic.
TEACHER:
• Different topics could be integrated into one performance task, thus teachers need not to
give up certain topics or favourite activities in their classroom and time would be managed
efficiently. This kind of integration along with traditional testing would give a comprehensive
picture of students’ performance
• Traditional testing should be simultaneously working with the performance task in order to
produce a better way to deliver the curriculum
CHARACTERISTICS
Although performance-based assessments vary, the majority of them share key characteristics.
First and foremost, the assessment accurately measures one or more specific course standards
1. Authentic measures of student learning
2. Complex
3. Process/product-oriented
4. Open-ended
5. Time-bound
Other Characteristics:
• Students create, perform, construct, produce, or do something.
• Deep understanding and/or reasoning skills are needed and assessed.
• involves sustained work, often days and weeks.
• Relies on trained assessor's judgement for scoring
• Multiple criteria and standards are prespecified and public
• There is no single correct answer.
• If authentic, the performance is grounded in real world contexts and constraints.

PROCEDURES
1. Identify goals of the performance-based assessment.
In this instance, the teacher wanted to challenge her students to use critical thinking and
problem-solving skills. She also wanted them to exhibit less codependence and more
individuality while completing this assessment. The teacher did not want students to rely on her
direction about how to complete each step of the assessment.
2. Select the appropriate course standards.
Once the goals were identified, she selected the Common Core standards to be addressed with
this performance assessment. She decided that the assessment should measure students'
understanding of conditional probability and rules of probability.
3. Review assessments and identify learning gaps.
This was a very important step. We looked at the current worksheets that students were
completing for the unit. Two-way frequency tables were a large part of the assignments. Next,
we looked at what was missing and noted that there was very little relevant real-world
application. As a result, we decided to create a performance-based assessment that was also
reality-based. Moreover, this task would require students to analyze two-way frequency tables
along with other charts and graphs.
4. Design the scenario.
After brainstorming a few different scenarios, we settled on a situation where the students
would decide if an inmate should be granted parole or remain in prison. This scenario included
five key components:
Setting Time frame
Role Product
Audience
5. Gather or create materials.
Depending on the scenario, this step may or may not be needed. For this particular assessment,
we wanted students to calculate the probability of the inmate returning to prison. For their
review, I created seven different documents that included pie charts, bar graphs, and two-way
frequency tables. All of the information was based on statistics from government agencies, such
as the Federal Bureau of Prisons and Bureau of Justice Statistics.
6. Develop a learning plan.
We wanted to be careful not to "teach to the test" in preparing students for the performance-
based assessment. We needed to strike a balance between teaching the content (e.g.,
probability given two independent events) and preparing students for the task (e.g.,
interpreting the validity of a media resource). We brainstormed six different formative
assessments that would need to be in place before students completed the performance task.
However, we also acknowledged that this part of our plan would need to be constantly
reviewed and revised depending on student learning needs.

Scoring Rubrics
 It is a descriptive scoring schemes developed by teachers or other evaluators to guide
the analysis of the products or processes of students’ efforts.
 A rating system by which teachers can determine at what level of proficiency a student
is able to perform task or display knowledge of a concept
 Used when judging the quality of the work of the learners on performance assessments
Types of Scoring Rubrics
Holistic Rubric: a type of rubric that requires the teacher to score an overall process or product
as a whole. The evaluator provides the overall quality of the performance of students by
yielding a single score to represent a specific category of accomplishment.
Example:

Score Description
5 Perfect
4 Above Average
3 Average
2 Fair
1 Needs improvement

Analytic Rubric: a type of rubric that provides information regarding performance in each
component parts of a task, making it useful for diagnosing specific strengths and weaknesses of
the learners.
Example:

Criteria Quality
Beginning Developing Accomplishe Exemplary Score
1 2 d 4
3
I
II
III
IV

Uses
-It is a powerful tool for both teaching and assessment
-It helps to improve student performance, as well as monitor it
-It guide students to become more thoughtful judges of the quality of their own and others’
work
-It reduce the amount of time teachers spend evaluating students’ work
-“Accordion” nature allows accommodation of heterogeneous classes
Guidelines (Gallagher,1998)
a. Communicate essential achievement standard of the assessed outcome(s);
b. Operationalize the outcome they intend to reflect;
c. Apply across context that calls for similar behavior;
d. Focus on current instruction, not prior learning;
e. Observable;
f. Essential for judging performance of the task adequately;
g. Communicate to others what constitutes excellence; and
h. Appropriate for the students.
Development of Scoring Rubrics (Mcmillan, 2001)
a. Be sure the criteria focus on important aspects of the performance.
b. Match the type of rating with the purpose of the assessment.
c. The descriptions of the criteria should be directly observable.
d. The criteria should be written so that the students, parents, and others understand them.
e. The characteristics and traits used in the scale should be clearly and specifically defined.
f. Take appropriate steps to minimize scoring error.
g. The scoring system needs to be feasible.

Affective Assessment.
Affective Domain
 Emphasizes on feelings, emotions and degrees of acceptance and rejection.
 Covers behaviors with regards to attitudes, beliefs, and feelings.
*Values are perception of worth.
*Beliefs are perception of fact.
 Refers to a wide variety of traits and dispositions that are different from knowledge,
reasoning and skills.
Affective Traits
 Students’ affect involves both emotional and cognitive beliefs.

Traits Definition
Attitude Predisposition to respond favorably or
unfavorably to specified situations, concepts,
objects, institutions, or persons
Interest Personal preference for certain kinds of
activities
Value Importance, worth, or usefulness of mode or
conduct and end state of existence
Opinions Beliefs about specific occurrences and
situations
Preference Desire or propensity to select one object
over another
Motivation Desire and willingness to be engaged in
behavior and intensity of involvement
Academic Self-Concept Self-perception of competence in school and
learning
Self-esteem Attitude toward oneself; degree of self-
respect, worthiness, or desirability of self-
concept
Locus of Control Self-perception of whether success and
failure is controlled by the student or by
external influences
Emotional Development Growth, change, and awareness of emotions
and ability to regulate emotional expression
Social Relationship Nature of interpersonal interactions and
functioning in group settings
Altruism Willingness and propensity to help others
Moral Development Attainment of ethical principles that guide
decision making and behavior
Classroom Environment Nature of feeling tone and interpersonal
relationships in a class

Levels of Affective Domain

1. Receiving (Attention) – It is concerned with getting, holding, and directing student’s
attention. It can be assessed through interest inventories and rated by Likert scale.
2. Responding (Interest)- It is concerned with the active participation of the learners by
showing interest on what they are doing. This can be assessed through observation in terms of
FSRN. (frequently, sometimes, rarely, never)
3. Valuing (Preference/Appreciation)- Refers to the willingness to be perceived by the others
as valuing certain ideas, materials, phenomenon, or behavior. This can be assessed by Likert
scale.
4. Organization (Philosophy of Life)- It is concerned with the development of philosophy of life
by bringing out the values of the students together to form a value system that will determine
relationships among values and resolve conflicts. This can be assessed by determining whether
the learner has developed a concept of value or belief.
5. Characterization by a Value (Lifestyle) – It is concerned with how the students act
consistently with values internalized.
What is Affective Assessment?
 It is an assessment focusing on students’ attitudes, interests and values
Purpose
 Learning has a clear linkage with affect
 Teachers’ subjective perceptions and insights inevitably influence the grading process to
some extent. But, it should not be allowed to greatly distort the subject matter grade.
 It is part of the borderline decisions usually to operate for the benefit of the student.

Guidelines in constructing Likert Scale

1. Write a series of statements expressing positive and negative opinion toward attitude
object.

2. Select the best statements (atleast 10), with a balance of positive and negative opinions
and edit necessary.

3. List the statements combining the positive and negative and put the letters of the five-
point scale to the left of each statement for easy marking.

4. Add the directions, indicating how to mark the answer and include a key at the top of
the page if letters are used for each statement.
Example
Directions. Put a check on the column for each of the statement that applies to you.
Legend: SA – Strongly Agree
A – Agree
U – Undecided
D – Disagree
SD – Strongly Disagree

(SA) (A) (U) (D) (SD)

5 4 3 2 1
1. I am happy during Mathematics class.
2. I get tired doing board work and drills.
3. I enjoy word problems.

Guidelines in constructing CHECKLIST

a. Enumerate all attributes and characteristics you wish to observe relative to the concept
being assessed.
b. Arrange these attributes as a shopping list of characteristics.
c. Ask students to mark attributes or characteristics which are present and to leave blank
to those which are not.

Sample checklist

OBSERVATION Yes No
1. Student will attend classes on time.
2. Students will submit assignment on time.
3. Students will actively participate in classroom discussions.
4. Students will follow instructions examination.
5. Students will ask questions during classroom discussion.
Constructed-Response Format
In completion item, the teacher asks the students about their feelings to respond to a
simple statement by writing a word or phrase to complete the said statement.
Example
1. I think Science is _______________________________________________.
2. What I like most about my friend is _______________________________.
3. I do not like her to be in her group because _________________________.
4. What I like most about my teacher is ______________________________.
5. Mathematics is ________________________________________________.
6. I am happy when ______________________________________________.

RANKING or RANK ORDER

 It is useful for identifying orders of IMPORTANCE or PRIORITY from a range of options
provided.
 In constructing Rank Order Assessment, it is very important that the options provided
are under only one category.
Example:
Instruction: For each of the listed values/behaviors, indicate the rank (1-10) according to your
priority in life.

VALUES/BEHAVIORS RANK
cooperation 7
creativity 10
faithfulness 6
honesty 1
industry 8
integrity 3
mutual trust 4
respect 2
thoughtfulness 9
truthfulness 5
  There are two ways in analyzing Ranking Assessment:
1. First is through simple observation. It is done only in evaluating only one person's
answers. By simply observing the answers/ranks, we can easily identify which one
he/she prioritizes the most/least among the options.
2. Second is through simple addition. This way is done when evaluating the rank
answered by a group. By just simply adding the ranks of each individual in every
option, we can identify what they value the most/least as a group.
OPEN ENDED QUESTIONS
 This assessment requires the students to communicate their own ways of acting or
behaving in certain situations.
Example of OEQ:
1. How do you define success? Give an example.
2. What three accomplishments of yours do you feel you are very proud of? Why?
3. How do you describe your strengths and weaknesses in your studies?
4. How would you describe your learning style?
5. Describe some of the things that motivate you and make your studies fulfilling.
When teachers ask OEQ, students are allowed to give a wide range of responses as they:
1. tell something that is valued in their life;
2. freely write or speak what is in their thoughts and feelings; and
3. share something that is more than just mere facts

References:

https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/crlmgn/lesson-5-performance-based-assessment

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/performance-based-assessment-reviewing-basics-patricia-hilliard

https://www.ukessays.com/essays/education/the-importance-of-performance-assessment-education-
essay.php