Performance-based assessment is the process of using student activities, rather than tests or surveys, to assess skills and knowledge. Class assignments, auditions, recitals, projects, and so forth, while intended to evaluate the individual student, can be reviewed as a whole (using all or a sample) to evaluate the course. What does overall student performance on these assignments tell you about your course(s)? While performance-based projects can be designed specifically for assessment, you might consider using existing classroom projects as assessment tools.

The last couple of years have seen remarkable growth in the use of portfolios and other types of performance-based assessment. These activities are being used in conjunction with tests to provide a complete picture of student skills and abilities, rather than simply relying on one test score. Test scores can be adversely affected by a student's health, personal life, or even the weather. Critics of testing also point out that tests, particularly multiple choice tests, don't provide sufficient opportunity for students to think through what they are doing, or to want to do their best. Portfolios and other forms of performance-based assessment, on the other hand, invite the student to show his or her "best" work (Belanoff & Dickson, 1991, p. xvi).

Types of Performance-Based Assessment

• Portfolios
• Performance measures
• Assessment center method
• Unobtrusive measures (see Chapter VII)

Though the use of student portfolios has a long history in disciplines such as art and architecture, it is rapidly gaining popularity in other areas, particularly in the assessment of writing skills. While portfolios are frequently used to evaluate an individual student's progress, they are also useful in allowing a department to take a critical look at overall performance of students in the program.

• exams (multiple choice and essay)
• research papers
• essays
• projects
• videotapes
• audio tapes

Suggestions for Using Portfolios:

• A department could keep portfolios on a sample of students in a General Studies course. Faculty members could then rate the portfolios according to the goals and objectives of the course.

• Students could be asked to submit a portfolio of their work as an admission requirement to the program. They would then be asked to maintain their portfolios as they progress through the major, adding selected materials from each course that they take. The portfolios would allow the department to chart the progress of their majors.

• To assess writing skills in the major, a department could choose to keep samples of student writing from all the courses in the major. Are students getting ample opportunity to write? What types of writing assignments are being required? How does the writing ability of the sophomores compare to the skills of the seniors? Is there one particular course in the program that seems to have a significant impact on the writing skills of the majors?

Again, looking at overall student performance on these types of classroom assignments can tell you a great deal about your courses. You can learn a tremendous amount from just a few projects if you choose the right projects.

Suggestions for Using Performance Measures for Assessment:

• A common writing assignment, such as an essay or research paper, can be used to examine more than one aspect of a General Studies course. An initial reading of a paper can assess students' understanding of the course content. A second reading could evaluate writing skills, while a third reading could explore critical thinking skills. Similarly, a computer project can be used to evaluate both students' knowledge of course content as well as the level of computer competency.

• Samples of students' art or photographic work could be displayed on a classroom wall. Faculty members can then examine the work against a set of criteria and make judgments about the strengths and weaknesses of the program. Accreditation teams sometimes use this approach.

• If students are required to perform, as in a dance, music, or speech course, the performances could be videotaped. A team of faculty members would review a sample of the performances against a set of criteria.

This method of assessment is a type of performance measure that attempts to create a professional situation in which students participate. While this type of activity does evaluate individual student performance, its role as an assessment activity is to provide feedback to the department on the effectiveness of the program.

Suggestions for Using the Assessment Center Method:

• Ask students to prepare a business plan and present it to a panel of faculty members as if they were prospective clients. The faculty members then make judgments about the quality of the students' work.

• Assign students roles in a fictitious situation particular to the area of study. For example, to assess a social work course, the students could be asked to assume the roles of client and social worker. Observe and rate the student performances against a set of criteria that are determined by the objectives of the course.

A) Begin by asking faculty members to answer two questions:

• What outcomes do we value?
• How would we identify a successful student in our course(s)?

1. Begin by collecting a representative range of student work – from marginal to outstanding – and determine what learning appears to be taking place and what is not. This can be the basis for a discussion of what the most important intended outcomes ought to be.
2. Identify a group of "exemplary students," collect their course work or observances of their performances, ask the students to describe what experiences in the course helped them the most and then do an analysis of the interviews and course work.
3. Concentrate on one or more outcomes of your program for which portfolios or performances seem most useful or appropriate. Some outcomes, such as reading or computational skills, may have been adequately assessed already. Higher-order or more complex outcomes may be more appropriately assessed by a performance-based process.
4. Base the evaluation on an existing official statement of intended outcome such as your goals and objectives statement for the course. Build your assessment around this detailed statement of goals and guidelines.

A) This will vary with departments. Many assessment techniques, by their very nature, don't allow many opportunities for discussion and debate among faculty. Frequently these activities are designed and implemented by one, maybe two, faculty members. Performance-based assessment, though, as one writer puts it, "practically begs for conversation" (Belanoff & Dickson, 1991). Getting faculty members together to discuss what constitutes, for example, a successful General Studies student, can be thought provoking and enormously rewarding.

Q) What are the advantages of performance-based assessment?

A) Assessment activities that are separate from the daily teaching routine of the department can be perceived by students and faculty as intrusions. Performance-based assessment builds on the daily work (assignments, exams, projects) of students and faculty. Probably the biggest problem faced by those conducting assessment activities is student response – not only getting students to participate in "voluntary" activities such as assessment tests and surveys, but getting them to do their best. While students are usually highly motivated to do their best when working on something that will count toward their grade, they are less likely to do so on an activity which will not affect their grade. Using actual class projects means getting results from students who were probably motivated to do well.

Q) Should we use students' best work or choose from a range of grades?

A) Actually, either way is fine – the question is, which will best suit the department's purpose? Since students' "best" will vary, you can learn a lot about your program from looking at those assignments which earned the highest grades. What differences do you see in these samples of work? Why are some students' "best" works better than others? On the other hand, selecting from a wide range of grades will say something as well. What is failing, average, or excellent work in your courses? Is there commonality among each of these ranges that gives some clue as to who is doing what kind of work and why?

Q) Should we collect work from all our students or just a sample?

A) This depends on the size of your student population as well as the type of project being used. If you have only one or two sections of thirty students each, then perhaps you could keep portfolios or do performance reviews for each of them. If, though, you have eight sections with anywhere from 80 to 200 students in each, a sampling of students is sufficient.

Q) Who decides which items or projects go in portfolios or are used for performance assessment – students or faculty?

A) The type of assessment being done determines this. In some cases, faculty members will ask the students to select what they (the students) consider to be their best work for inclusion in their portfolios. In other situations, the instructor may provide a list of class assignments or exams that are to be included in portfolios. The department may choose to create the portfolios themselves, rather than asking the students to do it. Either way, students probably have a right to know what you are doing and why.

Q) Who should see the materials in portfolios?

A) This is, again, a matter for the department to decide, depending on what your purposes are. It could be a committee only who sees the materials, or it could be open to all faculty members, advisors, and even students.

Q) How do we know if our assessments are reliable?

A) Aubrey Forrest suggests that reliability means the extent to which:

1. the evaluators agree on the analysis of the portfolios or performances.
2. these same evaluators would make the same decisions at another time.
3. these evaluators would agree with another group of evaluators.

Q) What are the standards for rating performance-based materials?

A) Once the intended outcomes for the course have been identified, the faculty will need to set the standards for the evaluation of the portfolio materials or performance measures. For example, the faculty may decide that the course is doing what it is intended to do if 30% of the students' materials or performances are rated at least 3 on a 6-point scale, 30% rate 4, and so forth. A course might be judged successful if the average for the group is at least 3 on a 6-point scale. The important thing is that there is consensus among faculty members. Performance-based assessment is most effective if faculty members agree on the intended outcomes of the course or project, as well as the standards set for the evaluation.

Aubrey Forrest. Time Will Tell: Portfolio-Assisted Assessment of General Education. Washington, DC: AAHE Assessment Forum, 1990.

Belanoff, Pat & Dickson, Marcia. Portfolios: Process and Product. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers, 1991.

Ballard, Leslie. "Portfolios and Self-Assessment". English Journal. February 1992.

Valeri-Gold, Maria, James R. Olson, Mary P. Deming. "Portfolios: Collaborative Authentic Assessment Opportunities for College Developmental Learners". Journal of Reading, 35:4, December 1991/January 1992.

Portfolios News. Portfolio Assessment Clearing House, Encinitas, CA.