Performance Assessment

Performance assessment is the judgment of how well a task has been performed in relationship to a defined criterion or goal. Typically, the tasks are authentic: meaningful in a work environment, such as troubleshooting a computer network, creating a novel, teaching a lesson, or conducting a negotiation. Measurement of the task is often done by examination of a portfolio of work artifacts and end products (often after task completion), but may also include direct or indirect observation of work processes such as dialogues with coworkers or interactions with instrumentation systems. The context of the performance can be real-world or simulated. The performance assessment may determine if the performance is at or above a previously specified competency level, or it may describe, compare, or rank performance. Further, the purpose of the performance assessment may be to judge past performance, or it may be to infer a general competency or expertise that is believed to predict future performance of a class of tasks. This entry gives examples of performance assessments, explains how performance assessment differs from conventional testing, and discusses the design of performance assessments.

Table 1 illustrates a variety of examples of performance assessments.

Table 1 Four examples of performance assessments

It is important to understand how performance assessment differs from conventional testing of knowledge, skills, or abilities. Some of the most important differences are summarized in Table 2.

Source: Wellesley R. Foshay, based on distinctions in Pellegrino, J. W., Chudowsky, N., & Glaser, R. (Eds.). (2001). Knowing what students know: The science and design of educational assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

[Page 571][Page 572]Practitioners in education and training are showing increased interest in performance assessment, as their experience with conventional knowledge, skill, and aptitude testing has made them acutely aware of the limitations of conventional tests and as advances in cognitive science have placed renewed emphasis on complex cognitive skills such as expertise in ill-structured problem solving (Pellegrino et al., 2001). However, careful examination shows that performance assessments have a different mix of advantages and disadvantages when compared with conventional testing; neither strategy is superior in all respects. For example, the shortcomings of performance assessment include

These shortcomings often limit the use of performance assessment at scale and in high-stakes applications.

Advances in the theory of assessment show the way to improved, more rigorous methods of design and development of performance assessment. Evidence-centered design provides a rigorous framework for the development of performance assessment and has been successfully applied in digital learning contexts (Behrens et al., 2013). Evidence-centered design is portrayed as a progression through five

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