Analyze how performance-based assessment is unique when it comes to meeting the needs of 21st-century learners.HAPTER 9 Performance-Based Assessment Strategies
Suzanne Clouzeau/Pearson
Chapter Objectives
As a result of reading this chapter, you will be able to:
1. Describe performance-based strategies and their purposes.
2. Explain types of performance-based assessments and how they are used.
3. Discuss how to classify and organize performance assessments.
4. Explain how standards affect performance assessments.
5. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using performance-based assessments.
9.1 Understanding Performance Assessment
We have discussed a variety of types of informal and formal assessments such as observation, checklists, rating scales, and teacher-designed assessments. In this chapter, we discuss how assessments contribute to a broader strategy—performance-based assessment. Eachassessment discussed previously contributes to the collection of assessment information that is part of performance-based assessment. Thestrategies used to conduct these assessments permit the teacher to measure a child’s performance.
Before proceeding further, we should explain what is meant by performance-based assessment and how it is seen as a positive alternativeto the use of standardized tests to measure children’s development and learning. Traditional formal methods of measuring learning havefocused on assessing what the child knows. Achievement tests are accurately labeled in that they measure what the child has achieved.Performance assessment is advocated as a contrast to high-stakes testing. Early childhood educators such as Meisels ( 2000 , 2014 ) deploredthe situation in which tests determine what teachers teach, what children learn, and whether children fail or are promoted. Rather thandepend on tests that are a single indicator of what a child has learned, Meisels proposed that the teacher should have a generative ortransformed role with children. The teacher–learner process permits the learner to use his or her own skills to learn new skills.
Performance assessments require more in that they measure what the child can do or apply, in addition to what the child knows. Moreover,performance assessment includes completion of a task in a realistic context. Performance assessments require the student to perform someaction or activity that demonstrates understanding and application.
Performance-based assessment is considered particularly useful with young children because it measures progress as well as achievement.Children in the early childhood years are proceeding through rapid changes in development that are described as complex because of theinteractions among maturation, experience, and learning (Illinois State Board of Education: Early Childhood Education, 2012 ).
Current needs in the workforce require the kinds of learning reflected in performance assessment. The needs of businesses and otherworkplaces in the 21st century require that workers be able to solve problems that are at odds with the fact-oriented curriculum found inpublic schools. The workplace of the future will require that workers find new ways to get work done, and students will need to be able tothink critically and analytically rather than simply demonstrate content knowledge (Fadel, Honey, & Fasnick, 2007 ; Lai, 2011 ; NewCommission on the Skills of the American Workforce, 2007 ; Stanford School Redesign Network, 2008). Supporters of performance-basedassessment propose that it reflects higher-order thinking skills, informs teacher instruction, is done in real-world contexts, and can be usedfor formative and summative judgments (Stanford School Redesign Network, 2008).
Authentic Learning and Assessment
Another term frequently used for performance assessment is authentic learning , or authentic performance assessment . The IllinoisState Board of Education: Early Childhood Education (2012) describes authentic assessment as “the documentation and analysis of astudent’s actual work collected over time in his or her real world environment. It tracks students’ successes rather than failures. Mostimportantly, work sample portfolios combined with well-trained teacher observations and knowledge about research-based authenticassessment programs drives instruction” (p. 3). An important element in authentic assessment is that it is linked directly to authenticlearning (Baldwin, Adams, & Kelly, 2009 ). State and national standards for early childhood and elementary school are also significant whenconsidering performance assessments.
Advocates of authentic assessment propose that authentic achievement must accompany authentic assessment. If we are to use authenticor performance assessment to understand how children can apply or use what they have learned, the learning experiences they areprovided must also be authentic or meaningful. Meaningful learning includes intellectual accomplishments that are similar to thoseundertaken by successful adults and involve tasks and objectives that engage the mind. When children are engaged in authentic learning,they are given opportunities to link new information to prior knowledge and engage in problem solving.
Authentic learning is based on construction of knowledge and focuses on higher-order thinking. The purpose is to move beyond theknowledge level and to construct new knowledge. This type of learning includes children’s communication of their construction ofknowledge and application of knowledge in meaningful contexts, such as some type of performance (Illinois State Board of Education: EarlyChildhood Education, 2012 ).
Like authentic learning, authentic assessment is meaningful. It requires the teacher to have continual interaction with student work. Theteacher engages in dialogues, questioning, suggesting, observing, and guiding to encourage children. The purpose of this approach is toenable children to demonstrate how they can use what they understand and to represent that learning in some type of product orperformance. Teachers not only use performance assessments to reflect authentic learning, but also use the results of these assessments asresources to extend and deepen student learning (Kleinert, Green, & Harte, 2002 ); (The Glossary of Education Reform, 2013 ).
Interrelated Nature of Performance-Based Assessments
Different types of informal and performance-based assessments have been discussed in both this chapter and earlier chapters. At thispoint, it is important to describe how these assessments are used in an interrelated manner to understand the characteristics of a child’sperformance. For example, observation can be the basis for assessing a child’s performance on a directed assignment, whereas a checklistmight be used to record the child’s progress on the same assignment. In the following sections, we explore the characteristics ofperformance assessments and how the teacher uses them to evaluate the development and achievement of the whole child.
The Role of the Teacher
The teacher has the primary role in selecting the types of performance assessments to be used and how they will be used. Because teachersevaluate and use the assessment information, they also have the responsibility to decide which strategies will be most effective for theirpurposes.
Performance assessment occurs continually in the early childhood classroom. Information is collected throughout the day when childrenare working in centers, playing outdoors, participating in small-group instruction, and performing whole-group activities. The teacherobserves and participates in these activities to acquire the information about each child’s progress and the child’s own thinking about whatand how he or she is learning.
Collecting information is only a part of the teacher’s role. Interpreting and using the data are another responsibility. First, the teacher mustobtain enough information to know the child’s abilities and needs so that appropriate planning can further growth and development.Second, the teacher must collect comprehensive information about each child so that all areas of development and learning are addressed.The teacher’s goal is to design and implement a program that is appropriate for the child’s physical, intellectual, and social development.Likewise, the program should be developmentally appropriate for all the children.
Meisels ( 2000 ) adds another dimension to the teaching role. The teacher’s role is transformed, in that the teacher’s approach to teaching isdifferent in authentic learning and assessment. The teacher provides meaningful learning experiences that children would have neverexperienced otherwise. At the same time, the teacher empowers the children to learn more independently and spontaneously.
The challenges of the Common Core Standards (CCSS) have also raised the expectations that teachers will have to improve their teachingand assessment practices. Performance assessments themselves assist teachers to learn about the standards and gain the necessary toolsto teach knowledge demanded by the CCSS (Darling-Hammond & Falk, 2013 ). Teachers gained the most expertise when “designing, scoring,and evaluating the results of the assessments” (p. 6). Darling-Hammond and Falk further explained as follows:
Researchers found that teachers scoring the assessments led to teachers working on instruction, which makes it excellentprofessional development. Examining and assessing students’ work helps teachers learn more about what the students knowand can do, as well as what they think. Doing this in the context of standards and well-designed performance tasks stimulatesteachers to consider their own curriculum and teaching. (p. 6)
Assessments that are consistent with a relationship of trust and authority between teachers and children also have a different approach.Early childhood educators should be aware of the following (Meisels, 2000 ):
• In an early childhood setting, it is essential to address yourself to the personal and unique attributes of the children in your care.
• You need to learn to listen, diagnose, examine, hypothesize, intervene, evaluate, and then reflect and redesign.
• Your goal should be to try to create a relationship of trust with children—one upon which learning is based. (p. 18)
Thus, in performance assessment, teaching, learning, and evaluation result from a partnership relationship between teacher and child.Moreover, the teacher uses performance assessment strategies to collaborate with children on the nature of their accomplishments and thenext steps in their learning.
The teacher in the classroom described in the box feature about a pizza project is focusing on emerging literacy skills. The strategies thatare being used for performance assessment are checklists, observations, videos, digital recordings, and work samples.
The teacher uses checklists to document reading and writing skills. Children drawing an illustration for a big book demonstrate theirunderstanding between pictures and text. As children write menus for the “Pizza Hut,” the teacher can observe and document left-to-rightskills in their writing skills or their use of uppercase and lowercase letters.
Observations with anecdotal notes can provide more detail about the process a child uses in reading or writing. A video or digital recordingcan document an entire episode. This type of documentation provides information on various children engaged in an activity that can beanalyzed for assessment of what children can do.
Finally, work samples provide the teacher with specific evidence of accomplishment. In the classroom activities described in the scenario,the teacher would have work samples of big-book illustrations, menus, and a Pizza Hut sign for documentation of performance.
A Teacher’s Assessment Role in a Kindergarten Classroom
Upon entering the classroom of 5-year-olds, a buzz of activity captures the visitor’s attention. Children working in small groups arebusily pursuing a number of activities. One group is drawing illustrations for the big book that the class wrote describing their trip toPizza Hut. Another group is creating menus for the restaurant they are setting up in the dramatic play area. “Don’t forget to put ‘Wehave pepperoni’ on your menu,” one child says. The other children nod their heads and continue drawing and writing on their papers.One child is bent over a large sheet of construction paper, with marker in hand. He is carefully copying the words “Pizza Hut” from theword wall the children have created. When finished, he tapes the paper to two chairs he has placed in front of the dramatic area.“Here’s the sign,” he tells the others. Three other children are looking at a recipe book and discussing the “gredients” they will need tomake the pizzas. Another group is looking at books about restaurants in the literacy corner.
Source: Ratcliff, N. J. (2001/2002). Using authentic assessment to document the emerging literacy skills of young children. Childhood Education, 78, 66–69.
Purposes for Performance-Based Assessment
What, then, are the purposes of using performance-based assessment with young children? First, the importance of measuring youngchildren appropriately has been an ongoing theme in this text. Contrary to many of the standardized tests and more formal strategies thathave been criticized as inappropriate to the young child’s development, performance assessments can be good tools for evaluatingprogress in development. Because they are designed to measure a child’s performance of a real or designed task or activity relevant to thedesired learning, performance observations are directly related to the child’s development and achievement (Baldwin, Adams, & Kelly, 2009 ).
Second, performance assessments are integrally related to instruction. The performance activity is a natural outcome of ongoing curriculumand instruction and not a separate, unrelated type of experience that is unfamiliar to the child. When using performance-based evaluation,the classroom teacher needs to know how to design appropriate, related assessment tools, interpret assessment results to understand thechild’s progress and plan for further instruction, and interpret performance assessment results to parents and administrators (Adamson &Darling-Hammond, 2010 ).
Finally, performance assessments are used to evaluate whether early education programs are meeting the needs of young students.Effective performance assessment tools help clarify the goals of preschool programs to provide developmental curriculum. Progressassessment reflects both individual developmental progress and the accomplishment of developmental program goals. The teacher thenhas the responsibility to report program accomplishments in a meaningful way to administrators (Adamson & Darling-Hammond, 2010 ;Caffrey, 2009 ).
In the next sections, we discuss the types of evaluation strategies that use performance assessments. Although most of the tools areselected or created by the teacher, others use examples of the child’s work. Both the teacher and the child plan some of the assessmentactivities, while others occur spontaneously when the teacher takes advantage of an ongoing activity or event to conduct an assessment.
All of the evaluation strategies discussed are adapted to the individual differences in children. Children who are ELLs may be assesseddifferently according to their progress in learning English. The child who cannot hear may be interviewed using sign language, while a childwithout vision may have many sensory materials included in the assessments. Directed assignments are modified according to the needsand abilities of each child. Likewise, contracts would reflect individual learning abilities, and games would be adapted to make it possible forchildren with special needs, including second-language needs, to participate.
9.2 Types of Performance-Based Assessments
Many strategies can be used to conduct performance-based assessments. Like checklists and observations, performance-based evaluationhas been used for many decades; however, in this context, it may have a broadened purpose or a more comprehensive role as part of asystem of evaluation. The assessment strategies appropriate for use with young children are interviews, contracts, directed assignments,games, work samples, projects, and portfolios.
Interviews
A teacher studies a child’s performance on tasks to understand progress.
Suzanne Clouzeau/Pearson
Teachers use interviews to find out what children understand about concepts. Interviews are especially appropriate for young childrenwho are just beginning to develop literacy skills and cannot yet express themselves with a paper-and-pencil activity. The strategies followedin interviews complement the techniques used by Piaget to understand children’s thinking. By questioning and asking more questionsbased on children’s responses, Piaget determined not only what the child understood but also the thinking processes used to organizeresponses to the questions (Seefeldt, 2005 ). The Early Childhood Assessment Mathematics Manual produced by the New York City Board ofEducation (2009) described a mathematics interview as follows:
The mathematics interview is a rich assessment technique. The teacher asks the child to solve several mathematical tasks and toexplain their thinking as they proceed. The teacher observes and questions the child. This gives the teacher access to how eachchild figures out particular mathematical problems. Each child’s understandings and current strategies can be identified as wellas any misconceptions they may have. (p. 2)
Interviews can be described as unstructured , structured , or diagnostic . An unstructured interview can occur when children are playing,working in centers, or otherwise engaged in classroom activities. The teacher becomes aware that it is an opportune time to engage thechild in an interview and takes a few minutes to question the child (Morrison, 2013 ).
Structured interviews are planned by the teacher and conducted to acquire specific understandings about the child. For example, theteacher might want to determine the beginning reader’s understanding of a story. After a reading of the story, the teacher asks probingquestions to elicit the child’s thoughts about the meaning of the story. Likewise, concepts in mathematics can be assessed through astructured interview when the teacher asks oral questions about a concept or process and explores the child’s responses with furtherquestions. Kamii and Rosenblum ( 1990 ) described an activity to determine the kindergarten child’s understanding of small addends bydropping beads into two glasses. The child was interviewed about the sum of the two groups of beads to assess the child’s progress inmental arithmetic.
Diagnostic interviews serve an additional purpose: to determine the child’s instructional needs. The interview may be informal orstructured. The teacher’s questioning is directed more at understanding what kind of help the child needs through responses to questions.If the teacher notices that the child is confused or making errors, the diagnostic interview can reveal the difficulty the child is experiencingin thinking about the concept or skill.
Teachers can use several techniques to enhance the effectiveness of interviewing for assessment. In addition to taking notes whenconducting an interview, teachers can make digital recordings of the child’s responses for later review. Seefeldt ( 2005 ) suggests that wheninterviewing children about a social studies concept, responses need not be limited to talking. The child could act out a concept, find anexample of the concept in pictures, or draw the things he or she knows about the concept. These possibilities would be helpful for childrenwho are native speakers of another language or otherwise have difficulty expressing themselves verbally.
Interviews with young children should be short. One tip is to limit interviews to 10 minutes. Other tips are (1) to continue questions afterthe child’s initial responses to find out more than whether the child’s response is correct and (2) to give the child plenty of time to thinkabout and respond to the questions. The child needs to feel comfortable with the process if pertinent responses are to be elicited.
Contracts
Contracts serve a dual purpose. They provide a plan between the teacher and the child and a record of the child’s progress. Contracts ofactivities the child will engage in are designed for a period during a day, for the whole day, or for several days. Preschool children needpictures or other visual representations of activities to be completed. Primary-grade children can follow simple written instructions. Afterthe child has completed an activity, some type of check-off system can be used to record the accomplishment.
A Structured Interview to Assess Classification Skills
Nykesha Hillmon’s kindergarten class has been studying classification skills. Over a period of weeks, Nykesha has conducted lessons onsorting objects into two groups by using the physical characteristics the objects have in common. The children have worked with theclassification of nuts, rocks, and classroom plants. Today, Nykesha has placed an assortment of beans in the science center. She isinterviewing Tyrone, who has been asked to make two groups of beans. As Tyrone is in the process of forming the groups, Nykeshabegins the interview with questions she has planned earlier:
Nykesha: Tyrone, can you explain how you decided to make the two groups of beans?
Tyrone: Well, one group of beans is round. They are all round.
Nykesha: And the other group?
Tyrone: They are all the same as this one (lima bean). I don’t know what to call them.
Nykesha: Good. You have one group of beans that are round and another group of beans that have the same shape. You have madeyour groups by using their shape. Can you think of another way you could make two groups?
Tyrone: (After some hesitation) I could make groups of big ones and little ones.
Nykesha: Could you think of another way?
Tyrone: I don’t think so.
Nykesha: How about using their color?
Tyrone: Oh, yes. I could put the ones that have brown together, and the rest that don’t have brown together.
Contracts can also be used to record accomplishment of skills and concepts. The teacher and the child can use the contract as a guide forconferences and interviews or as a recording system for the teacher to indicate when the child has completed an objective or needs moreopportunities to interact with a concept. Over a period of time, completed contracts can provide information on progress andaccomplishments.
Directed Assignments
Directed assignments are an extension of teacher-designed assessments, discussed earlier. They are also similar to interviews, except thata specific task is involved in acquiring the child’s understanding, rather than an interview. Children who are beginning to readindependently might be asked to read a story and discuss it. Preschool children might be asked to use concrete objects to solve a problemin mathematical thinking. The important point is that the teacher makes a specific assignment or task for the purposes of assessment.Discussion and questioning may be a part of the process, but the child’s ability to carry out the assignment is the focus of the assessmentprocess (State of Connecticut State Board of Education, 2007 ).
Using Contracts to Assess Performance
Graciela, a second-grade student, is discussing her mathematics contract with her teacher, Luis Garza. Luis plans contracts with thestudents on Monday of each week and conducts conferences with the students throughout the week to monitor their progress.Graciela has worked on her contract for 2 days. Her contract on Monday and Tuesday included the following:
Monday:
1. Small-group lesson on subtraction
2. Center activity solving subtraction problems
3. Worksheet of subtraction problems
Tuesday:
1. Game with a partner solving subtraction problems
2. Subtraction worksheet
3. Conference with Mr. Garza
Luis discusses Graciela’s work to date. They review her work, which includes the worksheets and problems solved in the math center.Luis notices that Graciela has made several subtraction errors. He questions Graciela and then gives her blocks to help her to work outthe subtraction problem. After she has described how she arrived at her answer, he tells her to work out the problem with the blocksagain. After the conference, Luis makes a note to observe Graciela the following day to determine whether she needs further help withthe subtraction process.
Games
Games can be used to understand children’s progress with a skill or a concept. Although more than one child may be playing a game at onetime, the teacher can use observation to assess each child’s abilities and thinking. Kamii and Rosenblum ( 1990 ) suggest that the teacher usegames for systematic observation of an entire class. Two children or a slightly larger group play the game until all the children have beenassessed. The ability to make 10 with two numbers is one example of a skill that can be assessed through the child’s performance in a game.Cards from 1 to 9 are arranged in groups of nine at one time. The child shows all the pairs that can be combined to make 10. In addition todetermining whether the child has mastered the skill, the teacher can observe the process the child uses to solve the problem. If the childarranges combinations quickly, a higher level of progress of mental addition has been achieved than that of a child who must count up fromthe first card to get the sum with the second card.
Games may be used for concepts and skills in other content areas and with very young children. For example, playing peek-a-boo with anolder infant or toddler can inform the teacher about the child’s attention span, ability to maintain eye contact, and the appropriateness ofhis or her emotional reactions.
Over many decades, games have been developed for reading skills. Card games to identify letter knowledge are one ready example. Boardgames can be adapted or developed for language arts, mathematics, and social studies. A game similar to Trivial Pursuit, in which childrenmust respond to an oral or a written question related to a topic being studied, is an example of how games can be used as an assessmentactivity to test the child’s ability to perform a task or solve a problem.
Work Samples
Teachers and children are equal participants in the use of work samples for performance assessment. Work samples are examples of alltypes of children’s work that can demonstrate the child’s developmental progress or accomplishments (Morrison, 2013 ). For preschoolchildren, work samples may be clay models of animals that reflect the child’s understanding of concepts in a thematic study related toanimals. Other work samples include paintings, emergent writing, and dictated interpretations of wordless books. Primary-grade childrenmight have samples of book reports, creative writing that has been illustrated, and work pages of computation problems. Other media, suchas photographs, videos and digital recordings on electronic tablets or computers, might be used.
Digital cameras and electronic tablets are especially useful for this purpose. They can be used to document children’s work, as well asserving as a mechanism for transferring work into an electronic form. When classes engage in project work, photographic samples can bemade of the project’s progress from the beginning to the end of the topic being studied.
Work samples are often included in discussions about portfolios because portfolios become the means through which work samples andother types of information related to performance assessment are stored. A system for selecting and organizing work samples is importantif the collection is to serve appropriately for performance assessment (Meisels, 2010).
Assessing Progress with Games
Joan Harrison, a first-grade teacher, is using a board game to assess reading words. The purpose of the game is to assess children’sknowledge of words that have been used in reading activities. Each student has an individual bank of words from books he or she hasread. Kim Soo and Martha are playing the game. The children take turns drawing a word card. If they name the word correctly, they canadvance one square on the board. The first child to reach the end wins the game. Words that are missed are put in a separate pile, andJoan notes them in her notebook so that she can work with the words in small-group activities.
Projects
A project is an activity conducted by a child or a group of children that is lengthier than a classroom activity conducted during a single classperiod. The project can be part of a unit of study, such as a science or social studies unit, or part of a theme that is studied by a class. Aproduct of some type results from the project. For example, a second-grade class may study spring wildflowers. A group of students maygather samples of the flowers, identify them, and describe their characteristics. Each flower is dried and attached to the completedinformation. The completed booklet of wildflowers becomes the product of the project that could be evaluated.
Projects are flexible in terms of meeting student needs. Children with limited English skills may engage in projects that expand languagewhile working with new concepts. Student interests are a part of the project; therefore, different groups may vary in how they conduct aproject. For children with disabilities, a project approach can be used to tailor learning opportunities according to a child’s abilities andneeds.
Portfolios
The portfolio was one of the most popular methods of documenting authentic assessment in the 1990s. In looking for alternatives tostandardized tests, drill worksheets, and other assessment measures that reflect skills development rather than developmental progressevolving from the student’s own demonstrations of performance, school districts across the United States have implemented portfolios as apreferred type of reporting performance-based evaluation. Some states have initiated the use of portfolios in early childhood educationprograms (Illinois State Board of Education, 2012 ).
Portfolios are a process or method whereby student performance information can be stored and interpreted. Portfolios may be a foldervery similar to collections of student work that many teachers have used for decades for reporting to parents. They may contain examplesof papers that students have completed, as well as checklists, anecdotal records, summary reports for a grading period, and any othermaterials that students and teachers think are relevant to demonstrate the student’s performance (Morrison, 2013 ).
Portfolios may also be the vehicle used for assessing and reporting the student’s progress and accomplishments to parents andadministrators. How portfolios are designed and used will be discussed in Chapter 10 .
9.3 Classification and Organization of Performance Assessments
Although all performance assessments are considered informal measures, they can be categorized as structured or unstructured and director indirect. These organizational patterns are similar to structured and unstructured interviews but are more comprehensive in the typesof assessments that are included.
One approach to categorizing assessments is by the type of activity used for assessment. Unstructured (or nonstructured) performanceassessments are those that are part of regular classroom learning activities, such as writing samples, projects, checklists, and teacher-designed tasks and tests. Structured performance assessments are predetermined or designed to include questions or tasks that requireproblem solving, synthesis, and analysis. Questions are open ended, and all students are administered the questions through similar testadministration procedures.
Another perspective of the two classifications is as spontaneous or structured. Similar to Lee’s definition, spontaneous assessments evolvefrom the teacher’s natural day-to-day interactions and observations in the classroom. Structured performance assessment is not onlyplanned but also must meet the standards for reliability and validity required of standardized measurement instruments. Such assessmentsare carefully designed and have specified scoring criteria, as well as well-defined behaviors that are to be measured.
Performance assessments can also be classified as direct or indirect. Direct performance measures require students to use knowledge insome type of application; indirect performance measures measure what students know about a topic (Stiggins, 2008). An example of anindirect measure is a paper-and-pencil test. An example of a direct measure is taking measurements of a table to determine how large tomake a tablecloth to fit the table. The distinction between these performance measures is assessing knowledge versus assessing applicationof knowledge.
The Role of Observation
Strategies for observation were discussed in Chapter 05, and the importance of using observation to evaluate the development of youngchildren was emphasized. A discussion of the role of observation within performance assessments reinforces that importance. Whenconsidering the measurement of the young child’s performance, observation is the most effective strategy (Frost, Wortham, & Reifel, 2008;Jablon, 2010/2011; Reifel, 2011). Observation behaviors such as attending, examining, heeding, considering, investigating, monitoring,studying, and watching enable the teacher to understand and know the child and what the child can do in real-life circumstances andcommon learning situations (Jablon, 2010/2011).
Observation should occur throughout the day in all types of classroom activities. Strategies for observation, including anecdotal records,running records, observation with checklists and rating scales, and time and event sampling, can all have a role in performance assessment.To ensure that the desired performance is observed and recorded, the following components should be determined prior to conducting theobservation:
• Purpose—What do we want to know?
• Main Emphasis—Who or what is being observed? What behaviors might be exhibited? Why is the observation needed?
• Method of Documentation—What information is needed? How will it be recorded? How frequently?
• Use of the Observation—How will observation results be used? What next steps would be taken to further the child’s development?
Gathering and documenting information through observation is not enough. Analysis and use of assessment data must also be facilitated asa result of the observation. Therefore, the child should be observed at different times and places and using different materials beforedetermining whether new knowledge has been developed (Frost, Wortham, & Reifel, 2008). In addition, teachers should spend timereflecting on the information that has been gathered. The purpose of this reflection is so that teachers will use assessment in an intentionalmanner to plan for children’s future learning opportunities. To properly collect and reflect on observation data, teachers might includeplanning for observations with individual children and groups of children. After data is collected and analyzed, teachers can plan for futureinstruction based on their findings.
Observation is the foundation of performance assessment. It is used with interviews when the teacher observes the child’s responses andbehaviors. It is integral to directed assignments as the teacher observes the child completing the assignment or task. Observation enablesthe teacher to understand the child’s thinking and knowledge when engaging in assessment games. Observation complements otherstrategies used for unstructured and structured and direct and indirect performance assessments. Finally, checklists, rating scales, andteacher-designed assessments of various types incorporate observation as part of or all of the process of understanding the child’sperformance (Baldwin et al., 2009).
The Role of Documentation
The term documentation has been used throughout this text to mean a method of recording a child’s progress or accomplishments. Thus,observation, checklists, rating scales, and rubrics can document development and learning, as can assessments related to mastery learning.
Documenting Infant Development
Sugar is 6 months old. She is in the infant room in a corporate-sponsored child-care center near a large insurance company. Herparents both work for the company.
Caregivers at the center observe the children daily. They are tracing the infant’s development toward developmental milestones. Sugarrecently learned to roll over. She is now enjoying rolling over frequently during her periods of play. Now she is developing the skills tobe able to sit up by herself. She is in the process of using her arms to lift her upper body to an upright position. Each day, the caregivernotes what actions Sugar uses to learn to sit. These will be reported to the parents at the end of the day. When Sugar is consistent inbeing able to move to a sitting position, she will have reached another physical milestone. The caregivers and parents will have achronological documentation of this stage of Sugar’s development.
In the context of performance assessment, documentation can take a broader meaning, particularly when it is linked to an early childhoodprogram and child-centered or constructivist learning experiences. In Reggio Emilia schools (Wurm, 2005) and early childhood programsusing the Project Approach (Helm & Beneke, 2003), the curriculum is child initiated. Although teachers have a major role in preparingcurriculum, what is to be learned is not predetermined. Rather, as projects proceed in both programs, children’s ideas and questions forexploration take the work in more than one direction or are expanded from the original plan. Documentation in these curriculumapproaches is a process of documenting the progress of the activities to better understand the children’s interests, thinking, and problemsolving within their activities (Wien, 2011). A major purpose of observation and videos, digital photographs, and children’s work is to notehow children reacted to experiences and to record the chronological progress of a period of work (Wurm, 2005). The displays and sharingof work at the end of a project is a culminating activity. Displays of the work accomplished by the child serve as documentation of what wasaccomplished that can be shared with parents, other teachers, and students in the school or preschool program. A child’s diary is used asan example of documentation of a child’s progress in a Reggio Emilia school (Edwards & Rinaldi, 2009).
The Role of Rubrics
In Chapter 06, rubrics were described as being essential to performance assessment. Different types of rubrics were defined and theprocess used to develop rubrics was discussed. Examples of different kinds of rubrics were provided to demonstrate their flexibility andadaptability to different developmental stages and content areas in preschool and primary grades. In this section, it might be helpful toreemphasize why rubrics are essential for performance assessment. Checklists, rating scales, and teacher-designed assessments tend tofocus on whether a developmental milestone or skill has been achieved or how well it has been achieved. Performance assessments, on thecontrary, focus on process and progress in development and learning. Teachers must be grounded in how children develop as well as howchildren use emerging mental processes to acquire knowledge and new concepts. Rubrics provide the framework to assess processes oflearning that focus on child-initiated accomplishments. The assessment strategies discussed earlier in the chapter—interviews, contracts,directed assignments, games, work samples, portfolios, and projects—can be used with rubrics. (See Chapter 07 for examples of rubrics.)
For example, Figure 7-7 (see page 179) can be used in structured interviews. The teacher may read a story to the class and then interviewchildren individually to discuss the story. By asking questions such as “What happened (to a character) in the story?” or “Can you tell methe story in your own words?” the teacher can assess comprehension of text in an emerging reader.
Likewise, a kindergarten teacher can use Figure 7-8 for a developmental assessment using work samples or a directed assignment. Theteacher can use children’s writing efforts to assess progress in the emerging ability to write.
When working with children who engage in thematic projects, the teacher may use the following range of four points or levels to establishthe structure of a rubric to evaluate the projects:
• Begin again
• Revision needed
• Acceptable
• Well done
For example, a kindergarten class may study the topic of “homes.” After investigating different types of homes in the surroundingneighborhood, small groups select a type of home to study. Construction of a model of a type of home is the task of small groups torepresent what they have learned. The teacher designs the following rubric to establish performance standards:
1. Begin again
Group is unable to initiate task.
Teacher redirection is needed to initiate an appropriate approach.
Initial efforts show little evidence of understanding the task.
2. Revision needed
Project work is incomplete; needs elaboration.
Project does not reflect the information learned.
Additional planning is needed to achieve the desired results.
3. Acceptable
Project is completed.
Project reflects the purpose of the task, although details and elements are missing.
Information about the project could be expressed more clearly.
4. Well done
Project shows clear understanding of the concepts learned.
Project fully accomplishes the purposes of the task.
Project includes details and elements essential to communicate learned information.
This rubric is generic in that it can be applied to different types of thematic studies. Although it can be applied to projects reflecting thestudy of homes, it can also be adapted to other projects and topics. It can be simplified or made more detailed as circumstances indicate.
9.4 Standards and Performance-Based Assessment
How do state standards for early childhood affect authentic learning and performance-based strategies? Because standards for learningachievement might be linked to mandated standardized tests for accountability in public education and Head Start programs, manyeducators may assume that authentic learning and authentic assessment are not compatible with mastering state standards. There has beenmuch information on documenting achievement and accountability through such testing, but performance assessment should not beoverlooked as the major tool in verifying what children have learned. Performance assessment is particularly important for understandingdevelopment in the early childhood years.
To link standards and performance-based assessments, teachers must understand how standards are integrated into the curriculum andhow assessment emerges from the implementation of learning experiences. Meeting standards is accomplished by making them a part ofbest practices rather than as a separate part of the curriculum.
Connecting Standards to Authentic Learning
The first step in linking standards with performance assessments is to connect standards to the curriculum. The task is to develop arelationship between the standards and best practices for young children in quality early childhood programs. Child-centered learning in anenvironment rich with opportunities for a variety of activities, both indoors and outdoors can be used to address standards (Baldwin et al., 2009; Drew, Christie, Johnson, Meckley, & Nell, 2008).
One approach is to relate state standards to content areas in the curriculum. Teachers study the standards and match them to theinstructional activities planned for the children. The content areas of the curriculum and the standards are organized so that therelationship is mapped out for the teachers.
FIGURE 9-1 Planning web correlated with standards
Source: Baldwin, J. L., Adams, S. M., & Kelly, M. K. (2009). Science at the center: An emergent standards-based, child-centered framework for early learners. Early ChildhoodEducation Journal, 37, 71–77. Reprinted with permission of Springer, p. 75.
If curriculum is planned within projects or the study of topics, the state standards are analyzed and matched to the topic being planned(Jacobs & Crowley, 2010). One way to chart the relationship is to use a curriculum web for a topic or project. Figure 9-1 shows a planningweb for a study of frogs with the content standards to be addressed (Baldwin et al., 2009).
Connecting Standards to Performance Assessment
Assessment related to standards incorporates all of the strategies that have been discussed in this book, and especially in this chapter.Whatever type of assessment is used is matched to a standard or several standards. Evidence of a child’s accomplishments in activitiesplanned for a project is also evaluated based on applicable state standards. Figure 9-2 shows an example of assessment of a child’sperformance based on the teacher’s observation, the child’s explanation, and the standards in science that were addressed. The teachermaintains a child-centered, developmentally appropriate classroom, an integrated curriculum, and performance assessment that has adirect relationship with state standards (Baldwin et al., 2009).
Learning is a process, and children experience many learning activities before they accomplish a standard. Authentic performanceassessments conducted over a period of time demonstrate the child’s path to learning (Gronlund, 2006). Moreover, because advances indevelopment are of primary importance in the early years, performance assessments are the best indicators of progress toward meetingearly childhood standards.
FIGURE 9-2 Standards correlated to anecdotal observation
Source: Baldwin, J. L., Adams, S. M., & Kelly, M. K. (2009). Science at the center: An emergent standards-based, child-centered framework for early learners. Early ChildhoodEducation Journal, 37, 71–77. Reprinted with permission of Springer, p. 76.
As discussed earlier in the chapter, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are the most recent effort to improve student learning. Thestandards are intended to serve as a national approach to learning that will replace individual state standards. The CCSS have been adoptedby a majority of the states, but concerns about the rigor of the standards have caused some states to question the move. Nevertheless, thehigher standards required by CCSS encourage the use of performance assessments both as training for teachers, and to accomplishproblem solving and creative thinking on the part of the students (Darling-Hammond & Falk, 2013; Darling-Hammond & Hyler, 2013).
9.5 Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Performance-Based Assessment
Advantages of Using Performance-Based Assessment
Performance-based evaluation for assessment of young children has definite advantages. Although performance assessment isrecommended for children of all ages, it is particularly suitable for children in preoperational and concrete operational stages ofdevelopment. Because young children learn best by acting on the environment, it logically follows that assessment that permits the child todemonstrate ability by performing some action is most compatible with developmental capabilities. Performance assessments, then, arefitting for the development of children in the early childhood years. Some arguments for using performance assessments for evaluation arethe following:
1. Performance assessments are conducted in the context of what children are experiencing, rather than in isolation from classroomcurriculum. In addition, they are conducted within the teacher’s knowledge of families and what is authentic to them. Assessments areadapted to differences in language, culture, and ability. Earlier in the chapter, it was recommended that assessment be an integral partof curriculum and instruction. Whenever possible, performance assessments are conducted as part of a lesson, during center activities,or serendipitously when the teacher observes desired learning demonstrated spontaneously. Performance assessments are meaningfuland timely (Meisels, 2014).
2. Performance assessments take advantage of the premise that children construct their own understanding. Early childhood educatorstoday prepare curriculum activities with the comprehension that the teacher does not transmit knowledge; instead, the child graduallyforms or produces new knowledge through repeated encounters with concepts and information. Performance assessment provides theteacher with tools to observe and document the child’s progress. This provision means that assessment goes beyond assessing whetherthe child has mastered the teacher’s learning objectives. The child’s progress toward mastery using Vygotsky’s (1983) zone of proximaldevelopment can also be evaluated. The zone described by Vygotsky refers to the variability between what the child can currently doand what the child can master potentially in the future. The teacher can determine whether the child is unable to demonstrate an abilityor understanding, whether the child can show some of the desired behaviors with assistance, or whether the child can performindependently. Also, the focus of the assessment is on the child, and not on the child’s responding to the teacher. The teacher still plays amajor role in the assessment, but the child’s performance is the key and the teacher responds to what the child is doing. Moreover,performance-based assessments serve as a model for what teachers should be teaching as well as what children should be learning(Lai, 2011).
3. Performance assessments provide a variety of means whereby the child can demonstrate what he or she understands or can do. Thechild’s ongoing work examples, art products, play, conversations, emergent writing, and dictated stories are a few examples of ways thatchildren can perform. Some of the performances can be recorded as a result of the teacher’s observation or interviews, whereas otherscan be documented by work samples. Because assessment is integrated with instruction and daily activities, the possibilities forobserving and interpreting accomplishments are almost unlimited.
4. Performance assessment is continuous or ongoing. Unlike more formal assessments such as tests, end-of-chapter assessments, andreporting-period evaluations, performance assessments reflect daily opportunities to be aware of the child’s thinking and work. Theyprovide extended performances over time rather than during grading periods (Lai, 2011).
5. Performance assessments provide meaningful information for parents to understand their child’s progress and accomplishments. Theinformation is more in-depth than in more traditional assessments (Meisels, 2014). They also enable parents to contribute to andparticipate in the assessment process. Teachers can use performance assessments of all types in parent conferences. Because teachershave visited the homes and are familiar with the parent (see Chapter 10), they can adapt the conferences to be most meaningful for theparents. Likewise, parents can become more aware of behaviors their child is using at home that demonstrate developmentaladvancement and share their observations with the teacher. Once parents understand the significance of the child’s activities and theirrelationship to development and learning, they can be partners with the teacher and child in facilitating opportunities for the child.
Meisels (2014) summarized the benefits of performance assessment for teachers of young children. The teacher should be able to:
• Recognize that children can express what they know and can do it in many different ways
• Evaluate progress as well as performance
• Evaluate the whole child
• Involve children in the process of assessing their own growth
• Establish a framework for observing children that is consistent with the principles of child development
• Contribute to meaningful curriculum planning and the design of developmentally appropriate educational interventions
• Give parents specific, direct and understandable information about their child
• Collaborate with other teachers, thus enhancing their own professional skills (p. 2)
Disadvantages of Using Performance-Based Assessment
Performance assessments have disadvantages or limitations. Like all other informal assessments, they are subjective; teacher bias andinterpretation are part of the process. Teachers must be constantly alert to the need for objectivity when evaluating young children. Also,performance assessments increase the responsibility and accountability of the teacher in administering and interpreting evaluations. Thisopportunity for more meaningful assessments is accompanied by the need for teachers to be skilled in the assessment process.
Although some of the strategies used to evaluate children in performance assessments are not new, the approach as the primary means toassess and give grades to students is considered an innovation. Like any educational innovation, problems and difficulties can causeteachers and administrators to become disenchanted with the process and to doubt the effectiveness of the practice. This is the case withthe current concerns about the Common Core State Standards. Therefore, it is important to be aware of and understand the implicationsand limitations of performance assessment, as well as the benefits. Following are some of the concerns that measurement specialistspropose about the use of performance assessments:
1. Performance assessments are time consuming. Teachers need time to conduct observations, record data, and interpret information inplanning future instruction. All performance assessments require extensive involvement of the teacher. Record keeping adds topaperwork responsibilities; moreover, teachers must consider how to fit assessment into otherwise busy days. Teachers must developthe ability to do several things at once and to keep up with reflection on information and ideas they gain from studying the child’sperformance activities. For example, the teacher can keep a notepad handy to jot down notes during the course of the day. Assessmentscan be made using observation in the course of teaching lessons to note which children are consistently accurate and which studentsare struggling with a concept. During project work, the teacher can observe children’s actions and note advances in physical andlanguage development. All of these methods are integrated into the school day, making specific assessment activities needed less often.
2. Authentic assessment can be more complex than more traditional types of assessment. Because assessment is integrated intoinstruction, teachers must clearly understand what they are looking for in assessment. Assessment with young children might beinterdisciplinary or measure more than one type of development when it is a part of integrated curriculum and child-centered activities.The teacher must determine explicit standards of performance for development and learning objectives, no matter how incidental orintegrated the assessment process is. The more complex and integrated the curriculum is, the more difficult the performanceassessment process will be in terms of interpreting the implications of the child’s performance. A related issue is in scoringperformance assessments. A common concern is who will determine the quality of performance assessments when they are used forgrading or state-level evaluations. A related issue is the possibility of rater error (Givens, 1997; Lai, 2011).
3. More traditional forms of assessment have had the goal of evaluating the child’s achievement. Performance assessment has the goal ofevaluating progress as well as achievement. Teachers may have difficulty incorporating this new role of understanding the child’sprogress and implications for curriculum planning for that child. Teachers must not only develop new competencies in acquiringassessment information but also become more competent in using progress information to further the child’s development. Teachersmay find this requirement very confusing and be uncertain about how skillfully and appropriately they are using performanceassessments (Adamson & Darling-Hammond, 2010; Caffrey, 2009).
4. There are also concerns about the validity and reliability of performance assessments. Early childhood assessment tools must bedevelopmentally appropriate, valid, reliable, and user friendly. As described in the previous section, the difficulty of using performanceassessments would raise doubts about how user friendly they are. To be valid, the tools must correlate with concurrent measures beingused to assess young children. Likewise, assessments should be internally consistent and assessed similarly by various assessors.Informal procedures used in performance assessments must provide evidence of validity, reliability, objectivity, and freedom from biasif they are to be considered feasible (Darling-Hammond & Hyler, 2013).
5. Parental involvement and education are a requirement when implementing performance-based evaluation. Parents are familiar withtraditional evaluation and reporting practices. School districts must plan to educate and prepare parents before moving intoperformance assessments. Parents need to be knowledgeable and comfortable with how the innovative assessment process is usedbefore they encounter it in their child’s grade report or in a parent–teacher conference. Unfamiliar terminology and assessmentprocedures can cause a lack of confidence in and support for the school and teachers.
Most of the disadvantages and limitations discussed previously seem to be related to proper preparation and training for performanceassessments. Too often in the past, schools have embraced and implemented curriculum and instruction innovations without trainingteachers and administrators properly. Some of the authors cited in this chapter consistently discuss the need for extensive training andpreparation prior to using new performance assessments. As with any other change or new approach to curriculum or assessment,adequate training and knowledge about performance assessments can do much to ensure that they will be a successful and appropriatealternative for the assessment of young children. Because performance assessments inherently have the potential to measure youngchildren’s development and learning in a realistic and meaningful way, the limitations can become either difficult obstacles or perceptivecautions that can be used to facilitate the appropriate and skilled use of new tools.
Quality performance assessments are part of a quality assessment system. In the United States today, a comprehensive system is importantto prepare for the implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) at national and state levels. At the early childhood level, theRhode Island Department of Education and the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, Inc. (n.d.) proposes that:“Assessments include a variety of different methods that allow children to demonstrate evidence of learning and can range fromobservations, student writing samples, performance tasks, to large scale standardized tests” (p. 2). Further, “A well-constructedcomprehensive assessment system provides continuous, coherent, and high-quality information on student performance that teachers,school leaders, and district and state administrators could use to improve teaching and learning…(Rhode Island Department of Education &the National Center for the Improvement of Education Assessment, Inc., n.d., p. 4). This approach to assessment in early childhoodprograms is consistent with practices for appropriate assessment first supported in the 1990s and now advocated for all levels of educationin the new century. Performance assessment was neglected with the focus on standardized tests in recent decades; however, it is now a keyto reaching the higher goals set for Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) initiated the development of the Common Core State Standards. Author Linda Darling-Hammond (2010) proposed a comprehensive student assessment system to meet the principles of CCSS to be addressed at state anddistrict levels. In a paper written for CCSSO, Darling-Hammond used examples of high-achieving educational systems both in the UnitedStates and beyond to provide a framework for assessment systems addressing CCSS. Darling-Hammond (2010) characterized high-achieving systems as ones that, “Seek to implement their standards with assessments that measure performance in authentic ways and withintensive teacher engagement process as teachers work with others to develop, review, score, and use the results of assessments” (p. 2).
Earlier in this text on assessment in early childhood education characteristics of quality for individual components of performanceassessment were discussed. High-quality components of performance are then combined to design a comprehensive assessment.
Summary
The word “perform” is a key to understanding performance assessments. A child performs or demonstrates what is understood and whatthe child can do with that knowledge. In traditional assessments the child shows understanding of knowledge. In performance assessmentsthe child is able to apply what has been learned.
In this chapter we discussed the merits of performance assessment as a process that deepens understanding of the child’s learning. Wehave discussed performance-based evaluation as an alternative or authentic method of assessing young children.
A number of methods or strategies can be used to evaluate a child’s development or learning through performance of what he or sheunderstands and can do. Interviews, contracts, directed assignments, games, work samples, projects, and portfolios are among theassessment activities that permit young children to demonstrate their ability to understand and apply new skills and information.
Performance assessments complement each other in how they focus on the child’s progress and accomplishments. In addition, informalassessment methods, such as observation, checklists and rating scales, and teacher-designed assessments, are used in the process ofassessing through performance.
Performance assessment transfers responsibility to teachers for the instructional and assessment process. This empowerment of theteacher facilitates the teacher’s opportunity to design assessment that includes all areas of development and that is appropriate for thelevel of development of each child. It also allows the teacher to make a close connection between curriculum and evaluation. It also permitsthe teacher to consider learning and assessment within the family backgrounds of the children. Knowing that performance assessmentshould be meaningful, the teacher interacts with the family and home frequently to understand what type of performance is suitable forindividual students.
Although performance assessment is more relevant and appropriate than traditional formal methods of measuring learning, it can also bemore difficult. Teachers must accept the time that is needed to organize and conduct this type of evaluation; moreover, they must overcomelimitations related to validity, reliability, and accountability. Care must be exercised in planning and implementing performance assessment ifit is not to become an educational fad that fades after a few years.
Recent years have brought changing expectations for evaluating learning under the Common Core of State Standards (CCSS). The CommonCore is the first effort to establish national standards that can be applied in any state. The Common Core requires a more rigorouscurriculum and assessment. The standards bring a new meaning to performance assessments. Teachers must learn how to instruct, assess,and interpret what the student has learned. Through working with this process, the teacher develops a deeper understanding of levels ofperformance and how they are graded.
Key Terms
authentic achievement 214
authentic learning 214
authentic assessment 214
authentic performance assessment 214
contract 219
diagnostic interview 219
directed assignment 220
direct performance measure 224
game 221
indirect performance measure 224
interview 218
performance-based assessment 217
portfolio 223
project 223
structured interview 219
structured performance assessment 224
unstructured interview 219
unstructured performance assessment 223
work sample 222
Selected Organizations
Search for the following organizations online:
Association for Childhood Education International
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
National Association for the Education of Young Children
Springer
Zero to Three
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