Performance Assessment: Showing What Students Know and Can Do

It’s not just about what students know. What can students do with their knowledge?

Tests show us what learners know, but well-designed performance assessment goes much further. It shows students the true purpose and value of their learning. It allows them to do something with their knowledge, transferring concepts and skills to situations beyond the ones in which they were learned.

In Performance Assessment: Showing What Students Know and Can Do, educational consultant, professional developer, and author Susan M. Brookhart, Ph.D., shares her expertise on the topic of classroom performance assessment, bringing together practical, research-based information to deepen educators’ understanding of:

• What performance assessment is and what purposes it serves
• Designing performance tasks to teach and assess learning
• Using rubrics to support formative and summative assessment

Readers learn how to clearly describe the criteria in tasks and rubrics while keeping the criteria in line with desired learning outcomes. Brookhart explores four general categories of performance assessment: simple processes, simple products, complex processes, and complex products, and addresses sampling issues and effective application with group work. The book then provides real-world recommendations for making performance assessment a routine part of instruction.