Educators are unhappy with the current assessments and their focus on low-level skills like recalling and restating facts rather than higher-order skills such as problem-solving and analyzing and synthesizing information. This book examines performance assessment as an alternative or addition to the current high stakes accountability system in the Unites States. A must-have resource for those interested in the current research of performance assessment in the 21st century, this book will help educators accurately assess the benefits and possibilities for adopting performance assessments nationally.

LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND is Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education and Faculty Director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education at Stanford University. Darling-Hammond is a former president of the American Educational Research Association and a member of the National Academy of Education. Her research and policy work focuses on issues of educational equity, teaching quality, school reform, and performance assessment. Among Darling-Hammond’s over 300 publications are Preparing Teachers for a Changing World (with John Bransford, for the National Academy of Education) and The Right to Learn.

FRANK ADAMSON is a Policy and Research Analyst at the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE). He currently focuses on the adoption of assessments of deeper learning and twenty-first-century skills. He also conducts research on educational equity and opportunities to learn and has published on teacher salary differences within labor markets in New York and California.

Acknowledgments vii

The Authors ix

1 Introduction: The Rationale and Context for Performance Assessment 1
Linda Darling-Hammond

Part o n e : Through a Looking Glass: Performance Assessment Past, Present, and Future 15

2 Looking Back: Performance Assessment in an Era of Standards-Based Educational Accountability 17
Brian Stecher

3 Where We Are Now: Lessons Learned and Emerging Directions 53
Raymond Pecheone and Stuart Kahl with the Assistance of Jillian Chingos and Ann Jaquith

4. Reaching Out: International Benchmarks for Performance Assessment 93
Linda Darling-Hammond with the Assistance of Laura Wentworth

Part t w o : Advances in Performance Assessment: Assessing and Supporting Learning 131

5 Performance Assessment: The State of the Art 133
Suzanne Lane

6 Adapting Performance Assessments for English Language Learners 185
Jamal Abedi

7 Supporting Teacher Learning through Performance Assessment 207
Linda Darling-Hammond and Beverly Falk

Part t h r e e : Policy and Performance Assessment: Developing Systems That Can Work 237

8 A New Conceptual Framework for Cost Analysis 239
Lawrence O. Picus, Frank Adamson, William Montague, and Margaret Owens

9 Investing in Assessments of Deeper Learning: The Costs and Benefits of Tests That Help Students Learn 259
Barry Topol, John Olson, Ed Roeber, Linda Darling-Hammond, and Frank Adamson

10 Building Systems of Assessment for Deeper Learning 277
David T. Conley and Linda Darling-Hammond

11 Concluding Thoughts: Creating Next-Generation Assessments That Last 311
Linda Darling-Hammond, Frank Adamson, and Thomas Toch

Appendix A: State Performance Tasks 323

Appendix B: New Approaches to Performance Assessment 353

Appendix C: A Framework for Measuring the Costs, Expenditures, and Benefits of Performance Assessment 363

Appendix D: Spending for Interim Testing at the Local District Level 377

Notes 383

References 387

Name Index 423

Subject Index 429