Why Performance Assessment is Essential for 21 st Century Learning

1. Why Performance Assessment is Essential for 21st Century Learning And How We Can Get More of It • President, Learning Policy Institute • Linda Darling-Hammond

2. DEMAND FOR skILLS is Changing Complex Communications 10 Expert Thinking 8 6 4 2 0 Percentile Change from 1960 - 2 Routine Manual - 4 The dilemma of schools: The skills that are easiest to teach and test are also the ones that are easiest to digitize, automate, and outsource - 6 Routine Cognitive - 8 Non-routine Manual - 10 1960 1970 1980 1990 1998 Source: Murnane & Levy

4. Teaching for Learning Ability The abilities to • Transfer and apply knowledge • Analyze, evaluate, weigh and balance • Communicate and collaborate • Take initiative • Find and use resources • Plan and implement • Self-manage and improve • Learn to learn

5. What Kind of Assessment? A B

6. Higher Order Skills are Needed Higher Order Skills Bloom’s Taxonomy

7. But Most U.S. Tests Have Focused on Lower-Level Skills • Since NCLB, state tests became mostly multiple-choice. States phased out performance assessments due to costs and federal regulation. • RAND study of state tests in 2014: Only 2% of math items and 21% of ELA items assessed higher-order skills.

8. CST ELA Item

9. Teachers Have Said Testing: Undermines good teaching Has made them consider leaving the profession 45% 2014 Survey

10. “I have seen more students who can pass [the test] but cannot apply those skills to anything if it’s not in the test format… As for higher quality teaching, I’m not sure I would call it that…." –Texas Teacher

11. States are Invited to Rethink Assessment • ESSA calls for assessment of “higher order skills” and invites the use of “projects, performance assessments, and portfolios”

12. Performance Assessments are Common in Many Arenas Eye Exams Engineering Exams Sports Events Medical Boards Driving Tests

13. Science Assessments in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, UK Students: • Identify a problem, design and plan an investigation • Make and record observations • Analyze data • Write a report

14. SBAC Research Task: Nuclear Power As chief-of-staff for a U.S. Congresswoman, you need to address a proposal by a power company to build a nuclear plant in the state, to be announced tomorrow morning. You must: • Conduct research on the pros and cons of nuclear power. Summarize what you have learned, evaluating the credibility of sources. • Write an evidence-based memo offering a recommendation about whether to support or oppose the plan, addressing both sides of the issue.

15. Performance Assessments in US Education • National Assessments • AP Capstone portfolio • IB exams • Collegiate Learning Assessment • State Assessments • 15 states during 1990s • KY, NH, WA, OR today • Smarter Balanced tests • Local Assessments • Performance tasks and Graduation portfolios in many school networks and districts • [CA, CO, KY, NY, NH, • OR, OH, and more] • Teacher Portfolios • National Board • edTPA [17 states]

16. New Opportunities • 26 States are meeting in a State Performance Assessment Learning Community to develop performance assessments in science & other subjects • New Hampshire & Louisiana have stepped up to launch new approaches under ESSA’s new pilot authority. States can continue to apply in future rounds.

17. Common and Local summative performance-based assessments and Smarter Balanced administered by grade and content areas in all PACE districts.

18. How can performance assessments be used reliably, validly, effectively and efficiently?

19. Comparable & Valid Assessments Careful Design of common tasks: Tasks and rubrics are • Well-linked to standards • Designed to measure clearly defined knowledge and skills • Based on a clear understanding of cognitive development • Expressed in criteria that define a competent performance, • Rigorously field tested to ensure that the items or tasks are understandable and are measuring the intended concepts and abilities for diverse students. When these principles are followed, studies have found that assessments can be made comparable and valid across time, tasks, and raters

20. Reliable Scoring Systems • Common rubrics, training, and moderation: • Based on common standardized tasks • Well-designed scoring rubrics • Carefully trained scorers • Moderated scoring process to ensure consistency in applying the standards, • Auditing of the system to double check and upgrade comparability. Well-developed systems with these features have produced inter-rater reliability with levels of agreement of 90% or higher.

21. Methods for Ensuring Fairness • Universal design and careful review & piloting: • Use universal design principles, • Make linguistic choices to avoid sources of confusion unrelated to the content being measured • Review items and tasks for cultural bias • Pilot test tasks to see how they perform with different test-takers and revise based on data • Carefully designed performance assessments have been found to produce more successful evaluations of knowledge for English learners, special education students, and students who struggle in other ways than some traditional standardized tests.

22. Why Use Performance Assessments as Part of a System? Performance assessments have been found to: • Develop and evaluate critical thinking and performanceabilities • Provide more information to inform teaching • Improve the quality and equity of instruction, including the teaching of more challenging knowledge and skills, and the norm of greater production & revision of work to standards • Help teachers and students internalize standards through involvement in scoring and feedback • Improve preparation for the demands of college and work.

23. Performance Assessments Develop College- and Career-Ready Skills • Cognitive Skills • Research skills • Use of evidence • Evaluation of ideas • Quantitative reasoning • Planning, organization • Metacognitive skills • Communication skills • Social-Emotional Skills • Collaboration • Resourcefulness • Executive function • Self-management • Ability to use feedback • Resilience • Growth mindset

24. How can we use this rich work in higher education admissions?

25. Graduation Portfolios Go to College • School leaders from NH, KY, CO, CA, and other states • Are working with • Higher Ed admissions officers, registrars, faculty and presidents’ organizations • To create • Digital portfolios and portfolio recognition systems that can go to college

26. Science & Math Inquiry Social Science Inquiry Literary Analysis World Language Exhibition Digital Portfolio

27. What Can We Do to Continue the Path to 21st Century Learning?