0.4 4. designing performance assessments: a guide for faculty; gary  (Page 5/12)

By reviewing the full text of the indicator descriptions listed under each CCSSO 2008 performance expectation anyone familiar with common practices in the field should be able to identify things educational leaders do when they are engaged in these aspects of their work. Simulating the challenges of authentic leadership practice so that students can demonstrate competence is the goal of good performance assessment design. The task is to create a context where students are required to demonstrate the identified leadership activities and behaviors. Once an assessment activity has been identified, the next step is to decide how the performance will be documented so an evaluator can make judgments about quality.

Step 3: identify the assessment object

By definition, performances involve observable behavior so the assessment activity must require students to act in ways that demonstrate competence in meeting the associated standard elements. Ideally, these performances will occur in real school settings so the assignment must also include some mechanism for presenting tangible evidence of the performance that can be reviewed and evaluated by faculty. This can include a wide range of objects or deliverables including such things as journals, videos, portfolios, plans, presentations, podcasts, and so on.

The Field Based Teaching and Learning Project in Table 2 illustrates a performance activity written to address the elements that were assigned to the hypothetical Instructional Leadership course in the alignment matrix shown in Table 1. Thus, the assessment tasks address all of the indicators for professional culture and rigorous curriculum and instruction (elements “a” and “b”), and the “data use” element from assessment and accountability (element “c”). The narrative for the CCSSO 2008 Teaching and Learning Performance Expectation and the complete list of elements and performance indicators can be viewed in the Appendix.

The Field Based Teaching and Learning Project assessment activity is composed of five interrelated assignments in the areas of teaching and learning that require graduate students to apply leadership skills that enable and encourage reflective professional practice on the part of teachers in a school. Each assignment in the example begins with a description of the required performance and concludes with the evidence (object) that must be provided for final evaluation. The elements and indicators from the Teaching and Learning Performance Expectation (CCSSO 2008) that are assessed by the assignment are referenced within the parentheses at the end of each assignment. Notice that the description of the assessment activity uses words taken directly from the CCSSO 2008 document whenever possible, which makes alignment between assessments and standards transparent.

The assignments in the Teaching and Learning Project example use professional collaboration among peers as the context for eliciting the various behaviors. Similar assignments could be designed using the context of a clinical cycle involving a preconference, observation and post conference if the intent of the project was to simulate supervision of instruction. The idea is to find some meaningful and practical way that students can apply their knowledge and skills. In addition to being relevant, the tasks should also be motivating, challenging, and achievable.