What is a Teacher Performance Assessment?

Summative assessments are used to replace high-stakes tests. The focus is on the practical skills, rather than just “tell me everything you know”.

What is performance-based evaluation? This can be a group or individual project, a portfolio with one or more highlighted pieces or an open-ended exercise. The student is graded on the creation process, using a pre-agreed checklist or set of criteria.

The “performance” portion of the “performance evaluation” is where the accountability for the entire process comes in. This sets it apart as a grading system.

Performance evaluation: Why is it important now and in higher education?

According to a joint report by the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment (MCIEA) and the Center for Collaborative Education, standardized testing in K-12 contexts is increasingly out of date. This type of traditional testing increases socioeconomic disparities and fails to assess skills prior to higher education. The Quality Performance Assessment scheme aims to “engage students and give them more control over how they demonstrate knowledge, in culturally sensitive ways”.

Performance assessment should be considered sooner than later if this shift to performance-based assessments is really underway for freshmen in the future.

Why Use Teacher Performance Assessment?

Teacher Performance assessment has many advantages over standard testing.

1. The assessment of Teacher performance focuses on higher-order problem-solving skills and thinking abilities. These types of assessments also test other features, such as time management and communication clarity. The learning process is therefore more profound and meaningful.

2. Standardized tests with high stakes evaluate whether students have enough knowledge about a particular subject. Performance assessments measure a student’s ability to apply knowledge in different contexts.

3. Performance assessments can help students monitor their own progress if they are set up correctly and have interim goals. Metacognition is a powerful tool for student learning, especially in test environments.

4. Instructors who use performance assessment must include the standards that they expect, and the steps they need to take when applying the knowledge from the curriculum. Teaching to the test is a good teaching and learning technique.

5. Performance assessments are closely linked to modern teaching methods like active learning and the use of critical thinking. When a student engages in collaboration and discussion during formative assessments (and other classroom activities), the skills they learn will be easier to apply and evaluate in summative tests, which in turn will reflect in their performance.

How does performance assessment work?

The educator gives the student a difficult task that has more than one way to complete it or a problem with a lot of room for interpretation.

The answer is important, but it’s not the most crucial part. Students must show competency in communication, production and application of their content knowledge.

This can be measured most effectively by assigning each task a level of achievement. The list should be comprehensive, and each task should be scored on a scale.

Performance assessment requires that students understand the standards against which they will evaluate themselves and how to approach their tasks.