Authentic & Performance Assessment

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Why it works

Performance assessments, students producing or doing something that demonstrates learning, capture understanding, application, and transfer that selected-response tests miss. Research supports them when they are tied to clear criteria and standards, scored with good rubrics, and designed so the task genuinely requires the target learning. They also tend to be more meaningful and motivating for students.

The research: Research on performance and authentic assessment (Wiggins).

The run-of-show

Choose your slot. The agenda, timings, and length update to match.

The core activity: design one performance task

Teachers leave with one performance task that requires the target learning and is tied to criteria.

Pick learning that is really about understanding or application.
Design a task where students must apply it to produce or do something real.
Tie it to clear criteria and a rubric.
Plan how the task genuinely requires the target learning, not just effort or presentation.

Assess the application, not just the recallSome learning only shows up when students apply it. Design a task that makes them use the understanding, and score it against clear criteria.

Facilitator notes

Tie tasks to standards and criteria.
Use strong rubrics, and make sure the task requires the target learning.
Use performance tasks selectively, where application is the goal.

Make sure the task requires the learningA performance task that can be aced on effort or presentation, without the target understanding, measures the wrong thing. Design it so the learning is what produces success.

Adapt it

Elementary: simple demonstrations and products.
Secondary: complex performance tasks and real audiences.
All settings: clear criteria, rubric-scored.

Participant handout

One page for every teacher. Print it, or save it as a PDF.

K12 Academics · Professional Learning

Performance Assessment: make them apply it

Capture understanding: a real task that requires the learning, tied to clear criteria and a rubric.

The learning that is about understanding/application:
The real task that requires it:
The criteria and rubric:
How the task genuinely requires the target learning:
Where it fits better than a test:

Make it stick

Assess application with real tasks:

Use real tasks where application is the goal.
Tie them to criteria.
Bring a performance task that revealed understanding to the next PLC.

Common questions

Aren't performance assessments subjective?

They can be made reliable with clear criteria and well-designed rubrics. The trade-off is worth it: they measure understanding and application that tests cannot.

Don't they take too long?

They take more time than a quiz, but they often double as rich learning, and you do not need one for everything. Use them where applying the learning is the real goal.

How is this different from a project?

A performance assessment is specifically designed to produce evidence of learning against criteria. The assessment lens is on what the task reveals about understanding.