PLAN Pilot Frequently Used Terms:
Performance-Based Learning and Assessment
What are some key attributes of performance-based approaches to
teaching, learning, and assessment?
Performance-based approaches can be designed to incorporate real-world problems and
tasks, giving students opportunities to develop and apply knowledge and skills in settings
that resemble authentic, real-life situations. Such approaches to teaching, learning, and
assessment can be used to promote students’ deeper learning and higher-order thinking
skills and have been shown to prepare students for college and the workplace.
What is performance-based assessment?
Performance-based assessment requires students to demonstrate or apply their
knowledge, skills, and strategies by creating a response or product or doing a task.
Students’ responses or performances are typically judged against standards or criteria in a
checklist or rubric focusing on the stages of skill development and what a student can do.
How does performance-based assessment fit into an assessment
strategy that includes multiple measures?
Within a system that includes multiple assessment measures, each type of assessment has
a valuable role to play, and different types of
assessments work together to provide a
picture of students’ mastery of learning standards. New York’s strategy values each type of
assessment, from the classroom to the state level, and how they can add evidence to
answer questions about student learning. Local assessments should support instruction
and enable appropriate supports and learning opportunities to be provided to students,
while state assessments provide critical evidence of students’ access to opportunities to
learn across the state.
Because performance-based assessments require students to construct a response or
perform an open-ended task, they are an important tool for measuring higher-order
thinking and skills, such as the ability to apply knowledge and use reasoning to solve
realistic problems, evaluate the reliability of sources of information, and synthesize and
analyze information to draw conclusions.
Continuum of Assessments in a Multiple-Measures System
Depending on the purpose for which an assessment is being used, performance tasks can be part
of standardized assessments—as shown toward the left/center of the continuum—
or can be
designed to incorporate a greater degree of student initiative and choice.
What are different ways in which performance-based learning
opportunities and assessments can be designed and used?
Performance-based approaches to teaching, learning, and assessment vary widely. Depending on
the learning objectives and the context, tasks may be designed to incorporate
some of the
following features:
• Capstone projects
• Community projects
• Competency-based approaches
• Group projects or performances
• Hands-on projects
• Independent work or research
• Internships, work-based learning, and career and technical education
• Learning in more than one domain—in other words, tasks are interdisciplinary or develop
and measure both content knowledge and cross-cutting skills and competencies
• Multiple opportunities to receive feedback and revise or re-do
• Multiple types of performance, e.g., a written component plus an oral presentation, or a
group component and an individual component
• Presentation before an evaluation panel and/or audience of community members
• Student choice, within established parameters
• Student self-reflection
Standardized
multiple-choice
tests of routine
skills
Standardized tests
with multiple-
choice and open-
ended items, as
well as short
performance tasks
of some applied
skills
Systems of
standardized
performance
items and tasks
that measure key
concepts in
thought-
provoking items
that require
extended
problem-solving
Performance tasks
that require
students to
formulate and
carry out their
own inquiries,
analyze and
present findings,
and often revise in
response to
feedback
Longer, deeper
investigations and
exhibitions,
requiring students
to initiate, design,
conduct, analyze,
revise, and
present their work
in multiple
modalities
Deeper Learning
New York State
Regents Exams
There is no single “right” way to use PBLA.
Performance-based assessments can be:
Designed to evaluate the
process used to solve a task
AND
Designed to evaluate
the product
Embedded in
the curriculum
OR
Part of a stand-alone
assessment
Formative OR Summative
One-time demonstration
of knowledge and skill
OR
Included in
a portfolio
Single-classroom OR
Common across multiple
classrooms or schools
Evaluated by the
classroom teacher
OR
Evaluated by one or more
external evaluators
…depending on the purpose for which they are being used.
What are some examples of types of performance-based assessment tasks?
Performance-based assessments range from simple, “on-demand” tasks that can be completed in
a brief amount of time, such as an in-class writing exercise or short-answer test; to longer and/or
more complex tasks that can be completed in and/or outside of the classroom, such as:
• Analyzing and proposing solutions to real-world problems
• Analyzing literary or historical documents in an essay
• Building a prototype, device, or structure
• Conducting and analyzing a laboratory investigation
• Creating a work of art
• Demonstrating a technique (e.g., welding or pipetting)
• Designing and delivering a multi-media presentation
• Developing a computer program
• Game-play assessments in physical education
• Participating in a debate
• Performing in a theatrical, dance, or music production or video
• Researching a topic and writing a report
Sources: Baker, O'Neil & Linn 1993; Berman 2008; Best & Winslow 2015; Darling-Hammond 2017; Education Week 2019; Fine & Pryiomka 2020; Guha,
Wagner, Darling-Hammond, Taylor & Curtis 2018; Herman, Gearheart & Aschbacher 1996; Hilliard 2015; Lund & Kirk 2019; Parke, Lane & Stone 2006;
Michigan Assessment Consortium 2017; Standards for Educational & Psychological Testing (AERA, APA, & NCME 2014); Stanford SRN 2008
Winter 2023
