Assessing Performance: Designing, Scoring, and Validating Performance Tasks

A comprehensive resource for assessment practitioners, this book provides step-by-step guidance for developing, administering, scoring, and validating a range of performance tasks, including literacy and other types of proficiency assessments. The authors explore how to establish the purpose of the assessment and how to develop scoring tools, train raters, reduce rater bias, review scores and report results, and use item-level and test-level analyses to optimize reliability and validity. Clearly written and well organized, the book includes many practical examples and accessible explanations of concepts and statistical procedures. It encompasses the breadth of applications of performance assessment today, from educational testing and the credentialing of professionals to research and program evaluation.

User-friendly features include:

*Checklists of activities to complete at each stage of a performance assessment

*End-of-chapter questions to facilitate self-study

*Annotated suggestions for further reading

*A quick-reference glossary of terms

*Examples drawn from multiple educational and professional licensure contexts

Robert L. Johnson, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of South Carolina. His research focuses on the ethics of classroom assessment practices and the scoring of performance assessments in the language arts and the visual and performing arts. He also writes about the teaching of program evaluation and involvement of stakeholders in evaluations. Dr. Johnson's research has been published in such journals as Applied Measurement in Education, Language Assessment Quarterly, Assessing Writing, Teaching and Teacher Education,Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, and the American Journal of Evaluation. He teaches courses related to educational research, assessment, survey methodology, and program evaluation.

James A. Penny, PhD, is Senior Psychometrician at Castle Worldwide. He has been involved in assessment in writing, the visual and performing arts, and licensure and certification. His  research focuses on the scoring of performance assessments and methods to improve the quality of scores associated with those assessments.

Belita Gordon, PhD, has been involved in assessment in writing, the visual and performing arts, and licensure and certification. Her research focuses on the scoring of performance assessments and methods to improve the quality of scores associated with those assessments.