Performance Assessment
In its simplest terms, a performance assessment is one which requires students to demonstrate that
they have mastered specific skills and competencies by performing or producing something.3 Advocates
of performance assessment call for assessments of the following kind: designing and carrying out
experiments; writing essays which require students to rethink, to integrate, or to apply information;
working with other students to accomplish tasks; demonstrating proficiency in using a piece of equipment
or a technique; building models; developing, interpreting, and using maps; making collections; writing
term papers, critiques, poems, or short stories; giving speeches; playing musical instruments; participating
in oral examinations; developing portfolios; developing athletic skills or routines, etc.