About the Book
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
Table of Contents:
1. An Overview of Performance Assessment
2. Designing the Assessment
3. Construction of a Performance Task
4. An Example of Constructing a Performance Assessment
5. Administration
6. Developing Tools for Scoring
7. Training Raters and Staff
8. Scoring and Monitoring
9. Forming Scores and Item-Level Analyses
10. Test-Level Analyses
Glossary
About the Author :
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.
Review :
'Beginners will find this book a comprehensive and accessible introduction to performance assessment. Seasoned test developers will find it a valuable resource, with useful checklists, guidelines, and nuts-and-bolts discussions of topics ranging from content standards to training raters, as well as pointers to the most up-to-date developments in the field.' - Edward H. Haertel, Jacks Family Professor of Education, Stanford University 'Loaded with exceptionally strong examples, models, and even to-do lists to aid in implementation. This superb book should be on every test and assessment specialist's bookshelf or desk -- it certainly will be on mine!" - Barbara Plake, Department of Educational Psychology (Emeritus), University of Nebraska--Lincoln 'The book makes transparent to readers the key steps in the development, implementation, and maintenance of a high-quality performance assessment system. I highly recommend this volume to practitioners, policy makers, and university instructors. Performance assessment has come of age, and this book showcases psychometrically and professionally defensible practices and approaches.' - George Engelhard, Jr., Division of Educational Studies, Emory University 'This book fills a very important need in our field. As performance assessments increase in use, it is especially important to have a text like this one to provide guidance for thoughtful, systematic design and administration of this type of assessment. The frequent use of well-developed examples across practice areas is a definite strength. I also really like the to-do lists at the ends of the chapters!' - J. Christine Harmes, Department of Graduate Psychology and Center for Assessment and Research, James Madison University 'Having worked on this topic for many years, I found this book the best one-stop shop for getting to know all the major issues and controversies in the field... The engaging, elegant writing style and concise yet substantive coverage makes it a valuable text for graduate courses.' - John Hattie, Faculty of Education, University of Auckland "There is not a great deal on performance assessments in the traditional body of assessment literature. This meticulously researched book fosters a comprehensive understanding of this complex facet of assessment. The authors offer invaluable insight into the process of creating valid and reliable performance assessments. Through careful scaffolding, they lead the reader to greater proficiency in assessment design and implementation." - Molly Drake Shiffler, Department of Literacy and Language Development, School of Urban Initiatives, Cardinal Stritch University
