Prove It!

Performance-based assessment goes all the way back to Socrates as is used today in many different learning communities. In the article, "Showing What They Know" by Scott Cech, seniors at Barrington High School in Providence, Rhode Island were able to do just as a requirement for earning their diploma. Actually, Rhode Island became the first state in the US to require performance-based portfolios as a means of graduation. Officials for Barrington High like the practical nature of the assessment as it gets them used to completing projects similar to what they will have to do in college. Also, it gets them ready for the workforce since the business world relies on performance evaluations.

Seniors at Barrington must pass two of three possible project formats: a portfolio of work selected from their four years of high school, a senior project, and a comprehensive course assessment. The senior project must be presented to teachers and students in the auditorium where they must also defend their project by fielding questions. Some examples of past projects are creating a sign language course for babies and those who have trouble speaking, creating a snow machine in order to set up a sledding hill for the kids, and a poetry writing course for adults. The projects are not the only items that determine if one can graduate. They must pass a standardized test and maintain a certain grade point average as well.

The senior projects have proven to be a lot of work since there is a string research element and the learning curve is quite since students have never devised such projects before. Faculty make themselves available to mentor students through the process. They have even had to negotiate with their teacher's union since more time is spent with students. Also, a culture change must take place since more time is spent with project and less with the traditional course material. For instance, a history teacher will most likely get as far as they have in the past for an American History course.

A rubric is used for grading purposes and students are asked to refer back to it often . Even with the rubric, there are those that still argue that performance-based grading is subjective. My argument for this process is that assessment in the workforce is very similar to this and there is some subjectivity. But the standards are shared with the employee so they can work towards their goals. Outside of being a very arduous task, performance-based assessment is a great way to measure student learning.