Charlotte Higuchi, third and fourth grade teacher at Farmdale Elementary School in Los Angeles, California, talks about the complexity of using performance based assessments. Excerpted from the videoseries, Schools That Work: The Research Advantage, videoconference #4, Alternatives for Measuring Performance (NCREL, 1991).
"Because performance based assessments are not going to be like standardized tests. You have to know a heck of a lot. You have to know a heck of a lot about kids, about content, about materials. You've got to know about how to look at a kid and recognize what's happening. You have to constantly think. You cannot read a CTBS standardized test script. You must be constantly thinking about that child, and everything you know about that child at that moment must bear on the questions that you ask of that child and the way you interpret what you're doing."
This Critical Issue Summary was researched and written by Andrew Porter, director, Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
Date posted: 1995