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
Industry Reviews
'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, USA '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, USA '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, USA '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, USA '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, New Zealand "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, USA
