Developing Authentic Assessment for Mathematics:

Performance Tasks

Zoya Houjeiri

zoya@allprints.ae

Objectives

• General view of the CCSS assessment

• Better understanding of performance tasks and rubrics

• how to develop performance tasks and rubrics

Common Core Assessment

Students must excel in critical thinking if they are to perform well on these assessments. Teachers will have to restructure how they teach to develop these skills. This will be such as massive shift in teaching and learning philosophies that it may take a generation of students to cycle through before we see a large group truly start to develop these skills (teaching.about.com)

How Are CCSS Assessments Different?

CCSS assessment will include variety of item types including

constructed response, extended performance tasks, and selected

response (all of which will be computer based). These are much

more difficult than simple multiple choice questions as students will

be assessed on multiple standards within one question.

Students are expected to defend their work through a constructed

written response. This means that they won’t be able to come up

with an answer as they need to defend the answer and explain the

process.

Developing the Assessments

The two consortia responsible for developing Common Core State Standards assessments are SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and Partnership for Assessment of Readiness of College and Careers (PARCC). All states who have adopted the CCSS have selected a consortium to partner with other states. CCSS assessment will be operational by the end of 2015.

SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Partner States California Connecticut Delaware

Hawaii North CarolinaIdaho Maine Michigan Missouri

Montana Nevada New Hampshire Iowa North

Dakota Oregon Pennsylvania U.S. Virgin Islands South Dakota

Vermont Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

Partnership for Assessment of Readiness of College and Careers (PARCC) Partner States Alabama Arizona

Arkansas Colorado Illinois, Louisiana

Maryland, Rhode IslandNew York Massachusetts

Mississippi New Jersey New MexicoPennsylvania Ohio

Pennsylvania District of Columbia

A performance task is a goal-directed assessment exercise. It consists of an activity or assignment that is completed by the student and then judged by the teacher or other evaluator on the basis of specific performance criteria (ncrel.org)

What is a Performance Task?

Why Use Performance Tasks?

Performance tasks challenge students to apply their knowledge and skills to respond to real-world problems. They can best be described as collections of questions and activities that are coherently connected to a single theme or scenario. These activities are meant to measure capacities such as depth of understanding, research skills, and complex analysis, which cannot be adequately assessed with selected- or constructed-response items. (Smarter Balanced)

Partnership for Assessment of Readiness of College and Careers (PARCC) PA

Performance-Based Assessment (PBA) administered after approximately 75% of the school year. The mathematics PBA will focus on applying skills, concepts, and understandings to solve multi-step problems requiring abstract reasoning, precision, perseverance, and strategic use of tools. (PARCC)

SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) PA

Performance tasks in reading, writing, and mathematics will be part of the Smarter Balanced summative, year-end assessment. The performance tasks will be delivered by computer (but will not be computer adaptive) and will take one to two class periods to complete. (SBAC)

How Are Performance Tasks Assessed ?

• A rubric is a scoring tool used to evaluate and assess Performance tasks. Rubrics are usually used to evaluate work that is subject to various interpretations.

• Rubrics are displayed as a grid. The left-hand column of the grid lists the objectives that are being evaluated. The cells in each row describe the specific criteria for receiving a score.

Creating Performance Tasks

• Identify outcomes • Creating task context • Identify products and performances • Consider options in task design • Plan task activities• Identify evaluation criteria

Identify Outcomes

• What content standards and learning

outcomes will be assessed through the task?

Creating Task Context

• What is a meaningful context for engaging students?

• What real issues, problems, themes, and student interests can help determine the context?

Identify Products And Performances

• What student products and/or performances will provide evidence of student attainment of outcomes?

• Will students have a choice regarding products and/or performances?

Consider Options In Task Design • To what extent will the task allow for student

choice?

• To what extent will students need to acquire outside resources?

• Will students work on the task individually and/or in pairs/groups?

• How long will students be involved in this task?

Plan Task Activities

• What activities will be included in the task?

• Which of these activities will be scored?

• Which indicators will be assessed through each activity?

Identify evaluation criteria

• What criteria will be used to evaluate student products and performances?

• Do these criteria reflect the most valued elements of student performance?

Discussion Time

• Go over the Smarter Balanced Performance Task

• What do you notice?

• Discuss your thoughts with the group

Useful Websites http://www.insidemathematics.org/performance-assessment-tasks

http://www.ccsstoolbox.com: PARCC Prototype Project

http://www.nctm.org/rsmtasks/ (High School)

https://www.illustrativemathematics.org

http://balancedassessments.concord.org

http://www.portlandschools.org/Pages/LResults/CS/Math/Perf.html

http://www.scoe.org/pub/htdocs/ccss-mathematics.html

http://schools.nyc.gov/Academics/CommonCoreLibrary/TasksUnitsStudentWork/default.htm

http://sbac.portal.airast.org/practice-test/resources/

Thank You!