2 ten dilemmas of performance assessment

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III nuucII. B. Huddell. Martha Rapp Ruddell and Harry Singer (cds) Thr.orrtical Mo~ls ... to discredit performance assessment, bUl to hold it to the highest of conceptual. ethical. ... There is good reason for the educational community to be concerned ..... ~ells and Ch~ng-Wells, 1.992, Wertsch, 1985). and regard meaning as an.
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Pearson, P.D., DeStefano, L., & García, G.E assessment. In C. Harrison and T. Salinger ( practice (pp. 21-49). London: Routledge.

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f:.·"glish and Ability. I.nllJon: l>avi~ Foulwn. 66-89 . . Iser. Wolfgang (1978.) Thr Act o/Rradi"g: " ThrolJ ofAmhrtic Rrspomr. Ballll1\Ore. MD: Johns HopklUS Unlvermy Pr~ss . .. . ' . Johns0n. I\. (1994) 'Assessmelll as social praclI(e. In D. J. l.eu anJ L K., ~11lzt:r (cds) Examining CrntrallHurs in Litrrary RrJ(arch. Throry and Pramer. Chicago: National Reading Conference. 11-23. I.ather. P. (1986) 'Research as praxis' . Harvard Educational Rrl,irlV, S6(~) : 257-77. lunzer. Eric and Gardner. Keith (1984) Lraming from thr Wnttrn Word. Edinhurgh: Oliver and Boyd . . . Lyotard. Jean-Franr;ois (1984) Thr pOjfm~tUm Condition: A Rrpon 0" K"owlrdgr. (nans. from the French by Geoff Bennington and Bnan Massumi). Manchester : Manchester Universiry Press. . . McGregor . R. and Meirs. M . (1991) Trl/ing thr Wholr Story. Hawthorne. Vlctona: Australian Council for Educational Research. Medvedev. P. N . and Bakhtin. M. (1978) Thr Formal Mrthod ill Liurary Scholarship. (nans. A. J. Wehrle) . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Universiry Press. Phillips. T. (1971) . 'Poetry in the Pri mary School'. English in Education . 5(3): 15-62. Protherough. Robert (1983) Drvrlopillg a Rrspomr to Fiction . Milton Keynes: Opcn Univcr~ity Press. . RosenhlJtt. l.. M, (1970) Liurllturr ,IS Expwratioll. London: Ilelnemann Educational ~ooks. Selden. R. (I9B5) A Rradrri Guidr to Conumporary Litrrary Throry. Brighton: The Harvester Pn:ss. Slake. R. E. (1979) 'Program evalualion, particularly respollSive evalualion'. In W . B. Dockrell and D . Hamilton (cds) Rrthinlting Educarional Rrsrll,..h. I.undon : Hodder and Stoughton. . ' Stedman , L. C. and Kaestle, C. F. (1987) ' Literacy and reading performance In the United States. from 1880 to the present' . Rrading RrJ(arch Quartrrly, 22, B-46. T.1ylor, D. (1993) 'Assessing the complexiry of students' learni~g:. A st~ldent advocacy model of Instructional asscssmelll·. In From thr ChIlds Pomt of V,rw. Portsmouth, NH : Heinemann. Tierney, R. J. (1994) ' Disselllion. tensiollS, and the models of literacy'. In Robert B. Huddell. Martha Rapp Ruddell and Harry Singer (cds) Throrrtical Mo~ls alld Prowm of Rrading (4th edn). Newark, DE: International Heading

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TEN DILEMMAS OF PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT P. David Ptarson. Lizannt DtSufono and Gtorgill Earntst Garda

This essay is a deliberate critique of performance assessment, especially as it has unfolded as an alternative to standardized testing within the English language arts, and even more particularly as it has been championed as an alternative to conventional reading assessment. Our experience in trying to build and evaluate various approaches to performance assessment has spawned this critique. Each of us has served. in some circumstances. as an advocate of performance assessment and as a critic of conventional assessment practices. In other circumstances. we have served as critics of performance assessment and advocates for conventional assessment. especially when those circumstances involved issues of budget. time limitations, the content domain, the nature of the inferences to be drawn and the audience for the assessmem (e.g.. Pearson and DeStefano, 1993a, 1993b. 1993c. 1993d; DeStefano, Pearson. and Afflerbach , 1996; Garda, 1991. 1994; Garda and Pearson. 1991; Garda and Pearson. 1994; Valencia and Pearson. 1987). We offer this critical commentary not in an attempt to discredit performance assessment, bUl to hold it to the highest of conceptual. ethical. psychometric and utilitarian standards. We truly want performance assessment to succeed. BUI we want it to succeed because it has met the challenge of high standards, rather than because we have decided to overlook its blemishes in a blind quest for something beller than we are

p.!rret'.',\'a.Rti n ,B;)C;)')'"94 AssC."mnenl and tile readin~ framework'. In R. I.inn . It Claser and C . BIIIHlISledl (cds), AssrHmml ill Tram;lioll: 1994 Trial Slalr AHmmml Rrl'orl 011 Rrild;II.'l.: ntld"Kroltlld SI/tdirs. Sianford, CA : The Nalillll:tl AC:1lkmy "f hilicalioll. EricssulI, K. A. :lIId Simoll , H. A. (1')H4) 1'1'010(01 AII,dys;s: Va",,, Rrportf iI.1 /),U.I. Clm[,riJgc MA: M IT Press. h 'lIerSleill , It It, RaIlJ , Y. anti Hoff/llJII, M. B. (197') T"e Dynam ic AS~l'sslIlcnl uf Rl·l:tnll·J Performance. I\altimurl', M\) : Ullivc:r~iry Park Press. (;arcl:t, (;. E. (I '.>'.11) 'faclors influcncing tht: English reading tesl pcriornlJllce of Sp:tnish-spc lk illg 11isl'~nic sII"klm '. Rr'ld;/lg Rrullrrh Qltlll'll"rh, 2(i, TII~2 . . - - (1')')4) ' Eqllily challl'll~es ill ;l\lIhl·mically assessinr. Sl\utt-nls fro" I divl'N' hack!-:rlllllHIs". lI'r 1:£1111111;1//1111 hmoll, ')'), (ilj-Tt Cuda, C . E. ~lId I'n rso II , 1'. D. (I '.1')1) 'The role of assessmenl ill :1 diversl' SIll:i"IY '· In F. Ilidlt:n (cJ.). L;lm,!) ;11 1/ /)ir'au So(;rry: 1·/TSprd;,.,..I. l'I'oIl/;,n. 1lI11/1'"lic;/"J. New York: Tl':IChers ( :ollq,:c Press , 2') :\-27H . - - (I')')") 'ASSeSSlIIl"IIl alld diversiIY '. In I.. J)arlillg-HamIlIlIIlJ kJ .), Rr/lirulof R"'l',.,.,1, ill FdJlt"ilI;ntl (\'01. 20) . W;lShillgloll , I )C : AIIll"ri(;11I F.lllc:tliollal Rl"~nrrlt As~"ci :llioll, .H7- .WI . (;:ulln, It ( I')H7). /l.fl· lnt ·/I,~"iliolll",d /ll"oIdill.f!. COIII/,r..hrllli(JII . NOlwood . N /: Ahkx . (;,Iwlt-k. J. ;JI"I Ibplt:ld . T . E. (I ')')(,) .( :IL1l1gillf, lalk a),olll I