Performance Assessments

“In education, what is chosen for assessment signals what is valued. In other words, the evidence that is collected tells students what is most important for them to learn. What is not assessed is likely to be regarded as unimportant. Sample model cornerstone assessments are provided within the standards to illustrate the type of evidence needed to show attainment of desired learning. This idea is key to backward design: the assessments bring the standards to life by illustrating the demonstrations of desired learning and the criteria by which student performances should be judged.

Standards-based curriculum and associated instruction can then be designed “backward” from key assessments that reflect the desired outcomes. Jay McTighe (2011), describing the characteristics of cornerstone assessments, wrote “They:

• are curriculum embedded (as opposed to externally imposed);
• recur over the grades, becoming increasingly sophisticated over time;
• establish authentic contexts for performance;
• assess understanding and transfer via genuine performance;
• integrate 21st century skills (e.g., critical thinking, technology use, teamwork) with subject area content;
• evaluate performance with established rubrics;
• engage students in meaningful learning while encouraging the best teaching;
• provide content for a student’s portfolio (so that they graduate with a resume of demonstrated accomplishments rather than simply a transcript of courses taken).

Unlike externally-developed standardized tests that interrupt instruction occasionally, cornerstone assessments are curriculum-embedded. Indeed, the term cornerstone is meant to suggest that just as a cornerstone anchors a building, these assessments should anchor the curriculum around the most important performances that students should be able to do (on their own) with acquired content knowledge and skills. They are intended to engage students in applying knowledge and skills in authentic and relevant contexts. They call for higher order thinking (e.g., evaluation) and habits of mind (e.g., persistence) in order to achieve successful results. Their authenticity and complexity is what distinguishes them from the decontextualized, selected-response items found on many tests. Cornerstone tasks serve as more than just a means of gathering assessment evidence. These tasks are, by design, “worth teaching to” because they embody valuable learning goals and worthy accomplishments. Accordingly, they should be presented at the beginning of a course or a unit of instruction to serve as meaningful and concrete learning targets for students. Such assessment transparency is needed if standards are going to be met. Students must know the tasks to be mastered well in advance, and have continued opportunities to work toward their accomplishment.

The illustrative cornerstone assessments included in the standards reflect genuine and recurring performances that become increasingly sophisticated across the grades. Just as a keel protects boats from aimless drift, these tasks are designed to prevent “curriculum drift” by helping educators and learners always keep the ends—lifelong goals—in mind. For these reasons, cornerstone assessments are included in the National Core Arts Standards project. The standards are built with the expectation that schools or districts will value the understanding and transfer of knowledge and skills that will come with a standards-based curriculum in the arts and therefore, acknowledge that they are important curricular goals. Moreover, NCCAS hopes that the inclusion of cornerstone assessments in this project will focus the great majority of classroom- and district-level assessments around rich performance tasks that demand transfer. These assessments also provide the basis for collecting the benchmark student work that illustrates the nature and quality of student achievement envisioned in the standards. This paradigm shift in measuring student learning in the arts will offer relevant and reliable evidence of what students truly understand and know how to do, for it is only when students are able to apply their learning thoughtfully and flexibly to a new situation that true understanding of the content is demonstrated. Integral to each model cornerstone assessment are key traits. Key traits describe the criteria or “look-for’s” used to build evaluation tools for open-ended performance tasks. The lists of key traits included in these example performance tasks disclose for students and teachers what skills and cognitive demands are being asked for in the task.” (p. 15)