Create a Performance Assessment Definition

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A performance definition describes the criteria and rubric(s) used to evaluate student work. A performance assessment can also define the specific items the student must submit for evaluation.

If your school district has licensed the student online assessment component, you can configure a performance assessment for student online submission.

Create a Performance Assessment Definition

1. Select Assessment Library from the Assessment menu.
   
   • If this option does not appear, you do not have the necessary access privileges.

2. Click Add New.

   

   To look at existing assessment definitions, you can click the check button next to the area for which you want to view assessment definitions. The numbers to the right of the check buttons indicate the number of assessment definitions currently available for that area of the curriculum.

3. In the Name field on the Add New Assessment Definition page, enter a unique name for the assessment definition.
4. In the Stored At field, click the Select link to specify where in the curriculum the new assessment definition will be stored.
   For example, if the performance assessment will cover objectives in Grade 5 Language Arts, then the assessment definition should be stored under "Grade 5 > Language Arts". "Grade 5" would be too broad, and "Grade 5 > Language Arts -> Comprehension" might be too narrow.
5. In the Assessment Tags field, if assessment tags are available, check the ones that apply to the new performance assessment.
6. In the Method field, select Build Performance Assessment as the method
7. In the Details field, select the curriculum outline level at which you want to assess students.
   
   • Later you will be able to align the performance standard to curriculum statements at this level.
8. In the Assessment Rubrics section, select the rubric to use, if applicable, for the performance assessment.
9. Click Accept to continue.
10. On the Add New Assessment Definition (Performance Assessment) page, the Assessment Name and Stored At values you entered for the performance assessment display, along with fields for additional details. If you plan to have students submit their work online for evaluation, select a value in the Number of Items to be Submitted Online by Students drop-down.
    
    • Note that your school district must be using the student online assessment module in order to submit online work. If your school district is not using that module, leave this field set to N/A.
    • Online performance assessment is covered in more detail in Define a Performance Assessment for Student Online Submission.
11. Select the number of criteria you are evaluating in the Number of Student Expectations (Evaluation Criteria) drop-down. The number you select here determines how many Student Expectation fields display on the page.
12. In the Scoring Directions text box, enter the overall scoring directions for the teacher/evaluator.
13. In the fields for each Student Expectation, provide the following information:
    
    • In the Description for Student Expectation text box, enter a description of the evaluation criterion for the student expectation.
    • In the Rubric for Student Expectation drop-down, select the type of rubric (simple or custom) to use for the student expectation.
      
      • For a simple rubric, you specify the maximum number of points and then, when the performance assessment is being administered, the evaluator can select from zero points to the specified number of points.
      • If a custom rubric is selected, you must provide a description and point value for each rubric level.
    • In the Curriculum Alignment section, click the link to specify how to align the performance standard to curriculum statements at the level you selected in the Details field in step 7 of this procedure. The link text will reflect the level in the Details field.
      
      • For example, if you selected Objectives in the Details field, click the Select Objectives link to specify the objectives or other curriculum statements to which the expectation will be aligned.
      • For each student expectation, you can identify one or more curriculum statements that the student expectation addresses. The aligned curriculum statement is identified by typing or looking up its label.
      • When you are finished, click the X (Close) button in the top right corner of the Look-up Curriculum Statement pop-up to save your selections and return to the Add New Assessment Definition (Performance Assessment) page.

14. To collect curriculum based results when the performance assessment is scored, click Update to Match Selections Above in the Point cutoffs for aligned objectives section. You will then be able to specify cutoff scores for each objective or other curriculum statement that has been aligned to one or more expectations.

    

    If you are using the E-Portfolio feature, it is critical that the student expectations are aligned to the curriculum and that point cutoffs are provided here. Otherwise, it is not possible to determine whether the student was successful on these curriculum statements based on the performance assessment

15. To create the performance assessment, click Save Assessment Definition.
16. In the newly created performance assessment, review your work carefully and edit as needed.
17. Click the Assessment Properties & Layout tab, where you can activate the assessment definition or add an overall rubric as described next.

Add a Grading Rubric to a Performance Assessment

You can set up a performance assessment to allow a grader to assign an overall subjective rubric score to the student submission as a whole. You can also specify the generation of a separate overall rubric score based on comparing the student's total point score to cutoff scores.

1. On the Assessment Properties & Layout tab of the assessment definition, click the + Add Assessment Rubric link in the Assessment Rubric field.
2. In the Assessment Rubric pop-up, define the proficiency levels for your rubric. Assign each level a name, a one or two character symbol, and a color.
   
   • Colors are optional, but if provided, allow the charts to be colorized making them easier to interpret. If you are unsure about the best colors, keep in mind that you can easily change them later.
   • If there is a color scheme in the rubric of another assessment definition that you would like to use for this assessment definition, you can bring up this same screen for the other assessment definition, click Copy Color Scheme, and then return to this screen and click Paste Color Scheme.
   • Use the icons to the right of the numbers to insert or remove proficiency levels. Make sure the mastery levels are listed from lowest performance (at the top) to highest performance (at the bottom).
3. Click Accept to save your rubric.The completed rubric appears in the Assessment Rubric section. Graders will now be able to provide an overall subjective rating using this rubric for student submissions.
4. To make the assessment active, click Edit Properties.
5. Select Active in the Current Status field.
6. To compute the overall grade automatically based on total points and cutoff scores, specify whether the cutoff scores will be percentages or raw point values in the Score Type field, and then enter the cutoff score for each rubric level (the minimum score needed to attain each level).
7. Click Accept.

Scoring the Performance Assessment

Once the performance assessment has been activated, it can be scored using a variety of methods included web entry and scanning. For scanning, the teacher would complete the bubble sheet with score ratings.