CHAPTER 7

Scoring Rubrics for Performance and Portfolio Assessment

Performance Task
 Performance tasks provide a common means of assessment. As the title implied, the
students will be asked to do something. Meaning, the students will just not answer a
question such as selected-response test format, writing an essay but to present students’
work or do something.

Forms of Performance-based Assessment

1. Extended response task

a. Activities for single assessment may be multiple and varied.
b. Activities may be extended over a period of time.
c. Products from different students may be different in focus.

2. Restricted-response tasks
a. Intended performances more narrowly defined than on extended response tasks.
b. Questions may begin like a multiple-choice or short-answer stem, but then asks for
explanation, or justification.
c. May have introductory material like an interpretative exercise, but then asks for an
explanation of the answer, not just the answer itself.

3. Portfolio – is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the students’ efforts,
progress and achievements in one or more areas. The details of portfolio assessment will
be discussed in the succeeding chapter.

Components of Performance-based Assessment

There are three basic components of a comprehensive performance-based assessment

1. Developmental checklists – the teachers are going to use checklist to create profile of
their students so that they can assess the individual progress in developing skills,
mastering important behaviors and acquiring knowledge.

2. Portfolios – these are purposeful collections of students’ work that exhibit efforts,
progress, and achievement in various areas of the curriculum over a period of time. The
teacher and students compiled together all completed and ongoing work in classroom. As
they work and talk together about the students’ interest and progress, they can develop
new activities for the student to focus on.

3. Summary reports – this consists of a brief narrative summary of each student’s classroom
performance. The summary of the teacher is based from his//her observation and records
that are kept.
Uses of Performance-based Assessment
1. Assess the cognitive complex outcomes such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation
2. Assess non-writing performances and products
3. Carefully specify the learning outcomes and construct activity or task that is actually
needed

Focus of Performance-based Assessment

 Performance-based assessment can assess the process, product or both (process and
product) depending on the learning outcomes. It also involves doing rather than just
knowing about the activity or task. The teacher will assess the effectiveness of the process
or procedures and the product used in carrying out the instruction. The question is when to
use the process and the product.

Use the process when:

1. There is no product;
2. The process is orderly and directly observable;
3. Correct procedures/steps are crucial to later success;
4. Analysis of procedural steps can help in improving the product; and
5. Learning is at the early stage.

Use the product when:

1. Different procedures result in an equally good product;
2. Procedures are not available for observation;
3. The procedures have been mastered already; and
4. Products have qualities that can be identified and judged.

Portfolio Assessment
 Is the systematic, longitudinal collection of student work created in response to specific,
known instructional objectives and evaluated in relation to the same criteria (Ferenz,
2001). Student portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the
students’ efforts, progress and achievements in one or more areas. The collection must
include student participation in selecting contents, the criteria for selection, the criteria for
judging merit and evidence of student self-reflection (Paulson, Paulson, Meyer 1991 as
cited by Ferenz 2001 in her article “Using Student Portfolio for Outcomes Assessment).
 A portfolio (Vavrus, 1990) is more than just a container full of stuff. It is a systematic
organized collection of evidence used by the teacher and student to monitor growth of the
student’s knowledge, skills, and attitudes in a specific subject area.
 A portfolio (National Education Association, 1993) is a record of learning that focuses on
the student’s work and his/her refection on that work. Material is collected through a
collaborative effort between the students and staff members and is indicative of progress
toward the essential outcomes.
Comparison of Portfolio and Traditional Forms of Assessment (Ferenz, 2001)

Traditional Assessment Portfolio Assessment

Measures student’s ability at one time Measures student’s ability over time
Done by the teacher alone, students are not Done by the teacher and the student’s, the
aware of the criteria students are aware of the criteria
Conducted outside instruction Embedded in instruction
Assigns student a grade Involve student in own assessment
Does not capture the student’s language ability
Captures many facets of language learning
performance
Does not include the teacher’s knowledge of Allows for expression of teacher’s knowledge
students as a learner of student as a learner
Does not give student responsibility Student learns how to take responsibility

Three Types of Portfolio

1. Working Portfolio
The first type of portfolio is working portfolio also known as “teacher-student portfolio”. As the
name implies that it is a project “in the work,” it contains the work in progress as well as the
finished samples of work use to reflect on process by the students and teachers.
The working portfolio may be used to diagnose students needs. In this way both student and
teacher have evidence of student strengths and weaknesses in achieving learning objectives.

2. Showcase Portfolio
The second type of portfolio is also known as “best works portfolio or display portfolio”. In this kind
of portfolio, it focuses on the student’s best and most creative work, it exhibits the best
performance of the student.

It is just like an artist’s portfolio where a variety of work is selected to reflect breadth of talent,
painter exhibits their best paintings. Thus, in this portfolio the student selects what he or she
thinks is their representative work. This folder is most often seen at open houses and parent
visitations (Columba and Dolgus, 1995).

The most rewarding use of student portfolio is the display of the students’ best work, the work
that makes them proud. The pride and sense of accomplishment that students feel make the effort
well worthwhile and contribute to a culture for learning in the classroom.

3. Progress Portfolio
The third type is progress portfolio and it also known as “Teacher Alternative Assessment
Portfolio”. It contains examples of students’ work with the same type done over a period of time
and they are utilized to assess their progress.
Teachers can keep individual student portfolios that are solely for the teacher’s use as an
assessment tool. This is a focused type of portfolio and is a model of the holistic approach to
assessment (Columba and Dolgus, 1995).
Uses of Portfolios
1. It can provide both formative and summative opportunities for monitoring progress
toward reaching identified outcomes.
2. Portfolios can communicate concreate information about what is expected of students in
terms of the content and quality performance in specific curriculum areas.
3. A portfolio allows student to document the aspects of learning that do not show up well in
traditional assessment.
4. Portfolios are useful to showcase periodic or end of the year accomplishments of the
students.
5. Portfolios may also be used to facilitate communication between teachers and parents
regarding their child’s achievement and progress in a certain period of time.
6. The administrations may use portfolios for national competency testing to grant high
school credit, to evaluate educational programs.
7. Portfolios may be assembled for combination of purposes such as instructional
enhancement and progress documentation.

Advantages of Portfolios
1. Portfolios are consistent with theories of instruction and philosophies of schools
promoting student involvement of their learning.
2. They are an excellent way to document development and growth over time.
3. Giving students opportunity to have extensive input into the learning process.
4. Portfolios can bring together staff to discuss and reach consensus on such decisions as the
purpose, audience, and contents.
5. Portfolios can foster a sense of ownership of the work and the skills of critical self-
reflection and decision-making.
6. Portfolio contents may e used to illustrate the process and procedures that students follow.
7. Portfolios facilitate combining paper-and-pencil test with performance and product
assessments.
8. Promoting student self-evaluation, reflection, and critical thinking.
9. Measuring performance based on genuine samples of student work.
10. Providing opportunities for students and teachers to discuss learning goals and the
progress toward those goals in structured and unstructured conferences.
11. Enabling measurement of multiple dimensions of student progress by including different
types of data and materials (Venn, 2000)
Disadvantages of Portfolios
1. Logistics involved in designing and maintaining a portfolio system maybe overwhelming
with little or no support.
2. All stakeholders need training to design, implement, manage, and assess portfolios.
3. Portfolio is a new assessment strategy for most teachers, relative to previous approaches,
with many unresolved issues.
4. Gathering of all the necessary data and work samples can make portfolios bulky and
difficult to manage.
5. It requires extra time to plan an assessment system and conduct the assessment.
6. Scoring the portfolios involves the extensive use of subjective evaluation procedures such
as rating scales and professional judgement, and this limits reliability.
7. Developing a systematic and deliberate management system is difficult, but this step is
necessary in order to make portfolios more than a random collection of student work.
8. Scheduling individual portfolio conferences is difficult and the length of each conference
may interfere with other instructional activities (Venn, 2000).

Guidelines for Assessing Portfolios

1. Include enough documents (items) on which to base judgement.
2. Structure the contents to provide scorable information.
3. Develop judging criteria and a scoring scheme for raters to use in assessing the portfolios.
4. Use observation in instruments such as checklist and rating scales when possible to
facilitate scoring.
5. Used trained evaluators or assessors.