TOWARD A SCIENCE PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT TECHNOLOGY

Science performance assessments-assessments where students conduct han ds-on investigations, and report and interpret their findings-have bee n used in large-scale testing programs for years and have recently ent ered into the international achievement arena. This paper argues that in light of the cost, logistic and administrative challenges of fieldi ng these assessments, a performance assessment technology needs to be developed. Such a technology would provide tools for assessment constr uction and evaluation that would address these challenges. Here we rep ort on our research that is working toward this goal, albeit without c omplete success. We present a conceptual framework for defining, gener ating and evaluating assessments. A SPA is defined by a task, a respon se demand, and a scoring system. We identify types of tasks/response d emands (e.g., comparative-compare alternatives and reach a conclusion) , link them to regularities in scoring systems that focus on the scien tific validity of students' investigations, and evaluate the technical qualities of the assessments within the context of generalizability t heory (reliability and validity). We summarize, conceptually and step- by-step, the development and evaluation process: providing concrete ex amples. We conclude that work remains to be done to determine whether a performance-assessment technology is a feasible goal. (C) 1998 Elsev ier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.