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About Performance Assessments

Local Cohort Schools

Common Performance Assessments
Why Now?
In this era of heightened political awareness and attention to accountability, QPA offers a balanced system of assessment that is able to address the following purposes and criteria for quality assessments.

Assessments should accurately and validly measure student performance.

Criteria      Current national/state assessment systems  QPA design
Have high technical quality (validity and accuracy)   Yes Yes
Use multiple measures  No  Yes
 Are related to future success (i.e. college or career-ready skills)  No
Multiple choice or fill in the blank responses are rarely used beyond the K-12 system.
  Yes
Performance assessments include projects such as research papers and oral presentations which are often used in college and career settings.

Assessments should drive quality instruction.

Criteria      Current national/state assessment systems  QPA design
Aligned with standards  Yes Yes
Provide timely and useful feedback  No
Teachers often do not receive end-of-year test results until the subsequent school year.
  Yes
Performance assessments allow teachers to be involved in scoring and continual review of student work.
Embedded in curriculum  No
Teachers often view standardized assessments as taking away from “real” instruction time.
  Yes
The QPA model integrates common assessments into the learning and instruction that already takes place in classrooms.


Assessments should promote equity in public education.

Criteria      Current national/state assessment systems QPA design
Identify gaps in achievement  Yes Yes
Are accessible and fair to all students  No
Current standardized assessments often favor students who have mastery of test taking skills (but not necessarily mastery of content).
  Yes
The use of multiple measures to­­­­­ assess performance allows students with different backgrounds and interests to demonstrate knowledge and competency.

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