ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the design and implementation of performance assessment are far more time-consuming than the use of traditional tests. Many of the advantages of performance assessment are simply the reverse side of the limitations of traditional testing, namely, that they enable teachers to assess students in all those aspects of learning they value, in particular, writing and speaking, reasoning and problem solving, psychomotor and social skills, and the entire affective domain. Measurement experts argue that most aspects of student knowledge and skill may be assessed through well-designed multiple-choice tests. The most powerful means teachers have at their disposal for shifting the culture of their classrooms to one of significant work is to change their assessment methodologies. A discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of both traditional and non-traditional assessments can help teachers create or choose the kind of assessments that will elicit the evidence they need to make sound instructional decisions.
