Unlike in most traditional tests wherein student responses can be scored using an answer key,
performance assessments require the teacher’s and peers judgmernt when evaluating the resulting
products and performances. This necessitates using a set of predetermined criteria that are aligned with
desired targeted standards or desired learning outcomes.
The foliowing are the basic steps in planning and implementing performance- based or product-based
assessments:
1. Define the purpose of performance or product-based assessment The teacher may ask the
following questions? What concept, skill or knowledge of the students should be assessed? At
what level should the students be performing? What type of knowledge is being assessed (eg,
remembering to creating? 2. Choose the activity/output that you will assess. The required
performance or output should be feasible given the time constraints, availability of resources,
and amount of data/materials needed to make an informed decision about the quality of a
student’s performance or product The performance tasks should be interesting challenging
achievable, and with sufficient depth and breadth so hat valid evaluation about students
learning can be made.
2. Define the criteria. Criteria are guidelines or rules for judging student responses, products, or
performances. Before conducting the assessment, the performance criteria should be
predetermined. The set of criteria should be discussed and agreed upon by the teacher and the
students. Performance criteria are important since they define for the students the types of
behavior or attributes of a product that are expected, as well as allow the teacher and the
students to evaluate a performance or product as objectively and as consistent as possible.
There are four types of criteria that can be used for evaluating student performances:
A. content criteria - to evaluate the degree of a student’s knowledge and understanding of
facts, concepts, and principles related to the topic/ subject;
B. Process criteria – to evaluate the proficiency level of performance of a skill or process;
C. Quality criteria – to evaluate the quality of a product or performance; and
D. Impact criteria – to evaluate the overall results or effects of a product or performance.
3. Create the performance rubric. A rubric is an assessment tool that indicates the performance
expectations for any kind of student work. It generally contains three essential features: (1)
criteria or the aspects of performance that will be assessed, (2) performance descriptors or the
characteristics associated with each dimension or criterion, and (3) performance levels that
identifies students level of mastery within each criterion. There are different types of rubrics: