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I couldn't swing a cat over the past few days without hitting a reference to the virtues of performance assessment--thanks in large part to the Coalition of Essential Schools' effective promotion of National Exhibition Month, which "promote[s] and celebrate exhibitions as a preferred form of student assessment"

An article in the Boston Globe describes the exhibitions as "similar to doctoral dissertations" in that they require research and close collaboration with mentors.  Teacher/blogger Dan Brown characterizes them as a needed antidote to the "spirit-breaking boredom for students who receive piles and piles of photocopied test prep packets instead of substantive, dynamic classroom instruction." Jim Horne looks forward to a day when performance assessment becomes the coin of the realm--after "the current testing hysteria subsides."  And the Coalition of Essential Schools' Essential Blog describes exhibitions "a better way to understand what students know and can do."

Yet it's a posting on the Quick and the Ed that really caught my eye.  Describing his first-hand experience of exhibitions at Portsmouth High School, Bill Tucker offered the following reflections:

The students were, of course, outstanding. But, what surprised me most were my conversations with the principal, teachers, and state officials about the cultural changes that were emerging from the senior project requirement. Roy Seitsinger, Director of RI High School Redesign, was emphatic that this work was "about transformative cultural change."

Portsmouth Principal Littlefield welcomed us by noting that the past two days he'd felt an "energy he has not seen in this building." And, he compared the buzz and excitement/anxiousness around senior projects with the lethargy that plagued last year's senior class. Numerous teachers echoed his observation of increased student engagement. At the symposium I attended the day before, teachers from Coventry High School, also in Rhode Island, talked about how implementing a portfolio requirement had made teachers' work more transparent. Their work was "no longer self-contained" because each and every teacher saw other teachers' signatures on student work in portfolios. And, this transparency had led to a level of peer pressure for rigor among teachers when assigning and grading student tasks. Likewise, I saw dozens of community members, parents, and business volunteers at Portsmouth serving as presentation judges. The students' senior projects provided a vehicle through which the entire school community engaged together--especially faculty. And, they also provided an opportunity to engage the surrounding community as mentors and judges.

Tucker cites questions about reliability, validity and rigor that plagued experiments in large-scale performance assessment years ago.  Still, he and others provide more than ample reason to devote real energy to making performance assessment a viable alternative to today's bubble tests.

Apparently, DC think tank Education Sector plans to take up this issue in the coming months--so stay tuned.