Complex, Performance-Based Assessment: Expectations and Validation Criteria

Self-evaluation of assessment programs: A cross-case analysis

“…Other and complementary quality criteria have been suggested, such as the consequences, authenticity, meaningfulness and cognitive complexity of an assessment (Linn et al, 1991). Martin (1997) states that the notions of validity and reliability should change, because the notion of what constitutes an adequate assessment methods has changed with the rise of competence-based education.…”

“…Also, they were complemented with criteria reflecting the formative goal of competence assessment, such as the meaningfulness for students' learning process, the stimulation of reflection and self-regulated learning, and the transparency of the assessment criteria and process for students (Kane, 1992(Kane, , 2004Linn et al, 1991;van der Vleuten & Schuwirth, 2005). This resulted in the 12 quality criteria for CAPs presented in Table 1, which were further operationalized into more practical indicators for the self-evaluation (see Section 2).…”

“…Decisions about students should be based on multiple assessors, multiple tasks and multiple situations (Moss, 1994;van der Vleuten & Schuwirth, 2005) Transparency CAP should be clear and understandable for all stakeholders (Frederiksen & Collins, 1989;Linn et al, 1991) Acceptability All stakeholders should approve of the assessment criteria and methods (Stokking, Van der Schaaf, Jaspers, & Erkens, 2004) Fairness Students should get a fair chance to demonstrate their competences, for example by letting them express themselves in different ways and making sure the assessors do not show biases (Dierick & Dochy, 2001;Hambleton, 1996;Linn et al, 1991) …”

“…However, with the rise of these new assessments, discussions have come up about the assurance of the quality of these assessments. Traditional knowledge-focused assessments are often criticized for being too limited in scope and not being valid for assessing the nature of current learning (e.g., Linn, Baker, & Dunbar, 1991;Roth, 1998). On the other hand, the reliability of new assessments is often thought to be inadequate for high-stake purposes (e.g., Johnson, Fisher, Willeke, & McDaniel, 2003;Klein, McCaffrey, Stecher, & Koretz, 1995).…”

“…On the other hand, the reliability of new assessments is often thought to be inadequate for high-stake purposes (e.g., Johnson, Fisher, Willeke, & McDaniel, 2003;Klein, McCaffrey, Stecher, & Koretz, 1995). With the rise of new assessments, other and complementary quality criteria for competence assessment have been suggested, such as authenticity, meaningfulness and cognitive complexity (Linn et al, 1991). These quality criteria do better justice to the character and purposes of assessment in competence-based education.…”