Volume 6, Number 3 The Coalition of Essential Schools M arch 1990

HORACEPerformances and Exhibitions:

The Demonstration of Mastery

A true test asks WI IAT IX) W!· W'ANT J 11(,1 1

scho j .tudents to learn? The most

students to show reviialing ,in,wer ian be had by

what they know Ini,king,i[ what we c'xpect fromthi·in when their time iS up. What

and can do, not titcic·nts know and what they can

to spout unrelated do, aftir a course K uimpleted or ahigh sc hocil career ended, M in

facts they have m,iny ways,1 reflection of what

memorized the 1 114·ir h<11<x,15 have expectedthem to master

night before. Once For many, this means proving

we start measuring themselves through a series of

mechanized hoops-machine-performance this scanned textbook tests, achievement

way, change is and competency tests. But forstudents in,in increasing number

swift to foi zow-in of hclic,(ils, the question of niastery

what we teach, in i# bect,ming at tince inure messyand more authentic. What can you

how we teach, and rcul/,/ do? trachers unc<,infortable

in our assumptions with wh,it conventional tests show

arr beginning to ask. What cdt)about why kirk are you undeatand about how togit

in school at aN. answers to hard questions? Andin realistic contexts before mixed

audiences of peers, teachers, andlic coniminity, students in manyschools are showing us the answers,in the exhibitions that expose thevery heart of what the Coalition ofEssential Schools is trying to do.

"In its original form, thet'Aftil>flioit I. rfle pl,£,flb i·Aple..ic)11by ,) 5.1,lili.Ill uf rr,71 c,immandLiver wh.it shi·'slr.trned," N,ivs CES

('12,1irm,Iti |17rcidiu·t' Sizer. "It brg.111iii thr righteenth century, as therrit cll'llicilistr,itilin in New England,11·,1413·,nies ,Ind iii collrgis like

flarvard. The student was expectedto perform, recite, dispute, andanfwarchallenges in public session."[f •.uch a performance is welldesignt.d, Sizer points out, it elicitsprc>of both of thi· student's under-standing and of some imaginativecapability-it serves at once asevaluative agent and expressivetixil. "We expect people to showus and explain to us how theyInsi· content--it's more than mere

memory," Sizer says. "[t's the firstreal step towards coming up withime ideas of their own."

The concept of performance-based evaluation is nothing new,11(,tes Grant Wiggins, who has beena consultant to CES on assessment

issues; we see it every time someonepresents a business proposal,

performs in a recital, plays a ballgame. But the exhibition is at leastas much a teaching tool as an as-

sessment method, Sizer points out,

as much inspiration as measure-ment. "Giving kids a really goodtarget is the best way to teachthem," he says. "And if the goal

is cast in an interesting way, yougreatly increase the chances of theirachieving it. When you can see theobvious exhilaration of the final

a fi,reign language well-it'spirceived quite differently fromthe 11>.U,11 test, which is secret and

Comes zit voll m a wav you neverser in either areas, with time con-

sirailits,ind machine grading.

Figure 6. Walden III's Rite of Passage Experience (ROPE)

All seniors must demonstrate mastery in fifteen areas ofknowledge and competence by completing a portfolio, apmject, and six other presentations before a ROPE committee consisting of staff members (including the student's homeroom teacher), a student from the grade below, and an adultfrom the community. Nine of the presentations are based onthe materials in the portfolio and the project; the remainingsix presentations are developed especially for the presenta-tion process.

The Portfolio. The portfolio, devel-oped during the first semester ofthe senior year, is intended to be"a reflection and analysis of thegraduating senior's own life andtimes." Its requirements are:

The Presentations. Each of the above eight components ofthe portfolio, plus the project, must be presented orally andin writing to the ROFE committee.

Six additional oral presentations are also required. Forthese, however, no written reports or new products arerequired by the committee. Supporting documents or otherforms of evidence may be used. Assessment of proficiency isbased on the demonstration of knowledge and skills duringthe presentations in each of the following areas:

To graduatefromWalden m you mustcompiete a portfolio,a written project,and fifteen oralpresentations beforetwo teachers, a peer,

and an outside adult.

1. A written ,lutobiograp/ly, descrip-live, introspective, and analytical.School records and other ind icatorsof participation may be included.2. A refection on work, including ananalysis of the significance of thework experiences for the graduatingsenior's life. A resume can beincluded.

1 Two letters of recommendation (atminimum) from any sources chosen by the student.4. A reading record including a bibliography, annotated ifdesired, and two mini-bexik reports. Reading test scoresmay be included.5. An essay on ethics exhibiting contemplation of the subjectand describing the studenes own ethical code.6. An artistic product or written report on art and an essay on

, artistic standards for judging quality in a chosen area of art.7. A written report aitalyzing mass medm: who or what controlsmass media, toward what ends. and with what effects.

' Evidence of experience with mass media may be included.8. A written summary and ewlitation of the student's course workin science/technology; a written description of a scientific experi-ment illustrating the application of the scientific method; ananarytical essay (with examples) on social consequences ofscience and technology, and an eswy mi the niture and use ofcomputers in modern society.

The Project. Every graduating senior must write a libraryresearch-based paper that analyzes an event, set of events, ortheme in American history. A national comparative approachcan be used in the analysis. The student must be prepared tofield questions about both the paper and an overview of

American history during the presentations, which are givenin the second semester of the senior year.

HORACE

1. Mathemn tics knDWEedge £gndskills is demonstrated by acombination of course evalu-ations, test results, and worksheets presented before thecommittee, and by the abilitycompetently to field mathemat-ics questions asked during the idemonstration.

2 Knowledge of Americangouernment should be demon-strated by discussion of thepurpose of government; theindividual's relation to the state; the ideals, functions, and ]

- - --- problems of American politicalinstitutions. and selected

contemporary issues and political events. Supportingmaterials can be used.

3. The persolial proficiency demonstration requires the studentto think about an organize a presentation about the require-ments of adult living in our society in terms of personalfulfillment, social skills, and practical competencies; and todiscuss his or lier own strengths and weaknesses in everydayliving skills (health, home economics, mechanics, etc.) andinterpersonal relations.

4. Knowledge of geography should be demonstrated in a presen-tation that covers the basic principles and questions Iof the discipline; identification of basic landforms, places, 1and names; and the scientific and social significance ofgeographical information.5. Evidence of the graduating senior's successful completion of aphysimt challenge must be presented to the ROPE committee.6. A demonstration of competency in English (written andspoken) 6 provided in virtually all the portfolio and project re- ,quirements. These, and any additional evidence the graduat-ing senior may wish to present to the committee, fulfill therequirements of the presentation in the English competencyarea.

10

The above :5 drawn from the 1984 student handbook, "Walden HI'sRite of Passage Experience." by Thomas Feeney, 4 teacher at Walden111, an alternative public school in Kacine. Wisconsin. Preliminagannotations are by Grant Wiggins.

March 1990

knowledge, put things together,or go looking for facts when ananswer is unknown.

In the end, students at schocils

like these are asked to show theyknow much more than those in

conventional school. Not only mustthey meet competency requirementsin traditional area; and pr(>ducework that integrates material acro<,sthe disciplines, but they mustdrmonstratr their ma,tery of %killsthat will carry them into adult life.('entral Park j:ast, for on(·,expect%

proficiency in everything frompersori,0 eccinomic'x to voterregistration prix rdure% andoperating a romputer.

1 hc· "Ril(·of f'aage Experience,"or R()1'1<, program at Waiden Iii,which hai. bic,n in place forover adecack·, ih a fully developed model[}f how such a requirement ranhinction. Born from th, Australian

"walkahout" tradition in which

a youngdc·r must meet aitainchall,inges tr,attain adulthood,ROPI{ is expressly designed "toevaluate students' readiness for

life beyond high school." In orderto gradu,itc, eacli henic,r mwitsatisfactorily present a wrill,91

portfolio, a written project, andan or.11 demonstration before a

committee made up of staff, anotherstudent, and an ;idult from the

community. The fifteen required

i,reas of mastery cover a widerange; students notornlydemonstratecompetency in iwadrmic disciplinesbut submit other materials like a

written autobiography, a reflectionim work, an essay on ethics, and a

i report analyzing mass media. (SeeFiguri' 6.) The ROPE requirements

Central Park East

expects proficiencyin everythingfrom

personal economicsto voter registration

procedures and

using a computer.

HORACE

are very c](Ae to the grad uationexhibition5 in uff at Rochester's

Schcx,J Without Walls, and to those

being developed at Central ParkEast Secondary School.

Studentf killow a strict schedule

in preparing their projects andportfolios, which must be readyfor presentation by the end of first4emester. At Walden III, ROPE

r <immittee+I schedule as manv as

five meetings with each senior

during the second semester-

enough %0 that if weaknesses areevident, the 5,tudent has the chance

to remedy them. The whole process

1,1 I·xpensive in terms of teachertime, notes Thomas Feeney, whoteaches a first-semester class

preparing seniors to present them-srives to their ROPE. committees.

A minimum of ten hours of teacher

time, is spent examining eachstudent-time which must come

either d irectly from courses or fromconference periods. -ro carry it off

yi>u need either a very committedschool board or a very flexiblecurriculum, or both," Feeney says.

At Central Park East, the first

eleventh-grade class is launchedthis year on a two-year 'SeniorInstitute" di'signed to culminate iniin exit exhibition similar to Walden

III's. The program includes notonly traditional course work butinternships and lab work, seminarsand independent study in collabo-ra tion with local universities,

and summer projects. Because itis oriented toward mastery ratherthan accumulation of credits, the

Institute is time-flexible; it maytake more or less than two yearsdepending on the student's needsand desires. And it is personal; eachstudent is coached and advised

throughout by a teacher responsiblefor no more than fifteen students

and two academic coilrs.s.

1{valtiaticin of exit exhibitions

Icillows the s,inie kind of proceduresused iii cl.issi·ocim perfc,rmances-r.rept that a student rarely gets tothe exhibition stage unless he or she

isactiially ready to demonstratemastery. [f there ,irc problems, the

11

"Whereas students

can sometimes

squeak through on

regular competencytests, with ROPE we

get smacked right intheface with whatthey don't know."

committee usuallv catches them in

an early review. Still, if a majorityof the group eventually so votes,the student will go back for as

much more preparation as he or sheneeds until true mastery isachieved.

"In a way, as a method ofevaluating what students know at

the end of high school perhaps it'stoo good," says Thomas Feeney."We substitute our own competencydemonstrations for the standardized

tests in the areas required by thedistrict. But whereas students can

sc,metimes squeak through onregular competency tests, withROPE we get smacked right in theface with what they don't know."Feeney directly attributes changesin Walden'scurriculum requirementsto this fact. "We now require two

quarters of geography, for instance,to graduate," he says. And ROPEresults spark intense discussionamong faculty, he says, as to howand when certain subjects shouldbe presented.

That is probably the chief reason Ithat exit exhibitions are such a

difficult and controversial way forschools to show their commitment

to active learning. If they start by

defining clear standards for student mastery, change in every area ofthe curriculum is unavoidable. i

After all, one cannot expect some 'students to be held to a new gradu-ation standard and others to the old |wav, some teachers to demand only 1skills in rotc and recall and others I

to ask students to think their way Ithrough harder challenges. If no Icoiisenstis exists on what students

March 1990

CES is exploring thepossibility of startingseveral new schools

in which the entire

curriculum would

-flowfrom the exitexhibition.

should know and beable k, dc>

when school is over, a school may1>t· split,it it% very core. Exit rxhibi-lions, then, ran bi· diagnostic toolorcatilyst; they catinrit be a iwi)tra],"s i,fi,",issi,%?.ment nic·asure.

1)ous this mean that exit exhihi-

lion, an· cinly p(,sgible in smaller,,ilt('rnative high schools withstrili tures that invite such individ-

ual ascewid·nts? "You (,in't reallydo thein unic# yoll know the kids,"l'edi Si>wr risponds. But big schoolssh uld addrish that, he says, by

HORACEI'lie Coalition of Essential SchoolsHox 1938

Brown UniversityProvidence, [<hode Island ()2912

reducing their crushing teachingloads, personalizing and restructur-ing the curriculum so there is Zimefor thA kind of attention. And

once exhibitions become a wav of

Waching, he says, teachers and5tudentf both are energized bv theresult%. "To say 'Our kind of kidsor teacheA wouldn't do it' A just awlf- fulfilling prophecy," he asserts.

Fnr studenti, making exitixhibition·, the end of their xchor,1

ckircirs a]91 creates deep and en-compassing changes. C PE's SeniorInst:luk·, for example, htart% withmaking d po+graduation plan,whic h give,direction to all the51 udent's efforts liward the di-

ploma. This becomes a key partof the pi,rifolio reviewed by thegraduation committee, but it servesa mcire important role as well: itanhwers the question, "Why am Iin high school?" Throughout thefinal years of high school, studentsmust come to terms with the wayseverything they do reflects back on

that question and -,nape.4 it- answerThe "atmc,sphere of unar\14)u,11

high expectationana truct' 7.hichi. a common principle of Eisentialschools is a kev element m puttingthe exit exhibition into place.Student„ get a clear message thathigh school is over onk· when the\can demonstrate competence inareas that mean something to themand to the communitv. Whetherthat revolutionizing principle can

be as effective in schools that start

their performances at the classroomlevel instead of by defining gradu-ation requirements is an openquestion. Ted Sizer believes not; theCoalition is exploring the possibil-ity of starting several new schoolsin which the entirecurriculum

would flow from the culminatingexhibition. In the meantime,teachers and students in Essential

schools continue to grapple atevery level with how to assess truethoughtfulness, real mastery, and abroad range of student capacities. 1

Non-Profit Org.U.S. Postage

PAID

IProvidence R]

Permit No. 202

Figure 1. Qualities of "Authentic Performances"

Structure and Logistics

• Are more appropriately public; involve an audience or panel.• Do not rely on unrealistic and arbitrary time constraints.• Offer known, not secret, questions or tasks.• Are more like portfolios or a season of games, not one-shot,• Require some collaboration with others.

• Recur-and are worth practicing for and retaking,• Make assessment and feedback te students so central that school

schedules, structures, and policies are modified to support them.

intellectual Design Features

• Are "es?ient jal" ---not need}ossly in trusj ve, arbitrary, or designedto 'shake out" a grade.

• Are "enabling"--constructed to point the student towards moresophisticated use of thi skills or knowledge.

• Are contextualized, complex intellectual challenges, not"atomized" tasks corresponding to isolated "outcomes."

•Involve the student'% own research or use of knowledge, for which"content" Es a mean.4.

• Assess student habits and repertoires, not mere recall or

plug-in skills.• Are reprei,entative challenges-designed to emphasize depth

more than breadth.

• Are engaging and educational.• Involve somewhat ambiguous tasks or problems.

Grading and Scoring Standards

• Involve criteria thaf assess essentials, not easily counted butrelatively unimportant errors.

• Are graded not on a curve but in reference to performancestandards (criteric,n-referenced, not norm-referenced).

• Involve demystified criteria of success that appear to studentsas inherent in successful activity.

• Make self-assessment a part of the assessment.• Use a multifaceted scoring system instead of one aggregate grade.• Exhibit harmony with shared schoolwide aims-a standard.

Fairness and Equity

• Ferret out and identify <perhaps hidden) strengths.

• Strike a constantly examined balance between honoringachievement and native skill or fortunate prior training.

• Minimize needless, unfair, and demoralizing comparisons.• Allow appropriate room for student learning styles, aptitudes,

and interests.

• Are attempted by all stildent.4, w'kiki Ihie lest "bLidic,ldd up,"not "dumbed down," as necessary.

• Reverse typical test-design procedures. A model task is firstspecilied; then, a fdir and reliable plan for scoring is devised.

Theseareprovided by Grant Wiggins, formerdirector of reseairch at CES; he giveser,Ylit 14, 'red Swer, Art Powell, 1 red Newmann, and Doug Archbald ,ind to the workc,f liete,·Elbow ,„61 R<ilwrt (,laher for some of these criteria.

HORACE 2

If it were not for a bureaucracv

of schooling deeplv invested ineastly generated outcomes, commonsense might dictate the steps inwhich teachers assess students.

Of course we want students who

are curious, who know how to

approach new problems, who usereading and writing across thedisciplines as a natural part of that

process, who are thoughtful, able,and actjve citizens. And to getthem we would merely make thosegoals known from the start, testfor them regularly, and correct astudent's course when necessary.

What complicates matters is anapproach to testing that originatedin an era when it stiJJ seemed

possible, and necessary, to impart

to young scholars a set body ofinformation. In addition, educa-

tional theorists believed that the

way to learn things was to breakthem down into their smaller

components. Testing reftected

those assumptions: it was discipline-

specific, content-driven, easilyshaped into multiple-choiceinstruments of assessment. Even

reading and writing were taughtand assessed this way, brokendown into discrete components thatcould betested and taughtseparately.

In the effort to achieve consistencyand a uniform standard, "subjectiv-ity" became a bad word; and inthe push for scientifically accurate assessment no one acknowledgedthat even the choice and wording Iof items on standardized tests

reflected biases as real as those I

of any classroom teacher. |In our information-loaded

age, that system has lost whatever |intellectual credit it may once have

had. We can't know all "the facts" anyway; and even if it were possible, 1theorists now think students learn best .,iken fact< are sntight in their Icontext, not in arbitrary sequences.Instead, Essential schools aim for

teaching students how to find outand critically evaluate the facts theyneed in a particular situation-the thoughtful habits of mind thatare sometimes called the "higher '

March 1990

Most standardized

tests, critics say,lack the snhuety

and sophisticationneeded to test critical

thinking skills.

literacies." Most standardized te?>ts,

critics say, lack the subtlety and%(,phistication needed w test suchcritical thinking skills.

But the old hystem of testing stillhas bureaucratic usefulness, and

%(, students still hear its mess,age

clearly: they are in ..c-hool to behorted, ranked, selected. For betterstudents, this can rob their studies

of excitement orintrilectual purpose.Hor the less advantaged, though,it implic"i a guaranteed levi'l offailure-het ause norm-referencedstandardized tests distribute

students along a bell-shaped curvewhich can be predicted in advance.Such methods have changed testing,many argue, from a teaching andlearning ton] to the point where itservel only a social and political

plirp{,Sl•.

1HORACEHORACE is publishedfive times yearly at BrownUniversity by the Coalitionof Essential Schools, Box 1938,

Brown University, Providence,RI 02912. Subscription is free.Publication of HORACE is

supported by a grant from theRockefeller Brothers Fund.

Editor. Kathleen Cushman

Managing Editor. Susaii Fisher

HORACE

ro change that pattern, theCoalition of Essential Schools

asserts, we must change the veryreavon students go to school. Thismust begin, Sizer says, with a new,

expectation: that all students canuse their minds well. New

incentives are next: real masteryrif things they want to do well.Finally, schools must provide newproving grounds where they canshow off that mastery in positive,public, and personal ways. Thislast A known, in Essential schools,

as the exhibition; both in theory andin practice, it is the cornerstone ofwhat an E%sential school is all about.

What Deserves a Diploma?

in an ideal E,diential school, Ted

Sizer believes, all decisions about

a school's curriculum should flow

from the devising of a culminatingexhibition at graduation. Do wewant graduates to be able tosynthesize information from avariety of disciplines in a well-reas()ned argument? Then designci,urses that give them regular

practice in cross-disciplinaryinquiry, and require a final projectthat shows they can doit. Do wewant them to answer and ask

questions on their feet, to work pro-ductively in gr()ups? Then coursework must consciously train themin these skills. Do we want them

to judge the reasonableness of ananswer, whether in mathematics or

ethics, and to evaluate the quality ofevidence? Then in every class givepriority to such habits of mind over

traditional coverage of content. Dowe want active citizens who know

tlieir rights and ways to affect theirown government? Then requirecourses that directly engage themin such matters.

Clearly, the structural choicesthat follow such an evaluation of a

e·hool's ends can be uncomfortablyradical. They will affect everyteacher and every student, at everylevel from the daily lesson plan to

the final graduation hurdles. It iseasv to see why s} few in the

3

Coalition have put the "exit exhibi-tion" first in their efforts to revise

and restructure their schools. If

one starts by defining graduationrequirements in terms of demon-strations of mastery, it's difficultto proceed in cautious little steps.

instead, most Essential schools

have held off on developing aculminating performance beforegraduation. They prefer to develop,within individual or team-taughtcourses, a new style of assessingstudent progress that relies more on

demonstration of thoughtful habitsof mind and less on memorization

of facts. These course-level exhibi-

tions are referred to within the

Coalition as "performances," to

distinguishthemfromthegraduationexhibition.

just what do these performanceslook like? How are they graded,and what alJowance is made for

different levels of student ability?Without standard measures, how

can a teacher reliably tell if the basic Icompetencies are being mastered? Doesn't it cost a lot to do things this |way, in teacher time and training, in administering and scoring?Don't we need to teach students to

take the standardized tests that the

real world judges them by? I askedthese questions of Essential schooltheorists and teachers who have

been trying performance-basedassessment in their classrooms.

What Performances Look Like

At the classroom level, a perform-ance is often as simple as a finalessay that requires skills in inquiryand synthesis to answer what theCoalition calls "essential questions."[See HORACE, Volume 5, No. 5.1

Or it might display student masteryin the form of a project, perhapsundertaken by a group. In someclasses students prepare portfoliosof their best work to submit for

evaluation; in others, they presenttheir work orally and answerquestions on it before the class.

Whatever its form, the performancemust engage the student in real

March 1990

intellectual work, not just memori-zation or recall. The "content"

students master in the process js themeans to an end, not the end itself.

Because Essential school teachers

use such skills as part of theireveryday commitment to "activelearning," it can be hard to tellwhere performances start andregular classwork leaves off. Andindeed, everyone agrees thatperformances do serve as a teachingkx,] af> much as an assessment

tool. But if we are to consider

performances as an alternative toconventional testing, it is mostuseful to knk at their evaluative

purpae

For example, at Springdale HighSchcx,1 in Arkansas, humanitiestem·her Melinda Nickieand the

other members of her teaching teamdevihed a final exam that could

be used for classes in inquiry andexpression, literature and fine arts,social studies, and science. (See

Figure 2.) Students are asked tolink research materials acr()ss the

disciplines in a thematic essay; laterthey participate in group evaluations

of each others' papers. The format, is aimed at many essential skills at

once: an interdisciplinary approach,1 "student-as-worker," the develop-

ment of critical thinking, and so on.It took a lot of time, Nickie says: atleast two teachers had to evaluate

At the classroom

levei, an exhibition

can be afinalessay, a project,a portfolio, or anoral presentation.

rich paper and then comparescores bekin, a grade wais put011 them. But "all our· students

remarked on how much theylear,ied from the performance," shesays. "They :.pent hours working onit,it,1 time of year when moststudents had already shut down

HORACE

Figure 2. A Final Performance Across the Disciplines

Discuss behavior patterns as reflected in the insect world, in animals.in human beings, and in literature. Be sure to include references to yourcourse work over the term in Inquiry and Expression, Literature and theArts, Social Studies, and Science. This may include Macbeth, the drugprevention and communication workshop, Stephen Crane's poetry, "AModest Proposal" and other essays you have studied, Mark Twain's fiction,and behaviors you have observed in our School-within-a-School. You mayalso add references to what you have read about in the news recently.

Procedure. Day one of the exam. You will be given four periods inwhich to brainstorm, make an outline, write a rough draft, and write a finalcopy in standard composition form. You will be graded not only on howwe 11 yo u assimilate the material but also how well you reflect the "studentas worker" metaphor and how responsibly you act during the testingperiod.

Day two of the exam: You will assemble in villages of three, evaluateanonymous papers according to a set of criteria, and come to a consensusabout a grade. Each paper will be evaluated by at least two groups and twoinstructors. Again, a part of your overall semester grade will have to dowith how responsibly you act and how well you demonstrate the "studentas workef' metaphor.

Thanks to Melinda Nickie at Springdale High School. Springdate, Arkansas.

due to the approaching vacation."At Adelphi Academy in

Brooklyn, New York, scienceteacher Chet Pielock and humanities

teacher Loretta Brady ask studentsto form teams to investigate LatinAmerica's problems of povertyand illiteracy, overcrowding, earth-quakes, and political instability.(See Figure 3.) To answer somequestions in the performancestudents must exhibit detailed

geographic knowledge; to answerothers, they must relate them tosociety and history. Interestingissues can arise from such work:

How are "natural resources"

regarded by different cultures?What happens when differentcultures conflict over the value of a

natural resource? How do natural

resources function in human

struggles for power?The best performances and

exhibitions are not merely projectsaimed at motivating students;they evoke fundamental questionswithin a discipline. For a final examin both history and English, forexample, one teaching team has

4

students support or refute the statement, "What matters in history !is not societies or events, but

individuals." (See Figure 4.) Becauseit asks the essential question "Whatcauses history?", such an inquirycan reflect not only how we see thepast but how we think about thepresent and future. Next studentsare asked to evaluate their own

essay along specific criteria, andthen to relate an "English" essayon subjectivity in research writingto it as well-revealing theinterdisciplinary connectionsbetween literature and history.

How to Grade a Performance

One of the reasons conventional

tests hold such sway in schools,of course, is that they are easy tograde. Are teachers' evaluationsof exhibitions and performances asobjectiveandreliableasthemultiple-choice and fill-in-the-blanks tests

they replace?"We can't evade these very

technical questions of reliability Iand validity," Grant Wiggins said |

March 1990

Figure 3. A Final Performance Across the Disciplines

So you want to understand Latin America's problems:poverty and illiteracy, overcrowding, eanhquakes, andpolitical instability (thars right, war). Can Latin America

i overcome these problems? Is the Urited States helping LatinAmerica all it fan? What is behind these problems? Onekey topic we need to understand is the land itself. We willbecome three teams of experts exploring three key fiejds:

1. What for<es have shaped the land?1 What ue the re,ources of the land?

3. Why do people live where they do on the land?

Each group has special requirements they need to fulfill, butin general, these are the expectations we have for you whileyou work and for the day of the final exhibition of your work:

" A" grade: Everyone on *eam undentands all the material well.

The team teaches the rest of the class effectively.All diagrams and maps are effective and attractive.Group uses class time effectively. All are involved.Group asks good questions of each other on team.Group agks good questions of other exhibiting groups.'tr grade.All of the above are fulfilled almost thoroughly."C grade.One of the above is not fulfilled.

Either one or two people in the group are lost, ordiagrams/maps are incomplete, messy, inaccurate;or group does not stay on task in class.

"D- grade:You don't know what you are doing.You have omitted a required map or diagram.You do not teach the class very much.You dress funny.

Group 1. What are the forces that shaped the land?

Your group should construct detailed and instructive worksfor the following. You are also expected to understand themeaning of these diagrams. What do they show?

1. Schematic diagrams showing the cross sections ofenergy forces below the surface of the land (volcanoes,trenches, etc.)

2. Maps showing the land movement of the plates of theearth throughout earth history, focusing especially onthe movement concerning Latin America.

Among the things you will need to find out:

1. Why are there mountains and volcanoes wherethey are in Latin America? (Why is this country full ofhighlands while Africa was mostly a land of plateaus?)2. What are the natural hazards of the land? Why is therea persistent threat of earthquakes? What has to be doneor haB been done to accommodate this natural hazard?

3. How did the bridge between the Americas form?How has the movement of the earth's plates effectedmigration in Latin America (plant and animal)?

HORACE 5

4. How does the earth produce the energy needed forall this colossal movement?

Group 1 What are the msources of the land?

Your group must find answers to and understand thefollowing:

1. What are the animal, vegetable, mmeral resources ofthe land? (Any oil?) How rich is the land for farming? Isthere enough water? Whatfooddo they rely onand inwhat parts of Latin America do they use certain kindsof food?

2. Why do they have the kind of vegetation they have?Or, why are (or are not) the climate zones dry like Africa,which falls roughly on the same equatorial line andlatitudinal lines as Latin America?3. How do the seasons differ from those of NorthAmerica7

4. How do Latin American birds and plants differ fromthose of Africa? Why do they have the adaptations, thedifferences they do? What special purpose do the uniqueplants of Lain America serve?

Your group must construct, and be able to discuss themeaning of, maps or diagrams showing the following:

I. The vegetation/climate zones in Latin America.2. The atmospheric currents and important oceancurrents which influence chmatic zones in Latin Amer-

ica. You may need to include average rainfall statistics.3. The hydrologic cycle.4. The important resources and where they are found.

Group 3. Where do the people live on the land?

Your group is responsible for finding out:

1. Where did the first societies (and first migrant people)live in Latin America? Why there? How could peoplehave migrated to Latin America? Could peopJe havecome from Africa?

2. Where was the population living around 1800-1850?What groups were living where? Why there? (Considerespecially the groups/races of people throughout theWest Indies and all of Latin America.)

3. Where do people live today? Why? What are thedifferent groups/races livingin Latin America today?Where do different language groups/races live today?What effect does that have on the countries in LatinAmerica?

Your group must be able to construct and fully explarn thefollowing:

1. A map of the populations foreach of the threequestions above. Question 3 may require more thanone map if you think it is necessary, oraclear overlay.

Thanks to Chet Pielock and Loretta Bradly at Adelphi Academy,Brooklyn, New York.

March 1990

in a summer workshop on exhibi-tions for Essential School teachers.

"To ask about validity is to ask if

the task represents the real thingwe want to assess. Does it reallypresent the student's abilities, traits,capacity for long-term work? Forexample, the SAT is valid because

it statistically correlates with latersuccess in college. But does it reallyrepresent the things the student ctin

be good at, or just one thing?"Reliability is another question,

says Wiggins. "Would the studentget the same score if he took thetest again and gave the sameperformance?" he asks. "Or woulddifferent people score it differently?.Standardized tests are reliable

by design, but we question theirvalidity. Exhibitions, un theotherhand, are valid-but ncit necessarilyreliable. 1 ic>w do we protectstudents from capricious, biasedjudgments?"

A related question is whetherI there must be one standard for the

.success of a student performance.Should standards vary according tothe performer's level of intelligence,

When students learn

to assess themselves,

they internalize thecriteria and become

better performersand critics.

age, hex, race, family circumstances,future plans? "The fa ilure to thinkthrough this question has led tous having no standards at all,"Wiggins argues. "You can walk into

any high school in America and seetwo teachers grade the same level

workindramaticallydifferentways"But teachers who use exhibitions

in the classroom speak jn matter-of-fact terms about how they evaluate

student performance. "You've gotto decide what's being gradedahead of time, and be clear about

it with the student," says Melinda

Nickie. "We assess the way theywork, the way they use their time,the way they speak and write, the

ideas they bring to the perform-ance-things that cannot be

evaluated by a typical pen and

paper test." Moreover, Nickie says,students are usually working ingroups as the> prepare their per-

formances, freeing her to circulate,ask questions, and ascertainweaknesses and strengths.

1 don't question the accuracvof our assessment," Nickie says. "Itactually is a lot more valuable thanthe traditional test, where what youmostly find out is if the student canmemorize well or if he studied the

night before. In fact, many studentsnew to our program are unsettledby how h igh our expectations are-it is hard to get by without getting

actjvely engaged in the learning."Nickie is one of many teachers

who require students to participatein thejr own assessments. "When

a student presents an exhibition in

my class," she says, "they mightstart out mumbling or speaking toofast. 1 say, 'go slow, breathe deeply,'and remind them that they arepracticing speaking skills. Pretty

soon the other students are prompt-

Figure 4. A Final Performance in History and English

Your final exhibition to demonstrate mastery of thematerial of these two courses for the first semester will be

divided into two parts. The first part is a research paper.The second part is the final examination. Together theseconstitute 25% of your grade for English and 20% of yourgrade for World History.

1. For the research assignment, write a five to seven pagepaper addressing the following: "What matters in historyis not societies or events, but individuals." Discuss the

validity of this concept of history by citing at least threespecific examples from your studies this semester thatsupport or refute the concept.

Your paper will be graded by both your history andyour English teacher and a grade assigned by each, basedon the standards in the "Written Exhibition Assessment

Form," attached.

2, The final examination will be taken during the periodscheduled for the English examination. It will consist of

three parts:a. An essay evaluating your research paper, both in

content and mechanics. You will read the attached excerpton subjectivity, objectivity, relativity, and balance inacademic writing (pages 6-7 from Toby Fulwiler. College

HORACE 6

Writi,15 Boston: Scott, Foresman, 1988). As you read it,think how the pojnts he makes apply to his research paper.Then write an essay reflecting on how these ideas areillustrated by your paper. Specifically, you need first toprepare a topic outline, including a thesis statement, forthe essay. Then summarize in your own words each ofFulwiler's main points, and cite at least one specificexample from your research paper of each of these points.Where you identify subjectivity or use of judgment in yourpaper, discuss whether there was adequate evidence inyour paper to support these subjective statements. Finally,discuss why you think you made these particular subjectivestatements. In other words, how did one of your personalvalues enter into the research and writing of the paper?

b. An essay relating your English course readings tothe thesis of your research paper. This will aiso involvean analysis of a short, related work during the final.

3. During the period scheduled for your history finalexamination, you will meet with both your history andEnglish teacher to discuss your course work for thesemester, your research paper, and your final examination.

Thanks for this performance to John Bohannon, a history teacherat Vermont Academy who attended a CES exhibitions work-

shop. (Vermont Academy is net a member of CES.)

March 1990

ing them, too." Math teacher GlynnMeggison at Fox Lane High Schoolin Bedford, New York has begunto invite his classes to grapple withself-evaluations. "One kid broke

it down into actuaj percentages:

quality of group work, individualwork, presentation," he says. Suchactivities are themselves a form of

learning, teachers say; as students

ink'rnalize the criteria, they bec(imebetter performers and better criticsof others' performances.

The question of skill levelspoints up bc,th a practical problemof comparative grading and afundamental issue in education:

the tracking of students early onintoability groups that will classifythem for years to come. No one

quarri·ls with the reality thatstudents present themselves atdifferent levels; but Wi ggiris argues

that conventional means of grading---the bell-shaped curve, ncirm-referenced standardized tests,

and tracking-merely discouragestudents from reaching towardhigher goals. Again, he contraststhe academic model with the world

of sports or the arts, where expertplayers are always before studentsas models of the excel lence theyare striving for.

Instead Of givingwatered-down

challenges at lower

skill levels, the same

tasks are presentedto all students, just

as they are in real-life situations.

At Central Park East SecondarySchool in New York, students in

a i·lass of mixed ability levels setgo,Its with the teacher ahead of timeIci aim for either a "competent" or

"adv,inced" level of classroom per-form,mers,,ind they are evaluated

accordingly. Instead of presentingwatered-down challenges for lower

HORACE

Figure 5.The APU Assessment ofMathematics (Great Britain)

The following section comes from the assessofs manual in an oral mathe-matics test of 15-year-olds, involving the ideas of perimeter, area, andcircumference

1. Ask. "What is the perimeter of a rectangle?" EWrite student answer.J2. Present sheet with rectangle ABCD. Ask: "Could you show me theperimeter of this rectangle?" /f necessary, teach.3. Ask, "How would you measure the perimeter of the rectangle?"if necessary, prompt for full procedure. If necessary, teach.

10. "Estimate the length of the circumference of this circle."11. "What would you do to check your estimate?" (String is on the table.)if no response, prompt for string.

13. "is there any other method?" if student does not suggest using C=pd,prompt with, "Would it help to measure the diameter of the circle?"

The scoring system works as follows:1 unaided success

2 success following one prompt from the teacher3 success following a series of prompts4 teaching by the tester; prompts unsuccessful5 an unsuccessful response; tester did not prompt or teach6 an unsuccessful response despite prompting and teaching7 question not given8 unaided success where student corrected an unsuccessful

attempt without help

Successful responses are combined into two larger categories called"unaided success" and "unaided plus aided success," with percentagesgiven for each.

From Mathematical Development, Secondary Survey Report #1, Assessment ofPerformance Unit (APU), Department of Education and Science, Great Britain (1980).

skill levels-"dumbing down" thetests, as Grant Wiggins calls it-the same tasks are presented to allstudents, just as they are in real-lifesituations, and extra help givenwhere necessary. The student canthus learn from tests-and learn, as

he will in real life, from the more

sophisticated responses of thoseat more advanced levels.

With clear objectives for pupilachievement, teachers can be more

confident that grades really givedirect information about where

the student stands at that moment

,md where she is going next. This

approach has been probably mostcarefully worked out in GreatBritain, where a comprehensivenational curriculum and testing

7

system has been under develop-ment for some time. The system

provides step-by-step instructionsfor teachers to assess students at

varying levels of ability. These

guidelines actually ask teachersto prompt students if they cannotanswer a question on their own-and if necessary, to teach the appro-

priate skill then and there. (SeeFigure 5.) Answers are calibratedon a scale that divides them into

two large categories, "unaidedsuccess" and "aided success,"

within which students are rated

further according to the level oftheir performance.

It seems clear that the careful

devising of a scoring rubric isa crucial step in beginning to

March 1990

evaluate student performances. Onecharacteristic of a good scorecardjs that it honors a variety of aspectsof the student's performance. Isthe student's work process beingevaluated, for example, or merelythe product? Are enterprise, flair,and creativity given equal weightwith perseverance and carefulness,and are those weighted equallywith achjevement? Does the fluent

speaker have as good a chanceto excel as the fluent writer, the

creative artist as good a chance as' thecomputer whiz? The best per-

formances are authentic reflections

of a student's development ofthoughtful habits of mindi theyhonor and use that student's uniquequalities rather than force them into

One characteristic

of a good scorecardis that it honors a

variety of aspectsof the student'sperformance.

a predetermined mold. (RichardStiggins of the Northwest RegionalEducational Laboratory has devel-oped a short manual on how todesign and develop performanceassessments; it can be had for $1

by writing NCME, Teaching AidsITEMS Module #1,1230 17th St.,NW, Washington, DC 20036.)

Can You Fail an Exhibition?

In many ways, performances andexhibitions are set up so that astudent cannot fail If a classroom

performance is inadequate, it servesnot as a final judgment but as arevealing indicator of where thestudent needs, extra attention in

developing skills before the nextperformance. Evaluations areconducted on i continuum. As for

culminating or graduation exhibi-lions, c)tie simply dicies not attemptthem until one is ready to do well.

In ati autlieitic performance,

HORACE

Grant Wiggins says, the studentknows the nature of the challengeahead of time, as with an athletic orartistic event "The recital, debate,

play, or game is the heart of thematter," he asserts. "All coacheshappily teach to it." Because theycan be practiced for, performancestake on a teaching function at leastas important as their evaluativefunction. And because they repre-sent developing skills, a student'sprogress is emphasized ratherthan a scorecard of his errors.

"People do fail," Ted Sizer says."People do persist in thinkingthat two and two makes five, or in

writing graceless prose. At the sametime, the same person who can'twrite may be able to draw-may beable to explain something ofimportance in a different way. Thetrick in good schooling is not justto meet minimum standards but to

find out where a person is strongand make sure the person succeedsthere. You need to see the best

of a student on a regular basis;otherwise he loses self confidence."

Mike Goldman, who taughthumanities at Central Park East

and now works at CES, puts it evenmore strongly. "How can you testwhether a student feels good aboutlearning?" he asks. "That is the jobof schools-and if a student doesn't

have it, the school has failed, notthe student." Grant Wiggins alsoquestions what he calls the "gatekeeping" function of assessment,which requires the student'sperformance to be reduced to onescore and ranked. "Why must thetranscript reduce performanceto a letter grade that tells neitherwhat a student can do nor what

the strengths and weaknesses arethat went into the grade?" he says.Moreover, some important things,like cooperation, may be bestassessed indirectly, through otherkinds of performances. "Thesethings are complicated to assess-they involve values, attitudes, andthe like," Wiggins says. "Do wewant to be in the business of givingsomeone a grade on how much he

8

loves learning? Are we going to fallinto the trap of the standardizedtest, that you can isolate every littlething and test for it?"

Recording Achievement

Developing a precise scoring rubric,of course, is not the only way ofkeeping records of student achieve-ment. Alternatives include the

keeping of anecdotal records, orassembling portfolios of a student'sbest work. At School Without

Walls, a public alternative highschool in Rochester, New York

where performance is a fundamentalaspect of instruction, teachers andcommunity-based supervisors keepwritten records of student projectsthat become a permanent partof their records. Such anecdotal

records can provide a richness ofdetailed information that cannot be

achieved with any rating scale. Infact, at Central Park East principalDeborah Meier is experimentingwith purely narrative records asan alternative to report cards that Iformerly combined commentswith grade classifications like"Satisfactory" (plus or minus),"Distinguished," and "Unsatisfac-tory." "Otherwise parents andstudents zoom in on the grades,and ignore the rest of the report,"she says.

In evaluations of student writingproficiency, portfolios have been

Send us yours...

CES is assembling a collec-tion of exhibition and per-formance assignments tomake available at Coalition

workshops. Send material toJill Davidson, Box 1938,Brown University, Frovi-dence, RI 02911 Pleaseinclude your name, address,and telephone number forfactual verification.

March 1990

Portfolios don't have

to bejust writing;

some students keep

an ongoing videotape

of their progress invarious areas.

used increasingly by a numberof states over the last decade. But

student portfolios can includemuch more than writing samples;at School Without Walls a student's

final transcript is a collection ofteacher evaluations, critiques bycommunity supervisors, state

competency tests, and studentwritings. And at Thayer I ligh Schoolin Winchester, New Hampshire,principal Dennis 1.ittky has stu dentskeep an ongoing videntape of thejrown progress m various areas fromthe time· thry enter school to theirgraduation.

I low can teachers keep assess-ments from being capricious andbiased? Grant Wiggins suggeststhat schools develop an oversightprocess such as a teacher committeeon testing standards; in the process,he notes, useful dialogue and

teacher tra ining could be takingplace. Where more standardizedbut teacher-given tests are beingdeveloped, as in Great Britain, a"group mc)deration" process allowscollective scrutiny and review of

any discrepancies that show upbetween different schools, or

between one school's results and

those on a national level.

The Measure of Competency

Still, the issue of measuringcompetency is real, and any schoolinccirp(,rating performances intoits philosophy will need to face it.The answer st·ems twofold. First,iII most Essenlial .schools stullents

wlici learn through regular perform-ance,4 ,ictimlly di) better on compe-

tency tests than thev did ill the oldd.iyb. Figures from .schocils like

HORACE

Walbrook High School in Baltimorebear this out (see HORACE, Volume

6, Nci. 1),and so does research intothe effects of raised expectations onstudent motivation and performance.

Ina good exhibition, depth ofcc,verage is more important thanbreadth; and to atta in that depth,students must not only know theirevjdence, but kn(jw how to use

it critically.Second, some schools have

been able to substitute their own

demonstrations of mastery for

state competency tests in variousdisciplines. States like Connecticut,Vermont, and California, and

districts like Cincinnati, Pittsburgh,and Shoreham-Wading River, New

York, are taking steps to incorporateperformance-based assessment

into not only writing evaluationsbut those for math. science, social

studies, and other subjects Thetrend is slowly making its wayupward: at the federally supportedNational Assessment of Educational

Progress, researchers are beginningto incorporate port folios and otherperformance-based informationinto a broader base of information

they have collected on student skillsover the last two decades.

At the policy level, experts say,it will take a lot more than this to

change an entrenched system thatvalues easily measured skills overinquiry and thoughtfulness. Untilpolicy makers issue clear directives

for more performance-basedassessment, schools will have to

push for recognition of new waysona case-by-case basis. But somesigns ind icate that organized

teacher pressure is mounting forchange at the policy level. Englishteachers were directly responsiblefor states' acceptance of portfolio-based writing assessment overthe Mst decade. And recently theNation,il Council of Teachers

of Mathematics has introduced

sweeping new demands in itscriteria for curricula, focusing on

mathematical challenges that pushstudents to apply knowli factsin new ways.

9

Exit Exhibitions

Ultimatelv, Ted Sizer beheves,

the question of performance-basedassessment must be addressed at

an even broader and deeper level.If a school believes its chief task is

to heJp students master thoughtfulhabits of mindi. then the demonstra-

tion of that mastery-not theaccumulation of credits, or the

passing of time-must be the solecriterion by which students qualifyfor graduation. Many schools aremoving toward this kind of goal

when they require, for example,a senior thesis that integratesresearch in several disciplines. Buta handful of Essential schools-

among them Walden III in Racine,Wisconsin, Central Park East

Secondary School, and SchoolWithout Walls-have gone muchfurther, shaping theirentire curriculaso that the graduation exhibition,or "exit exhibition," is the focus

of students' last years in school.

In the end, students

who present an exitexhibition are asked

to show they knowmuch more than

those in conventional

schools.

What exactly is an exit exhibition?Ideally, it is a demonstration bythe student in front of a review

committee, at which he or she showsoff the essential skills learned in

the high school years. If the school'sstandards are met in the opinionof the committee, the student will

receive the diploma. First, though,the student must stand up to thekind of probing questioning that weusually associate with the defenseof a doctoral dissertation. It is not

enough to show simple recall ofmemorized facts; the review board

is looking for an ability to use

March 1990