Performance assesment is much more than just "doing portfolios and projects". 

See examples of a variety of performance assessments here

In the CAP evaluation, De Lisle (2010) found that teachers did administer projects, but scored the perormance by simply assigning a mark. Moreover, instead of developing the task in the classroom allowing teachers to provide formative feedback, projects were take home assignments. Such practices miss the very meaning of project-based learning, which is intended to promote active and deep learning.

See reading on project-based learning

Projects and portfolios are simply vehicles for the performance task. A performance task may be presented equally effective as an exhibition, project, presentation, portfolio, or even posters.

Download this ASCD Facilitator's Guide from 1995 on Performance Assessment

See Developing Rich Performance Tasks for the US Common Core-Jay McTighe Webinar

See also Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium: Performance Task Specifications

Assessing twenty first century skills-NAP

An ASCD Must Read-Cohen, P. (August 1995). “Designing Performance Assessment Tasks.” ASCD Educational Update 37, 6.

Read the following quote and reflect on the way the CAC HAS BEEN used.

Explore the difficulties of crafting large scale assessments to "measure" the new primary school curriculum.

When assessment is more integrated into instruction, it may also become part of other reforms, such as greater student choice, interdisciplinary learning, and cooperative grouping. These methods all contribute to the instructional benefits of assessment—but they pose problems for measurability and equity:

• Student choice. “Student choice has lots of benefits,” McTighe says, “but you want to make sure that opportunities for choice don't get in the way of what you're trying to assess.” Allowing students to choose subjects, resources, methods, and whether to work alone or in groups has instructional benefits, but complicates assessment.
  “From a measurement perspective, giving students choices is a terrible dilemma,” Herman agrees. Some options or topics may yield easier projects than others, and “not all children are equally good choosers.” On the other hand, assigning topics runs the risk of giving an advantage to students who are more inclined toward what the teacher selects.
• Interdisciplinary tasks. Herman prefers these tasks because of their instructional value. But interdisciplinary assessment is most effective when a teacher is familiar with students' progress in several areas. A writing assessment on a history subject is hard to evaluate unless the teacher can distinguish the level of performance in writing versus that in history. These distinctions are harder to make when the people who rate the assessments don't work with the students every day.
• Cooperative grouping. “Any kind of group activity confounds the measurement of individual ability,” Herman says, although group work supports learning. Many educators include an individual component of the assessment in cooperative situations, but the performance of other students in the group can affect that component, Herman adds. And if teachers want to assess the ability to work as a team, that ability should be included in the criteria.

In each of these areas, experts agree, the teacher who knows the student best can integrate assessment and instruction most effectively. In the classroom, a teacher can also do ongoing assessments and track progress over time. But the higher the stakes of the assessment—when it will determine questions of funding, placement, or scholarships—the more important the issues of accountability and equity in a particular assessment become, Wiggins says.

The trade-off between good instruction and measurability is “a significant issue at the state level,” Wiggins says. “But it's a nonissue at the local level.” As a teacher, “you can factor out these things with your professional judgment and assessments over time.” Teachers can have more leeway for complex assessments in their classrooms, where they do not need the high level of precision necessary to make high-stakes tests accurate and fair. Wiggins adds that teachers should avoid using high-stakes techniques in the classroom when they're not necessary. “You have the whole life of the kid to collect evidence and decide what it means,” he says, so each task does not have to be invested with great importance.

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Judging Performance Assessments

Rubrics are a critical component ensuring both valid and reliable scoring.

Question-to what extent are our performance  tasks authentic and to what extent do use formative feedback in supporting learning as students engage in the task

On authenticity

Recommended Text-A Practical guide to Alternative Assessment

Herman, J. L., Aschbacher, P. R., & Winters, L. (1992). A practical guide to alternative assessment. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

High quality performance assessments?

See published article in Linn, R. L., Baker, E. L., & Dunbar, S. B. (1991). Complex, performance-based assessment: Expectations and validation criteria. Educational researcher, 20(8), 15-21.



1) Consequences
2) Fairness
3) Transfer and Generalizability
4) Cognitive Complexity
5) Content Quality
6) Content Coverage
7) Meaningfulness
8) Cost and Efficiency

READINGS

Guide to the assessment of practical skills-City and guilds 

Using portfolios of student work in assessment and instruction

 ASCD-types of portfolios

MORE READINGS

Performance Assessment and Portfolios-Civics

Performance assessment in science