Beyond the Bubble Test: How Performance Assessments Support 21st Century Learning

Table of Contents

Reviewer Comments

See details below for Next Generation Assessment—a shorter version of Beyond the Bubble Test written for general audiences

Performance assessment is a hot topic in school systems, and educators continue to analyze its costs, benefits, and feasibility as a replacement for high-stakes testing. Until now, researchers and policymakers have had to dig to find out what we know and what we still have to learn about performance assessment. Beyond the Bubble Test: How Performance Assessments Support 21st Century Learning synthesizes the latest findings in the field, and not a moment too soon.

Statistics indicate that the United States is in danger of falling behind if it fails to adapt to our changing world. The memory and recall strategies of traditional testing are no longer adequate to equip our students with the skills they need to excel in the global economy. Instead teachers need to engage students in deeper learning, assessing their ability to use higher-order skills.

Skills like synthesizing information, understanding evidence, and critical problem-solving are not achieved when we teach to multiple-choice exams. Examples in Beyond the Bubble Test paint a useful picture of how schools can begin to supplement traditional tests with something that works better. This book provides new perspectives on current performance assessment research, plus an incisive look at what’s possible at the local and state levels.

Linda Darling-Hammond and colleague Frank Adamson, with a team of leading scholars, bring together lessons learned, new directions, and solid recommendations into a single, readily accessible compendium. Beyond the Bubble Test situates the current debate on performance assessment within the context of testing in the United States. This comprehensive resource also looks beyond our U.S. borders to Singapore, Hong Kong, and other places whose reform-mindedness can serve as an example to us.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Rationale and Context for Performance Assessment 1
Linda Darling-Hammond

Part One: Through a Looking Glass: Performance Assessment Past, Present, and Future

Looking Back: Performance Assessment in an Era of Standards-Based Educational Accountability, 
Brian Stecher

Where We Are Now: Lessons Learned and Emerging Directions, 
Raymond Pecheone and Stuart Kahl with the Assistance of Jillian Chingos and Ann Jaquith

Reaching Out: International Benchmarks for Performance Assessment, 
Linda Darling-Hammond with the Assistance of Laura Wentworth

Part Two: Advances in Performance Assessment: Assessing and Supporting Learning

Performance Assessment: The State of the Art, Suzanne Lane

Adapting Performance Assessments for English Language Learners, Jamal Abedi

Supporting Teacher Learning through Performance Assessment, 
Linda Darling-Hammond and Beverly Falk

Part Three: Policy and Performance Assessment: Developing Systems That Can Work

A New Conceptual Framework for Cost Analysis, 
Lawrence O. Picus, Frank Adamson, William Montague, and Margaret Owens

Investing in Assessments of Deeper Learning: The Costs and Benefits of Tests That Help Students Learn, Barry Topol, John Olson, Ed Roeber, Linda Darling-Hammond, and Frank Adamson

Building Systems of Assessment for Deeper Learning, David T. Conley and Linda Darling-Hammond

Concluding Thoughts: Creating Next-Generation Assessments That Last, Linda Darling-Hammond, Frank Adamson, and Thomas Toch

Praise for Beyond the Bubble Test

Once again Linda Darling-Hammond has focused our attention on the facts. We don’t have to destroy good education for the sake of ‘accountability.’ She lays it out in this clear and well-researched book. A must read for us all to rally around.”
—Deborah Meier, Senior Scholar, New York University

“With a background in classroom teaching, Linda Darling-Hammond has become our most authoritative writer on educational policy. In this book, she and her collaborators provide us with wise alternatives to the narrow conceptions of assessment that cause so many problems. Here we find information begging to be used!”
—David C. Berliner, Regents’ Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University

“In an era of intensified reliance on testing as a tool of educational reform and improvement, it is imperative to consider the benefits of performance-based assessments on student learning. This volume should be read by anyone wishing for a fresh, accessible, and provocative summary of the issues most relevant to policy, practice, and continued research.”
—Michael J. Feuer, PhD, president, The National Academy of Education; Dean and Professor, Graduate School of Education and Human Development, The George Washington University

“Readers who are concerned with conceptual leadership, instrument development, pedagogical practice, testing and measurement, as well as those interested in the generation of public policy will benefit from reading and understanding the ideas and the models provided in this splendidly conceived book.”
—Edmund W. Gordon, John M. Musser Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, Yale University; Richard March Hoe Professor of Psychology and Education, Emeritus, Teachers College, Columbia University

“Beyond the Bubble Test offers welcomed relief to educators who are increasingly distressed by the over-reliance on standardized testing as the high-stakes factor in determining student, teacher, principal and school success. Linda Darling-Hammond’s powerful research and thoughtful analysis build a persuasive case for rethinking how schools can and should adopt performance assessment to measure what matters most for students to be successful in the 21st Century.”
—Gail Connelly, Executive Director, National Association of Elementary School Principals

“We have been long overdue in these times of increasingly complex learning targets for a comprehensive update on our performance assessment state of affairs. It has arrived. Linda Darling-Hammond and Frank Adamson have collected what I believe to be the most complete analysis of this methodology yet published. It represents an outstanding resource for those concerned with current assessment policy, international developments, and performance assessment development.”
—Rick Stiggins, Assessment Policy and Training Consultant, Portland, Oregon

Next Generation Assessment

Purchase book (publisher's web site)

Next Generation Assessment examines performance assessment as an alternative to the current high-stakes standardized testing system. This important resource provides a thorough analysis of the prospects and challenges of sustaining performance assessments on a large scale. Linda Darling-Hammond, with a team of leading scholars, describes the history and current uses of performance assessments in the United States and abroad and summarizes the latest findings in the field.

The experts determine that large-scale testing in the United States may be dramatically improved by the thoughtful incorporation of well-constructed performance assessments that can represent higher-order, cognitively demanding standards. This summary volume to Beyond the Bubble Test is designed for the busy practitioner—and all who are interested in how schools can successfully supplement traditional tests with something that works better. Next Generation Assessment offers an accurate evaluation of the benefits and possibilities for adopting better performance assessments nationally.

Praise for Next Generation Assessment

“Pointing to current policies and practice, this book is an excellent guide directing educators on how to transition to an assessment system that genuinely shapes, informs, and improves learning for all students and teachers.”
—Governor Bob Wise, president, Alliance for Excellent Education; author of Raising the Grade

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