Student Engagement: A Framework for On-demand Performance Assessment Tasks

Engaging students in meaningful applications of their knowledge is a key aspect of both addressing the standards and providing greater access. Not only do the standards emphasize the importance of meaningful engagement in real-world tasks, but evidence shows that engagement is strongly related to student performance on assessment tasks, especially for students who have been typically less advantaged in school settings.

Innovative assessment designs such as performance tasks offer a ripe opportunity to develop tasks that engage all students of diverse backgrounds and provide opportunities for students to demonstrate their evaluation, synthesis, analysis, and application skills in more open-ended ways than multiple-choice items offer.

This report introduces the ways in which dimensions of engagement may be meaningfully incorporated into assessment tasks so that all students are more fully motivated to complete the tasks and perform them well. The authors began with an overview of research on student engagement. Next, the authors present a set of design challenges, recommendations, and guiding questions for item writers’ consideration, followed by design considerations for each of the following elements: Classroom Activities, Design of the Tasks, and Scoring of the Tasks. Summaries and resources of student engagement literature are also included in Appendix A.

About the Authors:

• Catherine Taylor is Senior Vice President Measurement Services at Measured Progress.
• Kari Kokka is a Math Research Associate at the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity.
• Linda Darling-Hammond is the Faculty Director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education.
• Jack Dieckmann is the Associate Director of Curriculum at the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity.
• Vivian Santana Pacheco is a Research Analyst at the Sandler Foundation.
• Susan Sandler is a Trustee of the Sandler Foundation.
• Soung Bae is a Senior Research and Policy Analyst at the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education