Performance assessment and teacher professional development.

This study investigates the relationship between performance assessment and teacher professional development. It explores how the process of learning to implement a novel, comprehensive assessment system contributes to the development of teachers' understandings about teaching, learning, and assessment. A staff development framework was implemented to support collegial dialogue and collaboration as teachers learned to implement the system. Interpretive methods of analysis were used to explore the teachers' understandings of the Work Sampling System (WSS), a comprehensive performance assessment for age three to grade five. Eleven teachers participated in group and individual meetings with the researcher, and used WSS materials exclusively for assessment and reporting. All meetings were audiotaped, field notes of observations were kept, and assessment materials reviewed. Methods of qualitative analysis--narrative analysis, argument analysis, conversation analysis, and thematic analysis--were employed to analyze the information, and to articulate the teachers' understandings from their perspectives. Results demonstrate that documentation and evaluation of student learning spurred teachers to reflect upon their practices, beliefs, and knowledge. Shared engagement with performance assessment facilitated professional growth. This study documents how teachers learned to use the assessment system, the range and complexity of their responses to the system, and issues that contribute to teachers' differential responses to change. Recommendations for the improvement of staff development and lasting adaptation of such major innovations as performance assessments are made.Ph.D.EducationEducational tests and measurementsTeacher educationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/130461/2/9732069.pd