Performance Tasks on Common Core Assessments

Jack, Gordon

CA, Common Core Assessments

Sarles, P. (2013, August/September). The common core ELA assessments: What we know so far about the performance tasks. Library Media Connection, 32(1), 10-13. Retrieved from: http://libaccess.sjlibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=llf&AN=89933228&site=ehost-live

Sarles provides an overview of the assessment tasks being developed for the new Common Core curriculum.  In her review, she focuses on the part of the English Language Arts (ELA) tests that are directly related to the work teacher-librarians do.  In looking at both the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) tests, Sarles explains how students will be assessed on research skills, including inquiry, evaluation and synthesis.  The PARCC task includes a “Research Simulation Task”, which asks students to summarize and analyze multiple sources of information into a “constructed-response item, targeting their response to a particular audience and support their response with evidence from the tests” (p. 11).  The SBAC performance task, estimated to take up to 140 minutes for eleventh graders, asks students to evaluate a variety of Internet sources and then write a position paper on a controversial issue.  Both task prototypes are available at the following websites:

PARCC

http://www.parcconline.org/samples/item-task-prototypes

SBAC

http://www.smarterbalanced.org/sample-items-and-performance-tasks

Evaluation

This article sheds light on the types of performance tasks students will be asked to complete for the new Common Core Standards tests.  While it is encouraging that the tests are moving away from assessing rote memorization of facts, these new tasks represent greater challenges for both students and teachers alike.  Students must be able to summarize, evaluate, and synthesize a wide variety of documents into a cohesive response.  Rather than select the best answer from a list of options, students will be doing more note taking, drafting, and writing online.  These challenges present great opportunities for teachers and teacher-librarians to collaborate on curriculum and instruction.  As Linda Darling Hammond states in the article, “to prepare for [these] more rigorous assessments aligned with the Common Core standards, teachers will need more time and opportunities to collaborate with each other” (p. 12).  As the experts in the research process and Information Literacy, teacher-librarians are a critical resource to help students succeed on these new exams.