Parental Reactions to Authentic Performance Assessment

This article examines parents' reactions to the use of a curriculum-embedded performance assessment, the Work Sampling System(r) (WSS), with their kindergarten through third-grade children. Of the 350 surveys distributed to this predominantly low-income, African American, inner-city population,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Educational assessment 2001-02, Vol.7 (1), p.61-85
Main Authors: Meisels, Samuel J., Xue, Yange, Bickel, Donna DiPrima, Nicholson, Julie, Atkins-Burnett, Sally
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Curriculum Embedded Tests
Parent Attitudes
Parents
Performance Based Assessment
Primary Education
Report Cards
Student Evaluation
Work Sampling System (Meisels)
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This article examines parents' reactions to the use of a curriculum-embedded performance assessment, the Work Sampling System(r) (WSS), with their kindergarten through third-grade children. Of the 350 surveys distributed to this predominantly low-income, African American, inner-city population, 246 were completed and returned, yielding a return rate of 70%. The data were aggregated into subscales, and internal reliability measures, descriptive statistics, and 2-step hierarchical regressions on each subscale were calculated. To examine the direct and indirect effect of parents' perceptions of teachers' willingness to use the WSS and other factors on parents' overall satisfaction, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used. Results demonstrate that parents in this study held positive attitudes toward the WSS and believed that the WSS benefitted their children. The majority of parents who returned the survey preferred the WSS Summary Reports to conventional report cards and wanted their children to continue participating in classrooms that use the WSS. Parents' perceptions of teachers' willingness to use the WSS and staff availability to answer parents' questions about the WSS strongly affected parents' attitudes toward the WSS. SEM showed that parents' attitudes toward the WSS were unaffected by whether children were high or low achievers in school. In sum, this study demonstrates that when schools using a systematic, curriculum-embedded performance assessment make an effort to keep parents informed about the assessment and when consistent informal communications between parents and teachers take place, parental reactions to performance assessment can be very positive.
ISSN:1062-7197
1532-6977
DOI:10.1207/S15326977EA0701_6