University of the State of New York
Project Title
For a pilot program on supplementing the New York State assessment system and graduation requirements with performance-based assessments
Date
Sep. 02, 2021
Duration
43 months
Description
The New York State Education Department (NYSED) operates a state assessment program that is used as the basis for many consequential decisions about students and schools, but it also tends to drive the way that instruction is done. Because NYSED’s 3-8 and Regents assessments are primarily paper-and-pencil and fairly traditional in design, they tend to incentivize a “seat-time” model of instruction. By contrast, performance assessments ask students to produce a product or carry out a performance that more authentically measures what students know and can do, while also providing a learning opportunity for students and signaling the types of instructional tasks that many would like to see in classrooms. The Board of Regents’ aim is to move their assessment program in a direction that supports competency-based and project-based instruction. They plan to engage experts to help design and implement a pilot program to demonstrate the feasibility of supplementing their assessment system and graduation requirements with performance-based assessments.