In a standards-based instructional environment, performance assessment a tool to assist the student and teacher determine where the student is in relationship to the performance objective and the effectiveness of certain teaching and learning strategies. Ongoing performance assessment, of the latter sort, is a critical component of technology planning and implementation. Performance assessment is used for the purposes of determining progress towards goals and evaluating the effectiveness of programs, not a judgment of success or failure. Activities are the specific program activities or tasks that are undertaken. The installation of a computer network, acquisition of equipment, workshops, planning for the integration of technology into the curriculum, and the like are all activities.
Outputs are measurements of the direct products of the program activities.
Outputs are usually measured in terms of volume or work completed. Outputs include the number of staff members who participated in staff training opportunities, the status of the technology infrastructure, the development of curriculum goals related to technology literacy, and the like. Outcomes are the consequences of what the program did that had an impact on the intended recipients. Generally outcomes are differentiated as intermediate and end outcomes. Intermediate outcomes are expected to lead to the ends desired, but are not themselves ends.