More and more often, performance assessment results are being used to adjust or revamp instruction and curriculum in addition to their traditional uses in assessing student abilities. During the spring of 1994 and of 1995, OERI researchers visited 16 schools that were implementing performance assessments. The sample schools included elementary, middle, and high schools in diverse geographical locations. The NSP is jointly run by the National Center on Education and the Economy and the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh, and it works toward developing and adopting a set of academic standards and innovative methods to measure student learning. All teachers at Noakes, a K-6 school, use performance assessments, though in diverse ways.
Some teachers use portfolios in all subject areas, others in just one subject.
The teacher gave the students an overview of what the task was about and what students should concentrate on during the task. Students talked in small groups about what they had written on the previous day. During the entire project, teachers gave instructions and advice on the writing of essays. Each student was provided with a rock sample. A very different kind of assessment format is used with students at Ninos Bonitos Elementary School in San Diego, California.