I have tried to present definitions below that are consistent with the common use of these terms. However, because some terms do not have commonly agreed upon definitions and because, in a few cases, I think certain definitions make more sense, I am calling this Mueller's Glossary. Use at your own risk. A form of assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills. Student performance on a task is typically scored on a rubric to determine how successfully the student has met specific outcomes.
Some educators choose to distinguish between authentic assessment and performance assessment.
If we are going to ask students to construct knowledge on assessments, then virtually all such tasks should be authentic in nature or they lose some relevance to the students. Thus, for me, this distinction between performance and authentic assessments becomes insignificant and unnecessary. Consequently, I use authentic assessment and performance assessment synonymously. Good performance on the task should demonstrate, or partly demonstrate, successful completion of one or more outcomes. The term task is often used synonymously with the term assessment in the field of authentic assessment.