Must Instructionally Useful Performance Assessment Be Based in the Curriculum?

The purpose of this article is to examine the importance of the most salient feature of a performance-assessment approach known as curriculum-based assessment: that testing material be drawn from the students' instructional curricula. First, we review the literature on (a) the match between tests and curricula and (b) comparisons of measurement validity and instructional utility when sampling student performance in and out of the instructional curriculum. Second, we discuss the potential advantages and disadvantages of sampling performance in the curriculum. After concluding that sampling from the curriculum is not essential, we discuss three critical features to ensure the instructional utility of measurement.