Abstract
Research on estimating the costs of performance assessments in the United States can help inform new systems of assessment, especially if we use a framework that can incorporate the student, and classroom benefits of various kinds of assessment systems. This chapter focuses on the use of assessments to improve learning, and offers a framework for estimating costs and benefits of performance assessments. It starts with a framework for considering assessments by establishing working definitions of formative, benchmark, and summative assessments. The chapter advances earlier work on the concept of costs of assessments compared to direct expenditures for assessments in schools. It focuses on the benefits in terms of improved student performance, and summarizes the costs, expenditures, and benefits of various types of assessments. Finally, the chapter summarizes the framework, and offers suggestions for improving the analysis of the costs and benefits of performance assessments.