MZD presents the third in a series of articles on the Power of Performance Assessments. For each email, we will highlight a segment from our published white paper that features the benefits of performance assessments. This week our focus is on the value of performance assessment and the benefits of second scoring to support equity and objectivity.
When well-designed and conducted as part of a larger assessment, performance assessment promotes a high-level of objectivity, fairness, and equity. Unconscious bias can be removed from the rating process when more than one rater participates in scoring. One teacher may hold unconscious bias about a student or group of students—such as that girls are better writers than boys. If this bias is unconscious, the teacher is likely unaware that their marking could unfairly advantage female students and disadvantage male students.
When a second rater is used in the performance assessment scoring process, a second evaluation can be used as an objective counterbalance; it can illuminate areas of bias for the teacher and safeguard fair scoring for the student. Two teachers reviewing each student response, ensures students are evaluated on their actual abilities, not on characteristics, such as gender, race, or ethnicity; scores are based on achievement alone.
