This 102-page booklet gives an introductory overview of performance-based assessment and its role in science education reform.

The purpose of this resource is to "help teachers move beyond rhetoric to a substantive understanding of innovative assessment" (p. 7). The book is intended to be used "primarily as a tool for teachers to use to inform their classroom instruction, [but it] is not intended as a guide in creating high-stakes assessments for use in promotion/retention, program evaluation, or teacher evaluation" (p. 7).

The implied audience for this material includes teachers, educators, school administrators, and policy makers.

Assessing Habits of Mind focuses on the development of performance assessment tasks and systems that were designed for use by teachers in their own classrooms. In seven chapters, the book discusses the characteristics, design, and appropriate uses of performance-based assessment techniques. The text acknowledges the multiple perspectives and key concepts that must be examined to represent the different interpretations of performance-based assessment. The author further discusses the paradigm shift in assessment that is based on new ways of thinking about learning and assessing learning, and she provides a rationale for the use of performance-based assessment. She then briefly addresses the nature of scoring rubrics, and concludes by identifying key questions in the design and implementation of performance-based assessments. The book contains a bibliography and several appendices that briefly outline state testing requirements as well as state mathematics and science curriculum frameworks as related to assessment. Included is one example of a performance-based assessment activity.

The content is well-organized and includes illustrative examples, numerous references, and relevant background information. While the book makes a strong case for the use of performance-based assessments, reviewers noted that it is too brief to serve as an effective how-to guide to the design, implementation, and interpretation of performance-based assessment tasks.

The text is well-suited for pre-service and in-service teachers who do not have a strong background in the nature of performance-based assessments and the policy perspectives that surround them. This book could be useful for discussions in professional development, especially as an opening text for issues teachers will encounter as they begin to change their assessment practices. Reviewers recommended using additional resources to assist teachers with the design and critique of performance-based assessments. In addition, professional developers should provide additional resources on: 1) equitable practices, 2) the relationship between instruction and assessment, 3) measurement principles, including scoring rubric development, 4) how to embed assessments into the learning process, and 5) how to align performance-based assessment with the scope and sequence of curriculum.

The text might also be used to inform administrators about the issues in assessment reform.

The material contains insufficient information about the relationship between instruction and assessment to provide the teacher with concrete tools to identify, choose, or modify tasks to measure the complex learning outcomes.