The impact of criteria-referenced formative assessment on fifth-grade students’ theater arts achievement

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of criteria-referenced formative assessment (CRFA) on students’ achievement in theater arts. The role of type of task in differentiating the treatment-achievement relationship was explored. The analytical sample included 520 fifth-grade students from 13 schools in New York City. Schools were randomly assigned to the treatment or control group. Selection bias in treatment assignment at student level was adjusted with propensity score analysis. CRFA had a positive effect on students’ achievement on performance tasks (d = 0.25), but no significant effect on students’ performance on the analytical constructed response tasks or the theater vocabulary multiple-choice items.

KEYWORDS:

• Assessment for learning
• criteria-referenced assessment
• formative assessment
• peer assessment
• self-assessment
• theater education

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Sigmund Tobias, Susanne Harnett, and Jason Bryer for their constructive feedback on previous versions of this article. They would also like to express their appreciation to Maria Palma and Joanna Hefferen for making the Arts Achieve work possible.