This book is a resource for K-12 teachers wanting to learn more about creating and using classroom-based assessment, specifically performance assessment tasks. The book gives and overview of four basic forms of classroom-based assessments (selected response, essay, performance, and personal communications assessments) and then focuses in on performance assessments. "Because performance tasks are aligned to the curriculum, they are accurate and meaningful indicators of who knows what, and who can do what." The authors provide practical examples and ideas for performance assessment before, during, and at the end of teaching units. They address not just measuring what students have learned, but how they learn it, with chapters on what they call the "Info In" part of the learning process. Then they follow up with several chapters on performance assessments for what they call the "Info Out" part of the learning process. Excellent, detailed examples of performance assessments are provided, including students using visual representations, written words, oral presentations, and large-scale projects to demonstrate their learning. The last chapter is particularly useful in that it discusses the pros and cons of these types of assessments and some of the benefits and dilemmas teachers might face as they try to implement these assessment practices.

The authors believe that teachers should embrace an integrated approach to curriculum and assessment that makes sense and works for them personally in the classroom. All teachers, regardless of the grade level they teach, teach content and skills and both things should be assessed. They say "Curriculum (content and skills) and assessment, like the two faces of a coin, are inseparably fused and directly related to each other." They believe these two coin faces can be fused together with cumulative projects, through which students demonstrate their understanding of content and apply the skills taught in the unit. "When kids use a process to reveal their understanding of content knowledge, they learn more deeply." "To improve studentsí understanding of what we expect them to do, how well they should be able to do it, and how they should go about accomplishing it -- is what this book on classroom-based performance assessment has been about."