The Iowa Assessment Project was funded by the National Science Foundation to explore the feasibility of combining the expertise of science teachers, science educators, and test developers to build innovative performance assessments that complement traditional, norm‐referenced, multiple‐choice science tests. The science teachers, graduate students, and science educators designed and tested performance assessment tasks to enhance the picture of science understanding in students through multiple points of evidence. This paper describes the design of four science performance tasks for Grade 9 students and the relationship between their performance on these tasks and multiple‐choice items in the Iowa Tests of Educational Development. Students and schools used to develop the tasks were not included in the verification sample.
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