Performance Assessment: Effective Tool Closing Academic Achievement Gap Between High and Low Ability Students

Abstract

Globally, bridging the achievement gap between low and high ability students in examinations have been the goal of educators. Academic achievement disparities among students have been one of the major reasons bedeviling the attainment of target by many schools in external examinations. This study aimed at using performance assessment to narrow the gap between high and low ability students’ achievement in tests. The descriptive survey was used to gather data from a 234 JHS students in Ahanta West Municipality obtained from a multi-stage sampling procedure. Teacher-made achievement tests were used to collect the data and were analysed with descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of variance. Results of the analyses revealed that both high and low ability JHS students’ achievements in tests were improved when assessed with performance assessment. It was concluded that educators at JHS should be in the known that performance assessment is the tool for closing gaps between high and low ability students’ achievements in examinations. Therefore, assessors at the JHS level should adapt and integrate high percentage of performance assessment tasks in assessing students in order to close the gap between the low and high ability students’ achievement in the tests and examinations.