Abstract
Objectives. Our program adopted an abilities-based curriculum and established 12 terminal educational ability-based outcomes. We developed performance-based assessments to measure students' ability to accomplish the program's outcomes. Methods. Faculty teams defined expected outcomes and tasks for each of the 12 ability-based outcomes for the P1 and P2 years in the curriculum. These expected outcomes and tasks then became the basis for cases used in designing the performance-based assessments. Faculty members drafted 12 cases for each year and the corresponding performance criteria used in grading. All cases were validated by a national review panel. The cases were then converted into computer-based simulations for programmatic assessment at the end of the 2003 school year. All P1 and P2 students participated in the assessments. Two faculty members graded all cases. The interrater reliability between the 2 graders and the internal consistency of the assessment were measured. Results. The overall interrater reliabilities for the P1 and P2 years were 0.94 and 0.91, respectively. The overall internal consistency reliabilities for the P1 and P2 years were 0.86 and 0.80, respectively. Conclusions. Performance-based assessments produce reliable data that can be used to evaluate an abilities-based curriculum.