This study investigates the effects of performance based assessment on the academic
achievement using middle schools data in SELS. In specific, this study focuses on the
influences of performance based assessment on the relation between socio-economic background
and academic achievement of Korean and English. Major findings are like these. First, the
socio-economic backgrounds of student and school level have significant effects on the
academic achievement of Korean and English. Second, the degrees of performance based
assessment in school level have no significant effects on the academic achievement except for
individual project type performance-based assessment of Korean. Finally and most importantly,
the degree of small group type performance based assessment has significant effects on the
relation between academic achievement of Korean and English and socio-economic background.
More in detail, the degree of small group type performance based assessment in Korean reduces
the effect of socio-economic background on academic achievement. But the degree of small
group type performance based assessment in English enlarges the effect of socio-economic
background on academic achievement. In this article, the author argues that the contrast effect
of small group type performance based assessment in Korean and English may be attributed to
ability grouping which is more common in English.