The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding to the performance assessment and broaden its applicaion by summarizing the nature of performance assessment ( concept, backgrounds and necessity, features, and specific techniques), and presenting the alternatives to the problems in the process of its implementation. Performance assessment is an alternative assessment method to the traditional multiple choice test and it demands teachers to observe and judge students\' knowledge and skills in authentic situaion. There are lots of backgrounds that make performance assessment necessary: social transition to the information age, change in the concept and purpose of evaluation (from test to assessment, from grading to improving teaching and learning). The sepcific techniques in performance assement are as follows: constructed responses(label a diagram or a picture, show student\'s work, and visual presentation), products(essay, research pater ,lab report, poem, portfolio , art exhibit, model), performances(oral presentations, dance/movement, science lab demonstration, debate), and process-focused (oral questioning, observations , interview, conference, learning log). Although performance assessment has contributed a lot in teaching and learning, it also has brought about many problems due to misunderstanding the nature of performance assessment(anxieties and burden on teachers and students, excessice assignments, rater\'s subjective judgement, and school administrators\' blind belief in its effectiveness), insufficient preparation(inappropriate curriculum, poor educaional environments, and lack of valid and reliable testing tools), and lack of administrative support(lack of programs and budget for training, guidelines for successive implementation, and high quality testing tools). Some parents and students do not trust in the reliablity and objectivity of performance assessment results. To overcome theses problems, every educaional partivipant(administrators, teachers, parents, students) has to do one\'s role. First of all, administrators have to change their view of performance assessment. It is not a master key to every educaional problems but one of various assessment methods. They must not comple schools and teachers to implement performance assessment without sufficient preparaion and support. Rather, they should provide high quality assessment tools and chances for professional development, and improve educaional environments, Teachers need to dismiss negative ideas about performance assessment, and actively partivipate in the development and implementation of high quality performance assessment tools in the classroom. Parents and students, as educaional consumers need to undersant the nature and importance of performance assessment, and cooperate with administrators and teachers to root it in the classroom. If they do so, performance assessment will bring many meaningful results in learning and teaching.