The Power of Homework as a Formative Tool

Posted on 1 CommentPosted in Assessment, Feedback, General, Instruction, Results

If homework is to serve as formative data, then it needs to be instructionally sensitive for both student and teacher alike. Ideally, then, what happened with homework the night before should inform a classroom teacher’s instruction immediately the next day. Rather than simply correcting right/wrong answers and then collecting the homework papers to be recorded […]

Focused Formatives

Posted on 4 CommentsPosted in Assessment, Education, Feedback, General, Grading, Instruction

Researchers and educators alike have sounded the clarion call for teachers to implement more formative assessment in their classrooms because the research is overwhelmingly clear that the use of formative assessment in the classroom can radically improve student achievement results.  Unfortunately, the very idea of ‘implementing more’ feels like an ‘add on’ to an already […]

Cinderella Summatives

Posted on 1 CommentPosted in Assessment, Education

It was probably inevitable that when educational experts began highlighting formative assessment as the Golden Child because of its incredibly positive impact on student achievement, summative assessment would then be dubbed the evil stepchild and relegated to the grunge of ‘clean up’ work.  Summative assessments are tolerated, but distastefully so: today they are popularly referred […]

Data Notebooks

Posted on 4 CommentsPosted in Assessment

Assessment experts (e.g. Jan Chappuis, Jon Hattie, Rick Stiggins, and Dylan Wiliam, to name a few) state that student motivation has been disconnected from the assessment process in the past, but must be reconnected if schools are to create high levels of student achievement.  Ultimately, students must be the decision makers regarding their progress while […]

A New Paradigm For Consultants and Schools Engaged in School Improvement Work

Posted on 1 CommentPosted in Change, Education, Leadership by Design

A co-authored blog by Timothy Anderson, Bloomington Public Schools, and Cassandra Erkens Recently, an educator posted a blog in which he asserted that today’s schools need to be more savvy as they hire educational consultants.  While we agree that the premise of his title is true, we would argue for the school/consultant relationship to be […]

Becoming Assessment Architects

Posted on Leave a commentPosted in Assessment, Education

Assessment is so much more than writing/selecting, employing, and scoring a test.  There is architecture to the entire system of each single assessment event or experience.  Educators must work as assessment architects – sometimes individually and sometimes in teams – as they structure learning progressions, select/modify/create assessments, design accompanying tools and resources (e.g. rubrics, proficiency […]

Rewarding Effort Requires Effort

Posted on Leave a commentPosted in Assessment, Education, Feedback, Relationships

It’s easy to find research that supports praising student effort in schools.  Today, Dr. Carol Dweck’s work on Mindset (2006) leads the way for such claims as it highlights how important it is to praise effort over intelligence:  “[The] growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate […]