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Classroom assessment is a vital part of teaching. It helps make student learning--or a lack thereof--visible so that teachers can adjust teaching practices and better support learners. But designing and implementing reliable assessments is a complex process. In this comprehensive book by assessment expert Susan M. Brookhart, you will learn the foundational concepts and practical skills necessary to be successful with classroom assessment. Organized into 21 essentials, the book addresses everything from using pre-assessment before starting new lessons to communicating with parents about their child's academic growth. Along the way, you will discover how to: (1) Create clear learning targets and success criteria based on standards; (2) Provide meaningful feedback to students about progress toward goals; (3) Involve students in the regulation of their own learning; (4) Use homework to check for understanding; (5) Decide on instructional follow-up based on formative assessment data; (6) Make accommodations for students with IEPs and support equity and fairness; (7) Design performance tasks for individuals and groups; and (8) Craft rubrics and design classroom tests. With strategies that support high-quality assessment, tips and troubleshooting advice, and examples across subject areas and grade levels, "Classroom Assessment Essentials" will help you make effective assessment a cornerstone of your classroom.

Do you know how to ensure teachers have the knowledge and skill to use assessment data to improve student learning? Do you know the influence that student involvement in assessments has on motivation and learning? This book guides you and your leadership team through 10 assessment literacy goals with practical content, how-to's, success indicators, and activities to extend and process learning. You will come away understanding the attributes of comprehensive and balanced assessment systems, the necessity for clear academic achievement targets, and why assessment quality is essential. In addition to providing rubrics, processes, and practical tools that work across all grade levels and subject areas, this book shows you how to: (1) Work with staff to integrate formative assessment and sound grading practices; (2) Communicate with all members of the school community about student learning; (3) Protect students and teachers by avoiding unethical and inappropriate assessment use; (4) Use student assessment information to improve and inform instruction; and (5) Develop assessment policies that support quality assessment practice. Advance your understanding of assessment so your teachers can accurately measure learning, practice effective formative assessment strategies, and ensure and maintain a comprehensive and balanced assessment system in your school or district.

Student work is the primary means of learning in most if not all classroom lessons and the primary source of evidence about that learning. Yet research shows that many educators look at student work more to ascertain its correctness rather than to delve into what it reveals about students' thought processes and understanding. "Are you picking up all your students' work is trying to tell you?" In "How to Look at Student Work to Uncover Student Thinking," assessment expert Susan M. Brookhart and instructional coach Alice Oakley walk teachers through a better and more illuminating way to approach student work across grade levels and content areas. You'll learn to view students' assignments not as a verdict on right or wrong but as a window into what students "got" and how they are thinking about it. The insight you'll gain will help you: (1) Infer what students are thinking; (2) Provide effective feedback; (3) Decide on next instructional moves; and (4) Grow as a professional. Brookhart and Oakley then guide teachers through the next steps: clarify learning goals, increase the quality of classroom assessments, deepen your content and pedagogical knowledge, study student work with colleagues, and involve students in the formative learning cycle. The book's many authentic examples of student work and teacher insights, coaching tips, and reflection questions will help readers move from looking at student work for correctness to looking at student work as evidence of student thinking.

"Classroom Assessment and Educational Measurement" explores the ways in which the theory and practice of both educational measurement and the assessment of student learning in classroom settings mutually inform one another. Chapters by assessment and measurement experts consider the nature of classroom assessment information, from student achievement to affective and socio-emotional attributes; how teachers interpret and work with assessment results; and emerging issues in assessment such as digital technologies and diversity/inclusion. This book uniquely considers the limitations of applying large-scale educational measurement theory to classroom assessment and the adaptations necessary to make this transfer useful. Researchers, graduate students, industry professionals, and policymakers will come away with an essential understanding of how the classroom assessment context is essential to broadening contemporary educational measurement perspectives. After an introduction from the editors, chapters divided into three parts. Part I, Classroom Assessment Information, includes the following chapters: (1) Perspectives on the Validity of Classroom Assessments (Michael T. Kane and Saskia Wools); (2) Cognitive Diagnosis Is Not Enough: The Challenge of Measuring Learning with Classroom Assessments (Jacqueline P. Leighton); (3) Language in Practice: A Mediator of Valid Interpretations of Information Generated by Classroom Assessments among Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students (Alison L. Bailey and Richard Durán); (4) Feedback and Measurement (Susan M. Brookhart); and (5) Discussion of Part I: Assessment Information in Context (James H. McMillan). Part II, The Use of Classroom Assessment Information to Enhance Learning, presents: (6) Guidance in the Standards for Classroom Assessment: Useful or Irrelevant? (Steve Ferrara, K. Maxey-Moore, and Susan M. Brookhart); (7) Defining Trustworthiness for Teachers' Multiple Uses of Classroom Assessment Results (Alicia C. Alonzo); (8) Learning Progressions and Embedded Assessment (Derek C. Briggs and Erin M. Furtak); (9) The Role of Technology-Enhanced Self and Peer Assessment in Formative Assessment (E. Caroline Wylie and Christine J. Lyon); and (10) Discussion of Part II: Should "Measurement" Have a Role in Teacher Learning about Classroom Assessment? (Lorrie A. Shepard). Finally, Part III, Emerging Issues in Classroom Assessment, includes: (11) Towards Measures of Different and Useful Aspects of Schooling: Why Schools Need Both Teacher Assigned Grades and Standardized Assessments (Alex J. Bowers); (12) Digital Technologies: Supporting and Advancing Assessment Practices in the Classroom (Michael Russell); (13) Fairness in Classroom Assessment (Joan Herman and Linda Cook); and (14) Discussion of Part III: Emerging Issues in Classroom Assessment (Mark R. Wilson).

Grading is one of the most hotly debated topics in education, and grading practices themselves are largely based on tradition, instinct, or personal history or philosophy. But to be effective, grading policies and practices must be based on trustworthy research evidence. Enter this book: a review of 100-plus years of grading research that presents the broadest and most comprehensive summary of research on grading and reporting available to date, with clear takeaways for learning and teaching. Edited by Thomas R. Guskey and Susan M. Brookhart, this indispensable guide features thoughtful, thorough dives into the research from a distinguished team of scholars, geared to a broad range of stakeholders, including teachers, school leaders, policymakers, and researchers. Each chapter addresses a different area of grading research and describes how the major findings in that area might be leveraged to improve grading policy and practice. Ultimately, Guskey and Brookhart identify four themes emerging from the research that can guide these efforts: (1) Start with clear learning goals; (2) Focus on the feedback function of grades; (3) Limit the number of grade categories; and (4) Provide multiple grades that reflect product, process, and progress criteria. By distilling the vast body of research evidence into meaningful, actionable findings and strategies, this book is the jump-start all stakeholders need to build a better understanding of what works--and where to go from here. After an introduction from the editors, chapters in this book include: (1) Reliability in Grading and Grading Scales (Susan M. Brookhart and Thomas R. Guskey); (2) Report Card Grades and Educational Outcomes (Alex J. Bowers); (3) The Composition of Grades: Cognitive and Noncognitive Factors (Sarah M. Bonner and Peggy P. Chen); (4) Surveys of Teachers' Grading Practices and Perceptions (James H. McMillan); (5) Standards-Based Grading (Megan Welsh); (6) Grading Students with Learning Differences (Lee Ann Jung); (7) Leadership for Grading Reform (Laura J. Link); and (8) Grading in Higher Education (Jeffrey K. Smith and Lisa F. Smith). The book closes with "Conclusion: Where Do We Go from Here?" from the editors.

Formative assessment is one of the best ways to increase student learning and enhance teacher quality. But effective formative assessment is not part of most classrooms, largely because teachers misunderstand what it is and don't have the necessary skills to implement it. In the updated 2nd edition of this practical guide for school leaders, authors Connie M. Moss and Susan M. Brookhart define formative assessment as an active, continual process in which teachers and students work together--every day, every minute--to gather evidence of learning, always keeping in mind three guiding questions: Where am I going? Where am I now? What strategy or strategies can help me get to where I need to go? Chapters focus on the six interrelated elements of formative assessment: (1) shared learning targets and criteria for success, (2) feedback that feeds learning forward, (3) student self-assessment and peer assessment, (4) student goal setting, (5) strategic teacher questioning, and (6) student engagement in asking effective questions. Using specific examples based on their extensive work with teachers, the authors provide: (1) Strategic talking points and conversation starters to address common misconceptions about formative assessment; (2) Practical classroom strategies to share with teachers that cultivate students as self-regulated, assessment-capable learners; (3) Ways to model the elements of formative assessment in conversations with teachers about their professional learning; (4) "What if" scenarios and advice for how to deal with them; and (5) Questions for reflection to gauge understanding and progress. As Moss and Brookhart emphasize, the goal is not to "do" formative assessment but to embrace a major cultural change that moves away from teacher-led instruction to a partnership of intentional inquiry between student and teacher, with better teaching and learning as the outcome.

In this book, best-selling author Susan M. Brookhart helps teachers and administrators understand the critical elements and nuances of assessment data and how that information can best be used to inform improvement efforts in the school or district. Readers will learn: (1) What different kinds of data can--and cannot--tell us about student learning; (2) What different analyses reveal about changes in student achievement; (3) How to interpret, use, and share relevant data; and (4) How to create a model to go from problem to solution in a data-based decision-making process. With easy-to-understand explanations, supplemented by examples and scenarios from actual schools, this book offers a path to better understanding, more accurate interpretation of assessment results, and--most important--more effective use of data to improve teaching and learning. Following an Acknowledgments section this book contains the following chapters: (1) An Introduction to Different Kinds of Data; (2) Large-Scale Accountability Assessments; (3) Interim/Benchmark Assessments and Common Formative Assessments; (4) Classroom Grades; (5) Classroom Formative Assessment Strategies; (6) Putting It All Together: Basing Decisions on Data; (7) But Did They Learn Anything? Evaluating the Results of Your Decisions; and (8) Different Kinds of Data. The following are appended: (1) Related ASCD Resources: Student Assessment and Data; and (2) An ASCD Study Guide for How to Make Decisions with Different Kinds of Student Assessment Data.