Mathematics educators often know the widespread nature of mathematics anxiety and may even be aware of the debilitating effect it can have on their students. Although educators may develop tricks or tools that seem to help, a comprehensive understanding of what students are experiencing and how the classroom environment can be adjusted to address…

In this article, we provide brief overviews of the definitions of formative and summative assessment and a few examples of types of formative and summative assessments that can be used in classroom contexts. We highlight the points that these two types of assessment are complementary and the differences between them are often in the way these…

Instructional coaching is becoming common in early childhood programs to provide individualized, job-embedded professional development. Yet relatively few studies have tried to "unpack" the coaching process and delineate the specific features of coaching that contribute to teacher change. In this article, we describe an evidence-based…

In this article, I try to make pedagogical adaptability a bit less obvious. In particular, I use some post-structural philosophical ideas and some concepts at the intersections of social class and race to re-interpret Dylan Wiliam's conception of formative assessment. I suggest that this interpretation can provide opportunities to resist the urge…

This article describes the theory, key components, and empirical support for the Classroom Strategies Coaching (CSC) Model, a data-driven coaching approach that systematically integrates data from multiple observations to identify teacher practice needs and goals, design practice plans, and evaluate progress towards goals. The primary aim of the…

Being proficient in mathematics involves having rich and connected mathematical knowledge, being a strategic and reflective thinker and problem solver, and having productive mathematical beliefs and dispositions. This broad set of mathematics goals is central to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. High-stakes testing often drives…

Students engage in higher-order thinking as they read complex texts and perform complex reading-related tasks. However, the most consequential assessments, high-stakes tests, are currently limited in providing information about students' higher-order thinking. In this article, we describe higher-order thinking in relation to reading. We provide a…

Designing an assessment system for complex thinking in mathematics involves decisions at every stage, from how to represent the target competencies to how to interpret evidence from student performances. Beyond learning to solve particular problems in a particular area, learning mathematics with understanding involves comprehending connections…

The seven articles in this special issue are concerned with the challenges of assessing complex aspects of cognition in the domains of mathematics, reading, history, and science. Each describes the design of assessments and their interpretive use, with a particular focus on assessments closely tied to classroom instruction. Individually and…

The authors of this article, all of whom have been a part of this effort to assess argumentation in literacy-rich science curriculum, have struggled with our attempts to build 3 argument-related assessments--understanding, critiquing, and constructing arguments about scientific phenomena in both oral and written modes. Loosely affiliated with the…

Since the implementation of the ePortfolio Program in 2006, Clemson University has incorporated peer review for the formative feedback process. One of the challenges with this large-scale implementation has been ensuring that all work is reviewed and constructive feedback is provided in a timely manner. In this article, I discuss the strategies…

The principal purpose of assessment, regardless of teaching level, should be to guide instruction. Unlike evaluation, the goal of assessment is not to arrive at a grade for students. Rather, it is to inform the educator as to what needs to be addressed in the classroom. Assessment in a young adult literature (YAL) curriculum is no different. Its…

Formative assessment has been widely promoted as a means to support student learning and motivation. This practice has potential for communicating to students the value of what they are learning, both in the classroom and beyond (Brophy, 2008). To make good on those promises, however, requires an understanding of the connections between formative…

This article describes the changing culture of a public school as members of its community explore new ways of being accountable to progressive ideals in an age of skills-based learning and standardized testing. Using documentation makes adult and student learning visible in and outside the classroom, supporting three forms of accountability: (a)…

Cooperation between English as a second or other language (ESOL) and content-area teachers, often difficult to achieve, is hard to assess linguistically in a revealing way. This article employs register analysis (which is different from, but complementary to, genre analysis) in a Systemic Functional Linguistic perspective to show how an ESOL…