How can we help teachers use classroom assessments to gather appropriate evidence for all valued learning goals, and to use those assessments not just to measure learning but to promote it? This book provides an answer in a practical, proven, and unique Assessment Planning Framework that moves away from solely multiple-choice tests toward a wide…

Nearly every modern instructional planning model, differentiation approach, and personalized learning system incorporates some form of re-assessment. Yet there's scant research evidence that teachers use pre-assessment in ways that improve learning, according to Guskey and McTighe. To increase the likelihood that pre-assessment will be worth the…

The author examines three essential questions on educational assessment: What really matters in a contemporary education? How should we assess those things that matter? How might our assessments enhance learning that matters, not just measure it? In answering these question, he argues that schools need a broader collection of measures, with a…

The premise of this book is that the primary purpose of classroom assessment is to inform teaching and improve learning, not to sort and select students or to justify a grade. The common principles of effective assessment are covered, and the strengths and limitations of a variety of effective approaches are reviewed. Vignettes illustrate…

This book is designed to help teachers: clarify the targets of instruction, especially for hard-to-define problem solving; provide valid and reliable assessment of student learning; and improve student motivation and achievement by helping students understand the nature of quality for performances and products. Each chapter is framed by an…

This handbook examines what understanding is and how it differs from knowing, discussing how teachers can know that students truly understand and can apply their knowledge in meaningful ways and how courses and units might be designed to emphasize understanding and uncoverage rather than coverage. The handbook includes a planning template,…

Classroom assessments fall into three categories--summative, diagnostic, and formative. Summative assessment occurs at the end of a unit or course of study and is therefore an insufficient tool to maximize student learning. Diagnostic and formative assessments, on the other hand, offer descriptive feedback along the way. In light of these…

This book explores ways to design courses and units to emphasize understanding and uncoverage rather than coverage, offering practical solutions for teacher-designers. It focuses on a different use for performance assessment, concluding that performance is the key to assessing understanding. The book analyzes the logic of backward design as an…

A variety of methods are examined that teachers from preschool to graduate school levels can use in assessing their students; the common principles underlying classroom assessment are explored. The first principle is that the primary purpose of classroom assessment is to inform teaching and improve learning. A second principle is that multiple…