Comprehensive Assessments
Resources
Assessment As Feedback
This article makes the case for the role of clear and specific feedback as a key component of effective assessment practices. The author describes the difference between feedback and evaluation and discusses reasons why such feedback is often lacking in instruction. (New Horizons for Learning, 2004)
Author: Grant Wiggins
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Balancing Local Assessment with Statewide Testing: Building a Program That Meets Student Needs
This knowledge brief makes the case for thoughtful district- or school-driven assessment systems that complement, and go beyond, what statewide testing systems are able to accomplish. It describes important attributes of model local assessment programs. Finally, it presents the necessary steps for building a local assessment program that will elicit information that is of value specifically to teachers, students, and parents and that is rarely available from state assessment programs. (WestEd, 2001)
Authors: Stanley Rabinowitz and Sri Ananda
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Classroom Assessment Minute-by-Minute, Day-by-Day
Assessment for learning, as opposed to assessment of learning, requires educators to make a major shift—from quality control in learning to quality assurance, from assessing at the end of teaching to assessing while learning is still taking place. Five nonnegotiable strategies, described in the article, define the territory of assessment for learning. The authors apply their experience with teachers to illustrate classroom examples of these five strategies. (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2005)
Authors: Siobhan Leahy, Christine Lyon, Marnie Thompson and Dylan Wiliam
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Feedback That Fits
This article provides information about formative assessment feedback through examples tied to student work, answers to key questions that coaches and teachers have about providing feedback, and clear guidelines for effective feedback content and delivery. The student’s ability to hear, feel, and understand the feedback is emphasized. (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2007)
Author: Susan M. Brookhart
Formative Assessment: Examples of Practice
This article provides a series of short vignettes that clarify a definition of formative assessment and provide examples of various aspects of formative assessment in practice across different subject areas and grade bands. Each vignette is annotated to describe the formative assessment practices that are highlighted in the vignette. (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2008)
Author: E. Caroline Wylie
Formative Classroom Assessment and Benjamin S. Bloom: Theory, Research, and Implications
Bloom argued that to reduce variation in students' achievement and to have all students learn well, we must increase variation in instructional approaches and learning time. The key element in this effort is well-constructed, formative classroom assessments. Bloom outlined a specific strategy for using formative classroom assessments to guide teachers in differentiating their instruction and labeled it "mastery learning." This paper describes Bloom's work, presents the essential elements of mastery learning, explains common misinterpretations, and describes the results of research on its effects. (American Educational Research Association, 2005)
Author: Thomas R. Guskey
Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment
This seminal article provides evidence of the power of formative assessment practices in improving student achievement. Based on an extensive survey of the research literature, there is evidence that improving formative assessment raises standards and also that there is evidence to improve formative assessment. (Phi Delta Kappan, 1998)
Authors: Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam
Learning Progressions: Supporting Instruction and Formative Assessment
This article describes the nature and importance of clearly articulated “learning progressions” as a core element of effective formative assessment practices. The article defines learning progressions, and discusses their foundational role in formative assessment practices. It then provides several examples of learning progressions and discusses key principles in constructing a learning progression. (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2008)
Author: Margaret Heritage
New York Formative Assessment Technical Assistance Study
The NY Formative Assessment Technical Assistance Study is a pilot study that is a collaborative effort among the Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center (AACC), the New York Comprehensive Center (NYCC), the New York State Education Department (NYSED), and Syracuse City School District (SCSD). The project’s goals are to (1) develop capacity within the comprehensive center system in providing technical assistance, (2) provide guidance and technical assistance to help regional, state, and district leaders make informed decisions about effective data use, (3) to train staff at different levels (region, state, district) to assume leadership roles in the area of formative assessment, and (4) to build capacity at the state and district levels to ensure sustainability of the initiative. Selected materials from the study will be displayed and updated as the study progresses. (Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center, to date)
The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture
This article traces some of the historical connections and influences of curriculum, psychology and measurement and then provides a framework for classroom instruction and assessment that contrasts with what has grown from these influences. The author discusses ways to make assessment practices consistent with this framework, with a special emphasis on embedded ongoing classroom assessment. (Educational Researcher, 2000)
Author: Lorrie Shepard
Syracuse Formative Assessment Project Resources Binder
As part of the New York Comprehensive Center’s work with the Syracuse City School District during the 2007-08 school year, a number of articles describing formative assessment research, policy, and practice were organized into a binder and shared with instructional support teachers and other district staff. (New York Comprehensive Center, 2008)
Working Inside the Black Box: Assessment for Learning in the Classroom
In their widely read article "Inside the Black Box," Black and Wiliam demonstrated that improving formative assessment raises student achievement. Now they and their colleagues report on a follow-up project that has helped teachers change their practice and students change their behavior so that everyone shares responsibility for the students' learning. (Phi Delta Kappan, 2004)
Authors: Paul Black, Christine Harrison, Clare Lee, Bethan Marshall, and Dylan Wiliam