Authentic Assessment in Action

Authentic Assessment in Action
Author: Linda Darling-Hammond
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2017-10-05
Genre: Education
ISBN: 080777636X

This book examines, through case studies of elementary and secondary schools, how five schools have developed “authentic,” performance-based assessments of students’ learning, and how this work has interacted with and influenced the teaching and learning experiences students encounter in school. This important and timely book reveals the changing dynamics of classroom life as it moves from more traditional pedagogy to one that asks students to master intellectual and practical skills that are eminently transferable to “real-life” social settings and workplaces. “The issue of assessment comes first, but we see in the following case studies how it becomes powerfully enveloped in the processes of learning and teaching, of informing students, teachers, parents, and others of ‘how the children are doing.’ The portraits explicitly and implicitly suggest a deep, fair, and defensible way to answer the question ‘How’m I doing?’ in a manner that helps this child and eventually every child.” —From the Foreword by Theodore R. Sizer “Informative and thought provoking.” —American Journal of Education

Rebuilding Public Confidence in Educational Assessment

Rebuilding Public Confidence in Educational Assessment
Author: Mary Richardson
Publisher: UCL Press
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2022-05-23
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1787357244

Educational assessment is important. But in the twenty-first century it is easy to feel that schooling and other phases of education are shaped entirely by certain assessments, and that assessment is only about exam results. The idea that test grades can accurately describe the aims and outcomes of education is unfair and reductive. Yet it is a pervasive and persuasive discourse. This book is about such discourses - the stories we tell each other - and how they impact public trust and confidence in educational assessment. It explains the roots and nature of assessment discourses, and proposes a restructuring of the debates in order to rebuild public confidence. It aims to challenge dominant assessment discourses and demands a more nuanced, informed debate about what happens in and beyond schools, and how this influences public thinking. Questioning the status quo needs buy-in from policymakers, teachers, parents and students, and from the broader public: from journalists, you, me, our friends and our children. Using examples from international settings to explore the nature of trust in assessment discourses, Rebuilding Public Confidence in Educational Assessment shows how these discourses can be reframed so that all aspects of the assessment system - policymaking, school planning, home practice with students - can be undertaken with confidence.

The New Handbook of Teacher Evaluation

The New Handbook of Teacher Evaluation
Author: Jason Millman
Publisher: Corwin Press
Total Pages: 453
Release: 1990
Genre: Education
ISBN: 080394523X

A worthy successor to 'The Handbook of Teacher Evaluation', this landmark volume is an important source of information for anyone concerned with teacher evaluation, training and development.

Achievement Testing in U.S. Elementary and Secondary Schools

Achievement Testing in U.S. Elementary and Secondary Schools
Author: Joan Maureen Baker
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2006
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780820476315

The concept and results of achievement testing are the subject of serious conversation for many Americans - from educators to legislators. However, few teachers and parents view such testing as an integral part of teaching and learning. Testing standards of key education organizations and opinions of concerned citizens may be fleeting guides. The history of testing, the process for developing a formal test, testing abuse, misuse, and limitations are not widely known or understood even though we realize that testing is critical and here to stay. Achievement Testing explains the complicated concepts in a clear and user-friendly way to beginning teachers and students, as well as to experienced teachers who are looking for guidance in the ever-changing educational landscape.