Continuous Learning for Teachers

The time for grading reform is now. While the transition to standards-based practices may be challenging, it is essential for effective instruction and assessment. In this practical guide, the author outlines specific steps your team can take to transform grading and reporting schoolwide. Each chapter includes examples of grading dilemmas, vignettes from teachers and administrators, and ideas for bringing parents on board with change.

Discover how to use the power of assessment to instill hope, efficacy, and achievement in your students. With this research-based resource, you'll explore six essential tenets of assessment--assessment purpose, communication of assessment results, accurate interpretation, assessment architecture, instructional agility, and student investment--that will help deepen your understanding of assessment to not only meet standards but also enhance students' academic success and self-fulfillment.

The true power of assessment comes when emerging results determine what comes next in student learning. This practical book empowers educators and their teams, schools, or districts to move seamlessly between instruction, formative assessment, and feedback, improving school culture more effectively than traditional methods. Instructional agility enhances ownership of learning, proficiency, and motivation for students, and promotes a positive school culture. Each chapter concludes with reflection questions that assist readers in determining next steps for supporting the whole child and the whole learning process. Learn how to promote an agile culture of learning in school to increase student ownership of learning: Discover how instructional agility fits within the six tenets of the essential assessment framework. Learn how to foster and maintain a culture of learning in schools. Gain strategies and tools to enhance instructional agility and assessment practices. Examine examples of instructional agility in action. Consider questions that help individual teachers and learning teams contemplate what they learned and their next steps for implementing for instructional agility strategies.