Told from different viewpoints, five sixth-graders, facing various challenges and under pressure to do well on statewide assessment tests, agree to a plan for acing the tests.

"Communicating about student achievement requires CALM grades- grades that are consistent, accurate, learning-focused and meaningful. To meet these four conditions, educators need to ask several essential questions. To what extent am I confident that students in my school/district receive grades that are consistent, accurate, learning-focused and meaningful? 2. To what extent am I confident that the grades I determine for my students accurately reflect...

Award-winning author, public intellectual, and former Assistant Secretary of Education, critiques a lifetime's worth of school reforms and reveals the simple, yet difficult, truth about how we can create actual change in public schools. A passionate plea to preserve and renew public education, this work is a radical change of heart from one of America's best known education experts. The author, a leader in the drive to create a national curriculum,...

Differentiated instruction is a nice idea, but what happens when it comes to assessing and grading students? What's both fair and leads to real student learning? Fair Isn't Always Equal answers that question and much more. Rick Wormeli offers the latest research and common sense thinking that teachers and administrators seek when it comes to assessment and grading in differentiated classes. Filled with real examples and "gray" areas that middle and...

Analyzes two important factors that affect student learning: formative assessment and grading, explains how to design and interpret three different types of formative assessments, track student progress, and assign meaningful grades, and includes detailed examples of applications in classrooms.

All the talk of closing the achievement gap in schools obscures a more fundamental issue: do the grades we assign to students truly reflect the extent of their learning? In this lively and eye-opening book, educator Myron Dueck reveals how many of the assessment policies that teachers adopt can actually prove detrimental to student motivation and achievement and shows how we can tailor policies to address what really matters: student understanding...

Organizes research-based recommendations about assessment practices into an instructional framework that can improve student achievement.

"This text is designed for individuals who must interpret test results or scores regardless of their understanding of tests, such as psychiatrists, social workers, school principals, admissions personnel, physicians, attorneys, teachers, and parents. The book provides a much needed narrative understanding of the primary psychological test theories and how these theories influence test scores and other factors, such as reliability and validity."--BOOK...