How do assessments for learning differ from assessments of learning? What is the purpose of grading? After nearly two decades of immersion in standards-based curriculua and instruction, our nation's educators are often still confounded by the (admittedly complex) landscape of standards, assessment, and reporting. Lead author Tom Guskey has a remarkable knack for bringing clarity to even the most complex of concepts. In this brief, practical guide, he and co-author Lee Ann Jung address the frequently-asked questions that almost inevitably surface in his work with school districts, state DOEs, and international agencies. The authors respond to these questions in short, simple, jargon-free, reader-friendly responses that will make sense to all levels of readers.
As schools proceed with the implementation of the Common Core curriculum and the use of corresponding assessments, this invaluable guide will help clarify the meaning of these critical issues for key stakeholders and greatly facilitate communication among and between group members.
Thomas R. Guskey, Ph.D., is Professor of Educational Psychology in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky. A graduate of the University of Chicago, he began his career in education as a middle school teacher, served as an administrator in Chicago Public Schools, and was the first Director of the Center for the Improvement of Teaching and Learning, a national educational research center. He is the author/editor of 18 books and over 200 articles published in prominent research journals as well as Educational Leadership, Kappan, and School Administrator. Dr. Guskey served on the Policy Research Team of the National Commission on Teaching & America's Future, on the Task Force to develop the National Standards for Staff Development, and recently was named a Fellow in the American Educational Research Association, which also honored him in 2006 for his outstanding contribution relating research to practice. His most recent books include Developing Standards-Based Report Cards (2010), Practical Solutions for Serious Problems in Standards-Based Grading (Ed.) (2009), The Principal as Assessment Leader (Ed.) (2009), The Teacher as Assessment Leader (Ed.) (2009), and Benjamin S. Bloom: Portraits of an Educator (Ed.) (2006).
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Preface: The Nature of Essential Questions
Part I: Standards
1. What are Standards?
2. Are Standards a New Idea in Education?
3. Why Do Some People Oppose Standards?
Part II: Assessments
4. What Is Assessment?
5. What Is the Difference Between Assessments and Tests?
6. What Is Formative Assessment?
7. Why Are Formative Assessments Important?
8. What Are Common Formative Assessments?
9. What Is Summative Assessment?
10. What Is High-Stakes Assessment?
11. What Are Instructionally Sensitive and Instructionally Insensitive Assessments?
12. How Do Assessments for Learning Differ From Assessments of Learning?
13. Do Formative Assessments Improve Student Learning?
Part III: Grading
14. What Are Grades?
15. What Is the Purpose of Grading?
16. Are Grades Essential to Teaching and Learning?
17. Why Are the First Grades Assigned So Important?
18. Do Low Grades Prompt Students to Try Harder?
19. Why Is Setting Percentage Cut-Offs for Grades an Arbitrary Process?
20. What Is Wrong With Grading on the Curve?
Part IV: Reporting
21. What Criteria Do Teachers Use in Assigning Grades?
22. What Is Standards-Based Grading and Reporting?
23. Why Do Some Parents Have Concerns About Standards-Based Grading and Reporting?
24. If Schools Implement Standards-Based Grading, Will the Grades Assigned to Students Likely Go Up or Down?
25. What Is the Most Important First Step in Implementing Standards-Based Grading?
26. What Is the Best Way to Inform Parents About Moving to Standards-Based Grading?
27. What Is the Best Way to Encourage Parents to Make Comments on the Report Card?
28. Will Standards-Based Grading Improve Student Learning?
Part V: Grading and Reporting for Exceptional and Struggling Learners
29. Who are Exceptional and Struggling Learners?
30. How Do We Assign Grades to Exceptional and Struggling Learners Who Require Modifications?
31. What Is the Difference Between Accommodations and Modifications?
32. How Do We Legally Report Grades for Exceptional and Struggling Learners on Report Cards and Transcripts?
33. Do High School Students Requiring Modifications Receive Course Credit Toward a Diploma? Do Modifications Make a Student Ineligible for Extracurricular Activities, Such as Interscholastic Athletics?
Summary and Conclusions
Index
How do assessments for learning differ from assessments of learning? What is the purpose of grading? After nearly two decades of immersion in standards-based curriculua and instruction, our nation's educators are often still confounded by the (admittedly complex) landscape of standards, assessment, and reporting. Lead author Tom Guskey has a remarkable knack for bringing clarity to even the most complex of concepts. In this brief, practical guide, he and co-author Lee Ann Jung address the frequently-asked questions that almost inevitably surface in his work with school districts, state DOEs, and international agencies. The authors respond to these questions in short, simple, jargon-free, reader-friendly responses that will make sense to all levels of readers.
As schools proceed with the implementation of the Common Core curriculum and the use of corresponding assessments, this invaluable guide will help clarify the meaning of these critical issues for key stakeholders and greatly facilitate communication among and between group members.
Thomas R. Guskey, Ph.D., is Professor of Educational Psychology in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky. A graduate of the University of Chicago, he began his career in education as a middle school teacher, served as an administrator in Chicago Public Schools, and was the first Director of the Center for the Improvement of Teaching and Learning, a national educational research center. He is the author/editor of 18 books and over 200 articles published in prominent research journals as well as Educational Leadership, Kappan, and School Administrator. Dr. Guskey served on the Policy Research Team of the National Commission on Teaching & America's Future, on the Task Force to develop the National Standards for Staff Development, and recently was named a Fellow in the American Educational Research Association, which also honored him in 2006 for his outstanding contribution relating research to practice. His most recent books include Developing Standards-Based Report Cards (2010), Practical Solutions for Serious Problems in Standards-Based Grading (Ed.) (2009), The Principal as Assessment Leader (Ed.) (2009), The Teacher as Assessment Leader (Ed.) (2009), and Benjamin S. Bloom: Portraits of an Educator (Ed.) (2006).
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Preface: The Nature of Essential Questions
Part I: Standards
1. What are Standards?
2. Are Standards a New Idea in Education?
3. Why Do Some People Oppose Standards?
Part II: Assessments
4. What Is Assessment?
5. What Is the Difference Between Assessments and Tests?
6. What Is Formative Assessment?
7. Why Are Formative Assessments Important?
8. What Are Common Formative Assessments?
9. What Is Summative Assessment?
10. What Is High-Stakes Assessment?
11. What Are Instructionally Sensitive and Instructionally Insensitive Assessments?
12. How Do Assessments for Learning Differ From Assessments of Learning?
13. Do Formative Assessments Improve Student Learning?
Part III: Grading
14. What Are Grades?
15. What Is the Purpose of Grading?
16. Are Grades Essential to Teaching and Learning?
17. Why Are the First Grades Assigned So Important?
18. Do Low Grades Prompt Students to Try Harder?
19. Why Is Setting Percentage Cut-Offs for Grades an Arbitrary Process?
20. What Is Wrong With Grading on the Curve?
Part IV: Reporting
21. What Criteria Do Teachers Use in Assigning Grades?
22. What Is Standards-Based Grading and Reporting?
23. Why Do Some Parents Have Concerns About Standards-Based Grading and Reporting?
24. If Schools Implement Standards-Based Grading, Will the Grades Assigned to Students Likely Go Up or Down?
25. What Is the Most Important First Step in Implementing Standards-Based Grading?
26. What Is the Best Way to Inform Parents About Moving to Standards-Based Grading?
27. What Is the Best Way to Encourage Parents to Make Comments on the Report Card?
28. Will Standards-Based Grading Improve Student Learning?
Part V: Grading and Reporting for Exceptional and Struggling Learners
29. Who are Exceptional and Struggling Learners?
30. How Do We Assign Grades to Exceptional and Struggling Learners Who Require Modifications?
31. What Is the Difference Between Accommodations and Modifications?
32. How Do We Legally Report Grades for Exceptional and Struggling Learners on Report Cards and Transcripts?
33. Do High School Students Requiring Modifications Receive Course Credit Toward a Diploma? Do Modifications Make a Student Ineligible for Extracurricular Activities, Such as Interscholastic Athletics?
Summary and Conclusions
Index
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Preface: The Nature of Essential Questions
Part I: Standards
1. What are Standards?
2. Are Standards a New Idea in Education?
3. Why Do Some People Oppose Standards?
Part II: Assessments
4. What Is Assessment?
5. What Is the Difference Between Assessments and Tests?
6. What Is Formative Assessment?
7. Why Are Formative Assessments Important?
8. What Are Common Formative Assessments?
9. What Is Summative Assessment?
10. What Is High-Stakes Assessment?
11. What Are Instructionally Sensitive and Instructionally
Insensitive Assessments?
12. How Do Assessments for Learning Differ From Assessments of
Learning?
13. Do Formative Assessments Improve Student Learning?
Part III: Grading
14. What Are Grades?
15. What Is the Purpose of Grading?
16. Are Grades Essential to Teaching and Learning?
17. Why Are the First Grades Assigned So Important?
18. Do Low Grades Prompt Students to Try Harder?
19. Why Is Setting Percentage Cut-Offs for Grades an Arbitrary
Process?
20. What Is Wrong With Grading on the Curve?
Part IV: Reporting
21. What Criteria Do Teachers Use in Assigning Grades?
22. What Is Standards-Based Grading and Reporting?
23. Why Do Some Parents Have Concerns About Standards-Based Grading
and Reporting?
24. If Schools Implement Standards-Based Grading, Will the Grades
Assigned to Students Likely Go Up or Down?
25. What Is the Most Important First Step in Implementing
Standards-Based Grading?
26. What Is the Best Way to Inform Parents About Moving to
Standards-Based Grading?
27. What Is the Best Way to Encourage Parents to Make Comments on
the Report Card?
28. Will Standards-Based Grading Improve Student Learning?
Part V: Grading and Reporting for Exceptional and Struggling
Learners
29. Who are Exceptional and Struggling Learners?
30. How Do We Assign Grades to Exceptional and Struggling Learners
Who Require Modifications?
31. What Is the Difference Between Accommodations and
Modifications?
32. How Do We Legally Report Grades for Exceptional and Struggling
Learners on Report Cards and Transcripts?
33. Do High School Students Requiring Modifications Receive Course
Credit Toward a Diploma? Do Modifications Make a Student Ineligible
for Extracurricular Activities, Such as Interscholastic
Athletics?
Summary and Conclusions
Index
Thomas R. Guskey, PhD, is Professor Emeritus in the College of
Education at the University of Kentucky. A graduate of the
University of Chicago’s renowned Measurement, Evaluation, and
Statistical Analysis (MESA) program, he began his career in
education as a middle school teacher, served as an administrator in
the Chicago Public Schools, and was the first Director of the
Center for the Improvement of Teaching and Learning, a national
educational research center. He is the author/editor of
twenty-seven books and over three hundred articles published in
prominent research journals as well as Educational Leadership,
Kappan, and The School Administrator.
Dr. Guskey served on the Policy Research Team of the National
Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, and on the task force
to develop the National Standards for Professional Development. He
was named a Fellow in the American Educational Research Association
and was awarded the Association’s prestigious Relating Research to
Practice Award. He was also awarded Learning Forward′s Outstanding
Contribution to the Field Award and Phi Delta Kappan′s
Distinguished Educator Award. Perhaps most unique, in the 158-year
history of his undergraduate institution, Thiel College, he is one
of only three graduates to receive the Outstanding Alumnus Award
and be inducted into the Thiel College Athletic Hall of Fame.
His most recent books include Implementing Mastery Learning (2023),
Instructional Feedback: The Power, the Promise, the Practice (with
Smith & Lipnevich, 2023); Get Set, Go! Creating Successful Grading
and Reporting Systems (2020), What We Know About Grading (with
Brookhart, 2019), and On Your Mark: Challenging the Conventions of
Grading and Reporting (2015). He may be contacted by email at
guskey@uky.edu, Twitter at @tguskey, or at www.tguskey.com.
Lee Ann Jung,PhD, is founder of Lead Inclusion, Clinical Professor
at San Diego State University, and a consultant to schools
worldwide. A former special education teacher and administrator,
Lee Ann now spends her time in schools, working
shoulder-to-shoulder with teams in their efforts to improve systems
and practice. She has consulted with schools in more than 30
countries and throughout the United States in the areas of
universal design for learning, inclusion, intervention, and mastery
assessment and grading. Lee Ann is the author of 7 books, numerous
journal articles and book chapters on inclusion, universal design,
and assessment. She serves on the advisory board for Mastery
Transcript Consortium, as section editor of the Routledge
Encyclopedia of Education, and on the editorial board member for
several professional journals. In her community, Lee Ann is a board
member for Life Adventure Center, a local nonprofit with a mission
of healing for those who have experienced trauma.
Bring Lee Ann Jung to your school or district! Learn more at
LeadInclusion.org
“Guskey and Jung have waded into the murky waters of standards,
assessments, grading and reporting to emerge with a very
accessible, readable text, providing thoughtful, research-based
answers to the questions most often asked. Whether read in its
entirety or utilized as a chapter-by-chapter resource, individuals
and groups from all facets of the educational community will find
value in its pages.”
*Kurtis Hewson, Faculty Associate*
“This book was an excellent introduction to assessments for the
practitioner, pre-service educators and the lay person. Written in
small sections, it explains well how we assess, why we use
different assessments, and asks guiding questions for application
of assessments. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested
in educational assessments.”
*Jeanne Collins, Superintendent*
“This text is a useful tool that educators can use to build common
definitions about frequently used and misunderstood educational
terms within their state, district, or school. Only when educators
have the same understanding of ′formative assessment′ or ′grade
reporting′ can they be implemented with fidelity.”
*Julie Quinn, Accountability Specialist*
"A strong, knowledge based book that hopefully will be well used to
guide educational change in the areas of standards, assessment,
grading and reporting by all the stakeholders in education."
*Sharon K. Tritschler, National Career Academy Coalition Career
Academy Review Coordinator and National School Reform Faculty
National Facilitator*
"This book is a must read for educators and policy makers at all
levels. The authors do an excellent job answering essential
questions on standards, assessments, grading, and reporting using
research-based evidence. If educators follow the authors’
suggestions, learning and teaching in schools would be
transformed."
*Nancy Kellogg, Educational Consultant*
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