Assessment as a Catalyst for Learning: Creating a Responsive and Fluid Process to Inspire All Students (Practical Strategies and Tools to Implement Mindful, Intentional Assessment Practices)

When designed in ways that inspire and motivate, assessment is a gift to our students. With this resource as your guide, you'll embrace a fresh mindset where assessment becomes a process that propels meaningful learning for all. Authors Garnet Hillman and Mandy Stalets dive deep into how you can work individually or collaboratively to intentionally identify and unwrap priority standards, develop learning progressions, design assessments, and plan daily instruction.

Design mindful, intentional assessment practices that develop learning progressions and help students plan their own path to proficiency:

• Understand how to use formal and informal formative assessment as well as summative assessment to empower students and increase learning for all.
• Analyze ways to plan backward and design mindful assessment and instruction.
• Receive practical steps for application for developing learning progressions, summative assessments, and formative assessments.
• Discover how to collaborate around assessment with professional learning community (PLC) concepts.
• Answer end-of-chapter reflection questions to deepen your understanding of key concepts.

Contents:
Acknowledgments
Table of Contents
About the Authors
Introduction
Chapter 1: Assessment Defined
Chapter 2: Learning Progressions
Chapter 3: Summative Assessment
Chapter 4: Informal Formative Assessment
Chapter 5: Formal Formative Assessment
Chapter 6: Assessment Comes Full Circle
Conclusion
References and Resources
Index

Garnet Hillman is an educator, author, presenter, and learner. She has served as an instructional coach at Caruso Middle School and as a Spanish teacher at Lockport Township High School, both in Illinois. She presents around the United States on the topics of assessment, grading, and student motivation. A passionate educator, Garnet values student learning above all else.

Through her work, Garnet emphasizes healthy grading and sound assessment practices. She has worked with a variety of school districts that desire to improve instruction, provide relevant and respectful assessment, cultivate grading practices that support learning, and increase student motivation. She provides rationale for a paradigm shift in grading methods and a practical, step-by-step process to implement the change.

Garnet holds a master's degree in educational leadership from Aurora University, as well as a bachelor's degree in Spanish from Ohio University. She has also completed graduate coursework in instructional technology.

To learn more about Garnet Hillman's work, follow @garnet_hillman on Twitter.

Mandy Stalets works with a wide variety of teachers, undergraduate students, and school districts to improve assessment and grading practices to maximize communication and student success. She provides rationale for the need for change in our current grading practices, as well as practical steps for implementation. Mandy is a teacher and learner who is passionate about sound assessment and grading practices, as well as standards-based learning. Along with her educational advising work, she is currently a high school mathematics teacher at Illinois State University's laboratory schools. She is also the co-moderator of Solution Tree's assessment Twitter chat, #atassess, and coauthor of the books Standards-Based Learning in Action: Moving From Theory to Practice and Coaching Your Classroom: How to Deliver Actionable Feedback to Students.

Mandy received her bachelor's degree in secondary mathematics education and a master's degree in teaching and learning from Illinois State University. She received National Board Certification in Early Adolescence Mathematics in 2017.

To learn more about Mandy Stalets's work, follow @MandyStalets on Twitter.