Exploring Classroom Assessment in Mathematics: A Guide for Professional Development

The authors' goal in Exploring Classroom Assessment in Mathematics is to aid staff developers in designing programs that help teachers improve their assessment strategies and techniques. They outline six workshop lessons, called "teacher investigations," intended to assist teachers in developing an organized way of generating and collecting adequate and relevant data about student learning. That data collection will in turn aid teachers in making judgements about their own classroom practices.

The assessment process is composed of four phases: (1) Planning (or Design), (2) Evidence- gathering, (3) Evidence-interpreting, and (4) Use (or Action). The investigations in the book are intended to help teachers understand these four phases and how they interrelated. Because the phases are integrally linked, the authors believe that staff developers will find emphasizing these connections will facilitate deeper teacher understanding of each one. As Bryant and Driscoll point out, these workshop lesson plans are rich and effective because they are built on several principals of effective professional development (professional development should be on-going, content rich, experimental and inquiry based, and collaborative), ground instructional change in students' understanding, and focus on teacher development (capacity building). Through the Educational Development Center, the Classroom Assessment in Mathematics Network, and the Assessment Community of Teachers project Bryant and Driscoll conducted assessment workshops to math teachers who were then able to offer professional development and mentoring to their colleagues. This guidebook grows out of that effort.