Formative Assessment and Standards-Based Grading

Learn everything you need to know to implement an integrated system of assessment and grading that will enhance both your own teaching and your students' learning. This book details the specific benefits of formative assessment. The author explains how to design and interpret three different types of formative assessments, how to track student progress, and how to assign meaningful grades, even if a school or district continues to use a traditional grading system. Detailed examples bring each concept to life, and chapter exercises reinforce the content.

Benefits
-Learn how to design three types of formative classroom assessments that should be used in a comprehensive system.
-Understand the difference between standards-based and standards-referenced systems.
-Find out why it is usually inappropriate to use the 100-point scale in conjunction with formative assessment.
-Gain a systematic approach to the design and use of rubrics.
-Learn four basic approaches to tracking student progress using reproducible grade sheets.
-Use technology to track progress and generate reports.
-Create grades for teachers using formative approaches.
-Utilize an appendix that clearly explains the concept of effect size.
-Discover exercises to help readers assess and reinforce their understanding of the new strategies.
Contents
1. Research and Theory
2. The Anatomy of Formative Assessment
3. The Need for a New Scale
4. Designing Assessments
5. Tracking Student Progress
6. Grading and Reporting
Appendix A: Answers to Exercises
Appendix B: What Is an Effect Size?

Dr. Robert J. Marzano is the cofounder and CEO of Marzano Research Laboratory in Denver, Colorado. Throughout his forty years in the field of education, he has become a speaker, trainer, and author of more than thirty books and 150 articles on topics such as instruction, assessment, writing and implementing standards, cognition, effective leadership, and school intervention. His books include: Designing and Assessing Educational Objectives, Making Standards Useful, and The Art and Science of Teaching. His practical translations of the most current research and theory into classroom strategies are internationally known and widely practiced by both teachers and administrators. He received a bachelor s degree from Iona College in New York, a master s degree from Seattle University, and a doctorate from the University of Washington.