Making Classroom Assessment Work

When should we assess, and when should we evaluate? What might be the results of evaluating too early or too much? How do we know if we are evaluating the right things? How do we know what makes sense for the learner and for the course? These questions are at the heart of Making Classroom Assessment Work. Author Anne Davies offers numerous examples and strategies to make classroom assessments effective by involving parents and the community in the assessment process and engaging students in assessing their own work and setting goals for their learning. Davies emphasizes the difference between assessment of learning and assessment for learning, and favors the latter as a process that not only assesses what has been learned, but also promotes further learning through specific and descriptive feedback, reflection, and setting and monitoring progress toward goals. Each chapter ends with a section of questions and reflections to encourage readers to guide their own learning and the learning of students, to identify key decision points in planning their own individual strategies, and to carry out assessment for learning in a way that fits their classrooms. Readers are encouraged to think about possibilities for their own application of ideas and examples discussed in each chapter.…