The Teacher as Assessment Leader, Aug/2009

Discover how to improve student learning through the power of effective assessment, and realize your power to transform education from inside the classroom. Meaningful examples, expert research, and real-life experiences illustrate the capacity and responsibility every educator has to ignite positive change. Packed with practical strategies from expert practitioners for designing, analyzing, and using assessments, this book shows how to turn best practices into usable solutions.

1. Read an overview of the most critical issues in classroom assessment, in teacher-friendly terms.
2. Acquire a model for “unpacking” standards into student-friendly language and aligned assessments.
3. Learn about models for matching assessment format to content.
4. Gain strategies for creating proficiency level descriptions to improve item design and assessment quality.
5. Use descriptive feedback that will motivate students to engage in the learning process.
6. Understand critical issues in assessing English language learners and students with special needs.
7. Get a process for teachers of uncommon courses to tap the power of common assessments.

About the Author:

Thomas R. Guskey, PhD, is professor of educational psychology in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky. A graduate of the University of Chicago, he served as director of research and development for Chicago Public Schools and was the first director of the Center for the Improvement of Teaching and Learning, a national research center. Dr. Guskey coedited the Experts in Assessment series and was a contributor to the assessment anthology Ahead of the Curve: The Power of Assessment to Transform Teaching and Learning. He has been featured on the National Public Radio programs Talk of the Nation and Morning Edition. Dr. Guskey is listed in the National Staff Development Council's Leaders in Staff Development. He is the only person to have won the Council's Book of the Year Award twice and the Article of the Year Award three times. His work has been honored by numerous organizations, and his articles have appeared in prominent research journals, as well as Educational Leadership, Phi Delta Kappan, and The School Administrator. He served on the policy research team of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, the task force to develop the National Standards for Staff Development, and was recently named a Fellow in the American Educational Research Association, which also honored him in 2006 for his outstanding contribution relating research to practice.