The Principal as Assessment Leader, July/2009

This book explores the importance of effective classroom assessment to student achievement and the role of school leaders to model and spark positive change through building teacher literacy, providing targeted professional development, acquiring appropriate technology, and more. With insights from expert practitioners, this book helps schools make the shift to best-practice assessment for districtwide improvements in student learning.

1. Identify the characteristics of an effective, balanced assessment system.
2. Find insights into how principals can best support improved assessment practice in the classroom.
3. Create professional development opportunities that build schoolwide assessment literacy.
4. Learn about assessment technology tools, including what to look for, how to use them, and what to expect from staff.
5. Incorporate data analysis that staff will commit to and use to improve student learning.
6. Understand the advantages of implementing standards-based grading and reporting.
7. Gain strategies for using assessment processes to to engage learners at risk.

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 co-edited 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.