In Teachers' Hands

Investigating the Practices of Classroom Assessment

By Richard J. Stiggins & Nancy Faires Conklin

Subjects: Educational Assessment And Evaluation
Series: SUNY series, Educational Leadership
Paperback : 9780791409329, 271 pages, July 1992
Hardcover : 9780791409312, 271 pages, July 1992

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Table of contents

Preface

Chapter 1 Exploring Classroom Assessment

Chapter 2 The Research Context

Chapter 3 Assessment from the Teacher's Viewpoint

Chapter 4 Initial Observations of Classrooms

Chapter 5 Profile of Classroom Assessment Environments

Chapter 6 Applying the Assessment Environment Profile

Chapter 7 Similarities and Differences in Assessment Environments

Chapter 8 The Quality of Specific Assessment Practices: Higher-Order Thinking Assessment and Grading

Chapter 9 Implications for Teacher Training

Chapter l0 Implications for Policy and Research

Appendixes

A Teacher's Self-Analysis of Classroom Assessment Procedures

B Classroom Assessment Environment

C NWREL Assessment-Training Resources

References

Index

Description

This book marks the starting point of a profound shift in assessment priorities, detailing the results of a decade-long program of research on classroom assessment environments. It demonstrates how important sound classroom assessments are to student well-being, and provides insights into the complex demands of day-to-day classroom assessment on teachers who have been taught little about assessment in their training programs.

As a nation, we spend billions of dollars on educational assessment, including hundreds of millions for international and national assessments, and additional hundreds of millions for statewide testing programs. On top of these, the standardized tests that form the basis of district-wide testing programs represent a billion dollar industry. If we total all of these expensive highly-visible, politically-important assessments, we still account for less than one percent of all the assessments conducted in America's schools. The other 99 percent are conducted by teachers in their classrooms on a moment-to-moment, day-to-day, and week-to-week basis. Paradoxically, virtually all of our national, state, and local assessment resources are being devoted to research and development for large-scale assessments. This book provides specific action programs for improving the quality of the other 99 percent—the assessments that really drive what students learn and how they feel about it.

Richard J. Stiggins is Director of the Center for Classroom Assessment. Nancy Faires Conklin is Director of the Child, Family, and Community Program at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Portland, Oregon.