'A powerful resource. The authors clarify the terminology of assessment with painstaking precision and offer specific, practical steps to help educators develop their assessment literacy' - Richard DuFour, Educational Author and Consultant 'Highly recommended-a clear and helpful guide to navigating the terrain of instruction, assessment, and standards' - Mike Schmoker, Author, Speaker, and Consultant 'A powerful way of coping with accountability. This important book lays out a game plan for coming up with an educationally defensible response to today's score-boosting pressures' - W. James Popham, Professor Emeritus, UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies 'In this era of high-stakes testing, this book conveys the power of formative assessments as a means of improving student achievement-by providing educators specific and timely information they can use to plan instruction' - Nancy Stark, Education Manager of School Improvement and Literacy, Connecticut State Department of Education Now you have powerful means to closely align curriculum, instruction, and assessment to the standards essential for student success. You will learn how teams of teachers in the same content area or grade level can collaboratively develop, test, and refine common formative assessments in order to gain reliable and timely feedback on student progress. The results provide teachers with critical insight into how well students are understanding the standards, what changes are needed in instructional strategies, and how to best meet the needs of every student! This timely resource presents the "big picture" of an integrated standards-based instruction and assessment system, and offers instructional leaders and teacher teams guidelines for o Developing high-quality common formative assessments o Aligning school-based common formative assessments with district benchmarks and large-scale summative assessments o Predicting likely student performance on subsequent assessments in time to make instructional modifications o Implementing and sustaining common formative assessments within the school's or district's assessment culture This book is a must-read for all educators and leaders committed to improving standards-based assessment practices in their district, school, or classroom.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Douglas B. Reeves Preface Acknowledgments About the Authors Introduction 1. The Big Picture: How Powerful Practices Connect 2. Formative and Summative Assessments 3. Aligning Common Formative Assessments to Standards 4. Connecting "Unwrapped" Standards to Common Formative Assessments 5. Assessment Literacy 6. Developing and Refining Common Formative Assessments 7. Collaborative Scoring of Common Formative Assessments 8. Collaborative Analysis of Common Formative Assessment Results 9. Schoolwide and Districtwide Implementation of Common Formative Assessments 10. Guidelines for Systemwide Sustainability Resource: A Framework for Implementing Powerful Practices Bibliography Index

Reviews

"This book is extremely helpful in the use of assessments. It can be useful to both new and veteran teachers. Parents want to know how their students are progressing in school, and these types of assessments can help a teacher answer that question." -- Arlene Myslinski, ESL Teacher 20050920 "Ainsworth and Viegut skillfully weave connections between the works of contemporary researchers to help guide school leaders and teachers through the development of meaningful formative assessments that will make a positive difference for student achievement." -- Catherine Payne, Principal 20050919 "This book is a must-have for teachers and administrators alike. In this age of accountability, it is extremely helpful to have a resource that helps explain assessment practices, disaggregation of data, and the importance of unwrapping the standards. This is a perfect resource for faculty study groups and staff development for educators in grades K-12." -- Susan Stone Kessler, Assistant Principal 20050925 "At a time when teachers are being relentlessly pressured to improve students' scores on accountability tests, Ainsworth and Viegut offer Common Formative Assessments as a powerful way of coping with accountability while helping kids learn. This important book lays out a game plan for coming up with an educationally defensible response to today's score-boosting pressures." -- W. James Popham, Emeritus Professor 20051014 "In this era of high-stakes testing, this book conveys the power of formative assessments as a means of improving student achievement by providing educators with specific and timely information they can use to plan instruction. It puts teachers on the road to becoming competent diagnosticians, an invaluable skill as we strive to close the achievement gap." -- Nancy Stark, Education Manager of School Improvement and Literacy 20051009 "Highly recommended-Ainsworth and Viegut have written a clear and helpful guide to navigating the terrain of instruction, assessment, and standards." -- Mike Schmoker, Author, Speaker, and Consultant 20051018 "Common Formative Assessments provides a superb antidote to the 'over-tested and under-assessed' dilemma. With the practical advice of career educators and the deep insights of one of the nation's premier professional developers, the authors will help you save time, streamline analysis, avoid unnecessary and pointless busywork and, most importantly, improve student achievement." -- From the Foreword by Douglas B. Reeves 20051026 "A powerful resource. The authors clarify the terminology of assessment with painstaking precision and offer specific, practical steps to help educators develop their assessment literacy." -- Richard DuFour, Author and Educational Consultant 20060426 "The authors have provided school administrators with some useful guidelines to follow in structuring professional development activities centered on aligning what teachers are teaching to important content standards and assessment objectives." -- Teachers College Record, June 2006 20080424