NECC Staff Publish on District-Level Issues in Formative Assessment
PORTSMOUTH, NH: Formative assessment—understood as assessment for learning, as opposed to assessment of learning (summative assessment)—is a powerful tool for advancing student learning. At the request of the Connecticut State Department of Education, NECC staff members have worked on two documents concerning implementing formative assessment at the district level.
Implementing Formative Assessment at the District Level: An Annotated Bibliography, compiled by NECC staff members Maria-Paz Avery, Chad Fogelman, Steve Hamilton, Nick Hardy, and Karen Laba, annotates a bibliography of seminal resources on both "how" and "why" to use formative assessment to improve classroom teaching and learning. In succinct, paragraph-long accounts, it describes 44 books and articles and codes them by topic—formative assessment, leadership and culture, data use, and professional development—and by target audience (teachers, administrators, staff developers, researchers, school board members, state leaders, coaches, and parents). The resources range from 1981 to 2007, with most published after 2002.
Connecticut's Initiative to Support a Comprehensive Assessment System: Guidelines for Implementing Formative Assessment at the District Level by Barbara Beaudin, chief of Connecticut's Bureau of Research, Evaluation and Student Assessment, with assistance from Maria-Paz Avery, a senior manager of NECC and state liaison to Connecticut, frames formative assessment as a tool to advance the state's educational aims. Grounding the discussion in Connecticut's current state assessment context, it outlines the seven prerequisites, from vision and culture resources and professional development, for successful district-level use of formative assessments. It also describes two pilot programs Connecticut has initiated to facilitate districts' work on formative assessment. References are included.