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3 references
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- Vol 5 TE: App C
formative assessmentlearning targetssuccess criteriadescriptive feedbackself-assessmentpeer assessmentinstructional leadershipBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
Moss and Brookhart frame formative assessment as an ongoing partnership in which teachers and students use evidence to improve learning while it is happening. The process revolves around three questions: Where am I going?
Key ideas
Where am I now? What strategies will help me close the gap? The book translates these questions into learning targets and success criteria, purposeful questioning and tasks, descriptive feedback, student self-assessment, peer assessment, and opportunities to revise work. It distinguishes formative practice from frequent grading, benchmark testing, or techniques performed without instructional response. Written for instructional leaders, the guide also addresses classroom observation, professional learning, feedback to teachers, collaborative inquiry, and the cultural conditions needed for implementation.
Why it matters
Leadership should make learning visible and support disciplined experimentation rather than enforce a checklist of activities. The central educational implication is that evidence becomes formative only when learners and teachers interpret it against a clear goal and use it to choose a productive next action.
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- Vol 5 RE: Chapters 6, 14, App A
- Vol 5 TE: App C
formative assessmentself-regulated learningself-assessmentinternal feedbackfeedback dialogueassessment criteriafeedback literacyresubmissionJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick reinterpret formative assessment through a model of self-regulated learning. Students compare current performance with goals and generate internal feedback, even when teachers provide no comments.
Key ideas
Good external feedback should therefore strengthen learners’ capacity to judge and regulate their own work. The authors derive seven principles: clarify good performance; support self-assessment and reflection; provide high-quality information about learning; encourage dialogue; promote motivation and self-esteem; create opportunities to close the gap; and supply teachers with information for shaping instruction. Practical examples include exemplars, peer discussion, staged assignments, feedback requests, and resubmission. The model shifts feedback from one-way transmission after a task toward an interactive process embedded in learning.
Why it matters
It also warns that marks, praise, or extensive comments may not improve performance if learners cannot interpret or act on them. For educators, feedback design must connect criteria, learner judgement, dialogue, action, and subsequent opportunities to demonstrate improvement.
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- Vol 5 RE: Chapters 1, 2
classroom assessmentassessment validityassessment reliabilityformative assessmentsummative assessmentperformance tasksassessment fairnessinstructional decision makingBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
Nitko and Brookhart provide a comprehensive introduction to classroom assessment and educational measurement. The book begins with planning assessments around learning targets and their intended interpretations, then covers selected-response and constructed-response items, performance tasks, portfolios, observation, formative assessment, feedback, grading, and standardised tests.
Key ideas
Technical ideas such as validity, reliability, error, score scales, norms, and basic statistics are connected to decisions teachers make about instruction and reporting. The authors stress matching method to target: factual knowledge, reasoning, skills, products, and dispositions require different evidence. Assessment quality also depends on representative sampling, clear criteria, accessibility, fairness, and appropriate consequences, not merely on numerical precision. Formative use requires interpreting evidence and adapting teaching or learning, whereas summative use supports defensible judgements after instruction.
Why it matters
For educators, the text offers a disciplined design cycle: clarify purpose, define targets, select or create suitable tasks, evaluate quality, interpret cautiously, communicate responsibly, and examine whether decisions advantage or disadvantage particular learners.
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Edition abbreviations
- TE
- Teacher Edition
- PE
- Practice Edition
- RE
- Research Edition
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