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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: Chapter 9
authentic assessmentperformance assessmentassessment rubricsanalytic rubricsholistic rubricsself-assessmenttransfer of knowledgeWebsite Evidence summaryAt a glance
Mueller's online toolbox guides educators through the design of authentic assessment, defined as asking students to perform meaningful real-world tasks that demonstrate application of essential knowledge and skills. It contrasts direct evidence from performances and products with conventional selected-response testing, while recognizing that both can serve different purposes.
Key ideas
The design process begins by identifying standards or valued outcomes, then creating a task that elicits those outcomes, specifying criteria for good performance, and constructing a rubric that communicates levels of quality. The resource explains analytic and holistic rubrics, offers templates and examples across disciplines, and encourages involving students in interpreting or developing criteria. Authentic tasks can increase relevance, reveal complex understanding, and support self-assessment, but they require careful alignment, feasible administration, and reliable judgment. The toolbox treats assessment as part of learning rather than merely final measurement: clear criteria and feedback help students monitor progress, revise work, and transfer knowledge.
Why it matters
Its examples make an abstract assessment philosophy usable for course and program design.
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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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Edition abbreviations
- TE
- Teacher Edition
- PE
- Practice Edition
- RE
- Research Edition
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