Are you picking up all your students' work is trying to tell you? In this book, assessment expert Susan M. Brookhart and instructional coach Alice Oakley walk teachers through a better and more illuminating way to approach student work across grade levels and content areas. You'll learn to view students' assignments not as a verdict on right or wrong but as a window into what students "got" and how they are thinking about it. The insight you'll gain will help you

* Infer what students are thinking,
* Provide effective feedback,
* Decide on next instructional moves, and
* Grow as a professional.

Brookhart and Oakley then guide teachers through the next steps: clarify learning goals, increase the quality of classroom assessments, deepen your content and pedagogical knowledge, study student work with colleagues, and involve students in the formative learning cycle. The book's many authentic examples of student work and teacher insights, coaching tips, and reflection questions will help readers move from looking at student work for correctness to looking at student work as evidence of student thinking.

Oakley, Alice

Alice Oakley cofounded Education Resource Group (ERG) in 2004. Its mission is to provide high-quality staff development services that promote the growth of all learners. A lifelong educator, Oakley has taught elementary, middle, and high school classes including science, social studies, and English language arts. She was also a curriculum facilitator at the school level and then moved to the district office to be part of the formative assessment team. Since cofounding ERG, Oakley has coached adults and led professional development in a variety of settings in preK-12 education. As a National Board Certified Teacher, she has developed materials for classroom teachers, instructional leaders, administrators, and parents on a variety of academic topics, instructional methods, and human behaviors. Oakley has a bachelor's degree in early and middle grades education from Radford University and a master's degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Brookhart, Susan M.

Susan M. Brookhart, PhD, is professor emerita in the School of Education at Duquesne University and an independent educational consultant and author based in Los Angeles, California. She was the 2007-2009 editor of Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice and is currently an associate editor of Applied Measurement in Education. She is author or coauthor of 20 books and more than 80 articles and book chapters on classroom assessment, teacher professional development, and evaluation. She has been named the 2014 Jason Millman Scholar by the Consortium for Research on Educational Assessment and Teaching Effectiveness and is the recipient of the 2015 Samuel J. Messick Memorial Lecture Award from ETS/TOEFL. She also works with schools, districts, regional educational service units, universities, and states doing professional development. Brookhart received her PhD in educational research and evaluation from The Ohio State University, after teaching in both elementary and middle schools.