Teacher-Made Assessments ─ How to Connect Curriculum, Instruction, and Student Learning

Assessment is not only a measure of student learning, but a means to student learning. This bestselling book guides you in constructing and using your own classroom assessments, including tests, quizzes, essays, and rubrics to improve student achievement. You will learn how to weave together curriculum, instruction, and learning to make assessment a more natural, useful part of teaching.

Find out how to...

• ensure your assessments are fair, reliable, and valid;

• construct assessments that meet the level of cognitive demand expected of students;

• create select-response items and understand technology-enhanced items that are increasingly being used on assessments;

• use constructed-response items and develop scoring criteria such as rubrics; and

• analyze student results on assessments and use feedback more effectively.

This second edition features updated examples that reflect the Common Core State Standards as well as other content standards and new, useful samples of teacher-friendly techniques for strengthening classroom assessment practices. No matter what grade level or subject area you teach, this practical book will become your go-to resource for designing effective assessments.

Christopher R. Gareis, Ed.D., is associate professor of educational leadership at the College of William and Mary, where he also served as associate dean for teacher education for more than a decade. He regularly works with school districts in the areas of classroom-based assessment, mentoring, instructional leadership, strategic planning, and teacher evaluation.

Leslie W. Grant, Ph.D., is assistant professor of educational leadership at the College of William and Mary. She has been a teacher, an instructional leader, and a content editor and item writer for a major test publishing company. She works with school districts in the areas of using data to inform decision-making, classroom-based assessment, and effective teaching practices.