The time for grading reform is now. While the transition to standards-based practices may be challenging, it is essential for effective instruction and assessment. In this practical guide, the author outlines specific steps your team can take to transform grading and reporting schoolwide. Each chapter includes examples of grading dilemmas, vignettes from teachers and administrators, and ideas for bringing parents on board with change. Benefits: 
<ul>
<li>Study the three components of the standards-based mindset that are reforming traditional grading practices. </li> <li>Debunk five myths about standards-based grading. </li> <li>Contemplate the hazards of punitive grading, and discover alternative ways to manage the issue of homework. </li> <li>Consider questions that will challenge traditional thoughts on grading and help clarify next steps. </li>
</ul>
Contents: Chapter 1: The Modern Assessment Paradigm Chapter 2: Accuracy and Confidence Our Grading True North Chapter 3: Five Myths of Standards-Based Grading Chapter 4: The Standards-Based Mindset Chapter 5: How to Give Students Full Credit for What They Know Chapter 6: How to Repurpose Homework Chapter 7: How to Redefine Accountability Chapter 8: How to Use Levels of Proficiency Chapter 9: How to Teach and Assess Student Attributes and Competencies Chapter 10: How to Use Standards-Based Reporting Afterword: How to Navigate the Road Ahead

Grading From the Inside Out: Bringing Accuracy to Student Assessment Through a Standards-Based Mindset (How to Give Students Full Credit for Their Knowledge)

Education & Teaching

Tom Schimmer

Schools & Teaching

Solution Tree

While much research has revealed which assessment practices have the most positive impact on student achievement and instruction, out-of-date, unproductive practices, which students find disengaging and disheartening, still persist. Discover how to use the power of assessment to instill hope, efficacy, and achievement in your students. With this research-based resource, you'll explore six essential tenets of assessment--assessment purpose, communication of assessment results, accurate interpretation, assessment architecture, instructional agility, and student investment--that will help deepen your understanding of assessment to not only meet standards but also enhance students' academic success and self-fulfillment. Benefits: 
<ul>
<li>Interpret the research-based tenets of assessment that are necessary to maximize all students' learning.</li> <li>Gain advice and strategies for immediately acting on the six essential assessment tenets, including how to communicate assessment results to give feedback that produces constructive responses.</li> <li>Discover why it is vital that assessment practices build students' and teachers' hope, efficacy, and achievement.</li> <li>Consider scenarios that illustrate traditional, outmoded assessment practices and revised scenarios that feature practices that better reflect modern assessment needs.</li> <li>Reflect on questions related to the content of each chapter and study next steps that teaching teams can take.</li> </ul>
Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: Hope, Efficacy, and Achievement Chapter 2: Assessment Purpose Chapter 3: Communication of Assessment Results Chapter 4: Accurate Interpretation Chapter 5: Assessment Architecture Chapter 6: Instructional Agility Chapter 7: Student Investment References Index

Essential Assessment: Six Tenets for Bringing Hope, Efficacy, and Achievement to the Classroom (Deepen Teachers Understanding of Assessment to Meet Standards and Generate a Culture of Learning)

Nicole Dimich Vagle

Cassandra Erkens

Solution Tree Press

The true power of assessment comes when emerging results determine what comes next in student learning. This practical book empowers educators and their teams, schools, or districts to move seamlessly between instruction, formative assessment, and feedback, improving school culture more effectively than traditional methods. Instructional agility enhances ownership of learning, proficiency, and motivation for students, and promotes a positive school culture. Each chapter concludes with reflection questions that assist readers in determining next steps for supporting the whole child and the whole learning process. Learn how to promote an agile culture of learning in school to increase student ownership of learning: 
<ul>
<li>Discover how instructional agility fits within the six tenets of the essential assessment framework.</li> <li>Learn how to foster and maintain a culture of learning in schools.</li> <li>Gain strategies and tools to enhance instructional agility and assessment practices.</li> <li>Examine examples of instructional agility in action.</li> <li>Consider questions that help individual teachers and learning teams contemplate what they learned and their next steps for implementing for instructional agility strategies.</li>
</ul>
Contents: Chapter 1: Establishing a Culture of Learning Chapter 2: Engineering Engaging Conversations Chapter 3: Questioning Chapter 4: Observing Chapter 5: Mobilizing Chapter 6: Practicing Chapter 7: Fostering a Culture of Instructional Agility References and Resources

Instructional Agility: Responding to Assessment with Real-Time Decisions (Learn to Quickly Improve School Culture and Student Ownership of Learning)

Rapid innovation is transforming the way people think, work, and connect. For students to succeed today, they must acquire the knowledge and 21st century skills required for college and career readiness. Practical and research-based, this resource will help you design meaningful, relevant skill assessment and instruction that promotes student mastery of critical competencies, including collaboration, problem-solving and critical thinking skills, creative thinking skills, communication skills, digital citizenship, self-regulation, and more. Use the most effective practices for teaching soft skills to increase college and career readiness: 
<ul>
<li>Explore the seven critical competencies necessary for success in the 21st century.</li> <li>Become familiar with good habits of mind, and pass those habits on to students to support their soft skill development.</li> <li>Learn how to teach critical thinking and other 21st century skills by facilitating learning that will develop the critical competencies in students.</li> <li>Develop powerful and effective soft skill assessment methods, such as student self-assessments, that will test student levels of competency in the seven critical areas.</li> <li>Access free reproducibles to supplement your understanding of the text and facilitate the book's content in the classroom.</li>
</ul>
Contents: About the Authors Introduction Chapter 1: Cultivating Habits of the Mind Chapter 2: Self-Regulation Chapter 3: Critical Thinking Chapter 4: Collaboration Chapter 5: Creative Thinking Chapter 6: Communication Chapter 7: Digital Citizenship Chapter 8: Social Competence References and Resources Index

Growing Tomorrow's Citizens in Today's Classrooms: Assessing Seven Critical Competencies (Teaching Strategies for Soft Skills and 21st-Century-Skills Assessment Methods)

An age-old question universal to all teachers is, “How do we get our students to care about their learning?” Jackpot! delivers actionable strategies to achieve that most important outcome of assessment―student investment. Not only does the book offer tools you can use, but it also addresses the mindset shift necessary for teachers to set students up for success as partners in their own learning. 
Classroom teachers will: Explore case studies covering a wide range of classroom experiences Gain access to many different tools to successfully orient a growth mindset toward assessment Understand the ideas behind successful assessment and how to put it into practice Utilize sample charts to better direct the course of learning improvements Reflect on personal classroom experiences and ways to improve 
Contents: 
Acknowledgments 
Table of Contents 
About the Authors 
Introduction 
Chapter 1: Hope, Efficacy, and Achievement in a Learning Culture 
Chapter 2: Assessment Purpose 
Chapter 3: Assessment Architecture 
Chapter 4: Interpretation of Results 
Chapter 5: Communication 
Chapter 6: Instructional Agility 
Epilogue 
References and Resources 
Index

Jackpot! Nurturing Student Investment Through Assessment (An actionable plan for increasing student engagement)

Nicole Dimich

Get past the knowing-doing gap and confidently implement standards-based learning. This book offers a comprehensive look at what standards-based learning looks like in action, from creating formative assessments to using data to inform instruction to transitioning to standards-based grading systems. Instead of comparing students to each other, standards-based learning compares students' proficiency levels to performance standards and learning targets. Each chapter offers readers a well-thought-out action plan for implementation and effective strategies for communicating with students and parents about the classroom changes that will occur during the transition. Use this book as your action plan for implementing standards-based learning: 
<ul>
<li>Explore concrete steps for putting standards-based grading, instruction, and learning into action.</li> <li>Implement schoolwide change beginning with classroom practices.</li> <li>Address common implementation mistakes and challenges.</li> <li>Effectively sequence units and align them with unpacked standards and learning targets.</li> <li>Create effective proficiency level scales and rubrics.</li>
</ul>
Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: Standards-Based Learning in Action Chapter 2: Standards Alignment in Action Chapter 3: Formative Assessment in Action Chapter 4: Effective Feedback in Action Chapter 5: Meaningful Homework in Action Chapter 6: Self- and Peer Assessment in Action Chapter 7: Summative Assessment in Action Chapter 8: Redos, Retakes, and Reassessment in Action Chapter 9: Proficiency Scales and Rubrics in Action Chapter 10: Standards-Based Reporting in Action Epilogue References and Resources Index

Standards-Based Learning in Action: Moving from Theory to Practice (A Guide to Implementing Standards-Based Grading, Instruction, and Learning)

Garnet Hillman

Mandy Stalets

The time has come to separate academic achievement from student behavior attributes. Author and trusted assessment expert Tom Schimmer shares a three-tiered framework and trauma-informed, restorative, and schoolwide approaches to teaching responsibility, nurturing student accountability, and addressing student behavior in a way that teaches students the life skills they need to thrive in the classroom and in the larger world. 
This book will help K–12 teachers and administrators: Learn how to create trauma-informed, restorative, and schoolwide approaches to teaching the skills of responsibility to students Discover how to improve students’ social competence through a process of goal-setting, self-monitoring, and self-reflection Gain an understanding of how the PLC at Work® and RTI at Work™ processes, as well as strong assessment practices, can redefine student accountability in the classroom Understand how reinforcement works and how to use it to benefit students Explore why behavior should be separated from grades and how to effectively assess and report on behavior 
Contents: 
Introduction: Their Worlds are Real! 
Chapter 1: Redefining Student Accountability within the Assessment context 
Chapter 2: Redefining Student Accountability within the PLC at Work context 
Chapter 3: Redefining Student Accountability within the RTI context 
Chapter 4: Teaching and Reinforcing Student Accountability 
Chapter 5: Correcting and Supporting Student Accountability 
Chapter 6: Prioritizing and Reporting Student Accountability 
Chapter 7: Self-Regulating Student Accountability 
Afterword

Redefining Student Accountability: A Proactive Approach to Teaching Behavior Outside the Gradebook (Your guide to improving student learning by teaching and nurturing positive student behavior)

Get answers to your most challenging questions about implementing effective assessment and grading practices. How do we use assessments to increase hope, efficacy, and achievement? Is reassessment important? Can we change grading practices when stakeholders don’t want us to? All of these questions, and dozens more, are answered concisely, making it easy to build strong assessment and grading practices quickly. 
K–12 teachers and administrators will: Understand the six tenets of assessment and grading. Gain confidence in effective assessment and grading practices. Access concise answers to common questions about assessment and grading. Help implement schoolwide best practices through effective collaboration. 
Contents: 
Introduction 
Chapter 1: Hope, Efficacy, and Achievement 
Chapter 2: A Culture of Learning 
Chapter 3: Assessment Purpose 
Chapter 4: Communication 
Chapter 5: Accurate Interpretation 
Chapter 6: Assessment Architecture 
Chapter 7: Instructional Agility 
Chapter 8: Student Investment 
Table of Contents by Topic 
Glossary of Terms 
A Comprehensive Resource List From STAC 
References and Resources 
Index

Concise Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Assessment and Grading (Your Guide to Solving the Most Challenging Questions About How to Effectively Implement Assessment and Grading)

Katie White

Jadi Miller

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Books by Tom Schimmer