Making Assessment Work for Everyone: How to Build on Student Strengths

By: Patricia Kusimo, Melissa G. Ritter, Kathleen Busick, Chris Ferguson, Elise Trumbull, Guillermo Solano-Flores

Making Assessment Workrepresents the best understanding, derived from research and practice, of how to select, modify, or create assessments that allow all students, irrespective of cultural or linguistic background, gender, or ethnicity, to accurately demonstrate what they know and can do. The results from such assessments can then be used to target both student learning efforts and teacher instructional practice. The book is intended to help readers:

• better understand the essential characteristics of good assessment;
• uncover and account for the strengths and cultural perspectives of diverse learners;
• create or select classroom assessments that support and reveal the learning of every child, while also meeting high standards;
• increase awareness of potential sources of bias and inequity in assessments; and
• use strategies to modify and improve inequitable assessments.

Making Assessment Workexplains relevant research findings both about assessment and about cultural, linguistic, and other types of diversity. More importantly, it links these findings directly to classroom practice. To that end, it includes thought-provoking vignettes of how biased assessments can yield misleading data about student learning, "things to consider" in analyzing these vignettes, and "things to try," which are short activities designed to help readers develop deeper understanding.