George Couros's List: Assessment Practices

• It’s weird. The teacher knows better but has become a slave to the test and feels compelled to use a summative assessment that is masquerading as an accurate, objective depiction of Johnny’s learning. This is sad.
• In my classroom, I use formative assessment 99.9% of the time. I provide students with both differentiated instruction and differentiated assessment. Rather than my students learning the way I teach, I teach the way my students learn. And equally important – rather than forcing my students to fit my assessment needs, my assessments fit my student’s needs.

• The proper occasion for outrage is not   that too many students are getting A’s, but that too many students   have been led to believe that getting A’s is the point of going to   school.
• First, students tend to lose interest in   whatever they’re learning.
• Second, students try   to avoid challenging tasks whenever possible.
• Finally, the quality of students’ thinking is less   impressive. One study after another shows that creativity and even   long-term recall of facts are adversely affected by the use of   traditional grades.
• Consider a school that constantly emphasizes   the importance of performance! results! achievement! success! A   student who has absorbed that message may find it difficult to get   swept away with the process of creating a poem or trying to build a   working telescope. He may be so concerned about the results that   he’s not all that engaged in the activity that produces those   results.
• ive disturbing consequences are likely   to accompany an obsession with standards and achievement:
• 1. Students come to regard learning as a   chore.
• 2. Students try to avoid challenging tasks.
• 3. Students tend to think less deeply.
• 4. Students may fall apart when they fail.
• 5. Students value ability more than effort.

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