Common assessments - both formative and summative - are a means of ensuring that teachers align both curriculum and assessment with standards and the goals of the school. Teams of teachers in the same subject area or grade level develop, test, and refine the assessments that they use to provide consistency in grading and other assessments. The process of developing common assessments helps teachers examine and improve their practice, collect and analyze data, and work collaboratively to improve curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Schools using the common formative assessment process are finding that the results are providing powerful insights about: how well their students have learned the standards; what changes they need to consider in their instructional strategies; and how to meet the differing needs of their students.

Now you have powerful means to closely align curriculum, instruction, and assessment to the standards essential for student success. You will learn how teams of teachers in the same content area or grade level can collaboratively develop, test, and refine common formative assessments in order to gain reliable and timely feedback on student progress. The results provide teachers with critical insight into how well students are understanding the standards, what changes are needed in instructional strategies, and how to best meet the needs of every student! This timely resource presents the "big picture" of an integrated, standards-based instruction and assessment system and offers instructional leaders and teacher teams guidelines for:

• Developing high-quality common formative assessments
• Aligning school-based common formative assessments with district benchmarks and large-scale summative assessments
• Predicting likely student performance on subsequent assessments in time to make instructional modifications
• Implementing and sustaining common formative assessments within the school’s or district’s assessment culture

This book is a must-read for all educators and leaders committed to improving standards-based assessment practices in their district, school, or classroom.