Editor's Note

Editor, Patricia George

"Put your books away,

take out your Number 2 pencils, please, and stop talking."

Does that sentence conjure up a certain feeling—like dread? When I was a student, it signaled that point in time—usually at the end of a unit of study or the end of a school year—when I would have to show, by putting pencil to paper, that I learned what I was supposed to have learned during the past several weeks. In the end, we all knew how many answers we got right (that's all we cared about) and we moved on.

Increasingly, that scenario is the exception rather than the rule. Educators recognize the importance of assessing students more often and in more varied ways, of gathering and examining a continuous flow of information about student achievement so teachers can adjust their instruction as often as necessary to ensure students are learning.

As Stephen Chappuis and Rick Stiggins of Educational Testing Service explain, to be effective, classroom assessments must be assessments of learning and for learning. They should measure not only what students know, but also help students better understand how they can increase their learning. In other words, teachers should combine formative assessment and summative assessment to create a system of balanced assessment.

Formative assessments include questioning, discussions, hands-on activities, feedback loops, and student reflection. The feedback is descriptive in nature, so students know what they need to do to improve learning. Summative assessments include the "traditional" multiple choice, short answer, essay assessments that help provide evidence of student competence and program effectiveness.

This month, we look at different forms of assessment, beginning with an overview of balanced assessment by Stephen Chappuis and Rick Stiggins. Our authors then describe such strategies as peer team assessment, assessment that combines tradition and the new technology, and an approach that focuses on students getting the work done right.

Don't miss Anthony Jackson and Judith Conk's article on preparing young adolescents for a global world. It's a preview of a session Tony will present at the NMSA Annual Conference in Denver this November.