Formative Assessment & Standards-Based Grading

by Robert J. Marzano

Learn everything you need to know to implement an integrated system of assessment and grading. The author details the specific benefits of formative assessment. He explains how to design and interpret three different types of formative assessments, how to track student progress, and how to assign meaningful grades. Detailed examples bring each concept to life, and chapter exercises reinforce the content.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction

172 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I very much admire Marzano's work, but this book was in some ways too basic and in many ways unnecessarily technical.

[Spacek Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is one of a series of books that provides ideas on how to better communicate standards-based grading through formative assessment. Many ideas are presented in a format that allows for a book study. A lot of concepts need discussion as implementation would be a challenge, based on the way in which grade reporting has historically gone.

[Yvette · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot of practical information in this book about designing standards-based formative assessment but some of the reporting practices are outdated when considering today's practices. Specifically, there is a lot of references to averaging and it also advocates for breaking the 0-4 point scale into smaller increments (eg. 1.5, 2. 2.5 etc).

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loads of wisdom, including some of the clearest recommendations about mastery-based teaching and grading that I’ve read.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over the summer I went to Las Vegas for a JEA Advisers Institute. It was pretty awesome. Chris and I went a couple of days early and we played around and then when he left it was time for some learning.

One of the best sessions I attended was one about Systematic Grading presented by Sandra Coyer. If you are a teacher or know a teacher or read the news to learn about education you know that standards-based grading, common-core standards, holistic scoring, grading for learning, essential learning outcomes (ELOs), formative and summative assessments are just a few of the buzz words that have the education world in a tizzy. We're all (well save a few states, I hear) trying to move towards common-core as our common language and we're all trying to figure out how that will look in our classrooms. People seem to think that standards-based grading is the answer.

Hoping on this band-wagon is yours truly. I like that the ELOs that we've spent years, literally, perfecting become how and what we teach and we use this knowledge to grade our students, but I really didn't see how this would look in the classroom. Coyer's Prezi talks about several ideas that were swimming around in my head:

that holistic scoring and standard-grading focus learning and make the goals for everyone easier to attain
journalism classes are differentiated and prepare students for the 21st century better than most classes.

And, I wondered how that would look in my classroom.

There were so many thoughts and ideas and questions floating around that I had to find a way to focus. Formative Assessment and Standards-Based Grading is the perfect book for this.

Here's what his website says about the book


Benefits
This comprehensive guide:
Identifies three types of formative classroom assessments that should be used in a comprehensive system and explains how to design them
Explains the difference between “standards-based” and “standards-referenced” systems
Explains why it is usually inappropriate to use the 100-point scale in conjunction with formative assessment
Describes a systematic approach to the design and use of rubrics
Presents four basic approaches to tracking student progress and provides reproducible grade sheets
Discusses the use of technology in tracking progress and generating reports
Addresses the issue of grades for teachers using formative approaches
Includes an appendix that clearly explains the concept of effect size
Provides exercises to help readers assess and reinforce their understanding of the new strategies

And, it has hand-outs that address all the mathy stuff! It's fantastic!

[Sharon · Rating 2 out of 5]

While on the surface this book presents some very practical and useful strategies for assessment, I am finding that when the rubber hits the pavement there are some issues that Marzano seems to identify as unacceptable and that in my experience are almost unavoidable. I bought this book and sever others of Marzano's after hearing him speak several months ago on the topics presented in this text of formative assessments. In creating my own assessments with questions at level 2, 3, and 4 of complexity I found that students can answer level 3 questions without answering level 2 questions. This means that my teaching or my assessment are not as good as they should be. This should not be possible on an appropriately developed assessment. However, I believe that Marzano's example of an assessment about technology information has the same problem. He has a question at the level 4 of difficulty that I believe a student could answer well (though perhaps the teacher would not consider the answer I am anticipating a s correct) without being able to answer any of the other questions on the test correctly. The question asked essentially what life would be like without the use of technology.

On another note a question about photosynthesis said that it was the process by which plants reproduce OR "absorb nutrients." Yikes! That is REALLY wrong and adds to the misconception about one of the most essential functions of plants on Earth and that is to produce sugar not absorb nutrients. UGGH! I do not know if I can read more of Marzano's work just now.

Also no person on the internet seems to have taken exception to this work. I find the theory reassuring and seemingly straight forward and the application of it very messy. The book seems naive, simplistic and out of touch

[Darren Kuropatwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtfully written with lots of thought-provoking ideas. The notion of "formative scores" as opposed to everything else I've read about formative assessment. In short, if you put a number on it it's not formative. The systems towards the end of the bug, regarding assessment and grading, will not be a perfect fit into any classroom or school division reporting process. But I like that. in order to adapt Marcianos ideas to any classroom will require some time and thought. Towards the end of the book, he does discuss using percentage grades in certain specific context. This flies in the face of his discussion in the early part of the book around the problems with using percentage grades. I believe that formative assessment schemes and reporting using percentage grades are two irreconcilable systems; but reconciling those systems is the heavy lifting that we have to do in our classrooms and our schools.

[Michael Heneghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took half a year or so ( or more!), but i finally finished this one. If you teach, you know who Marzano is and how respected he is in the field of educational research. This book makes me think that respect is deserved. Marzano goes in depth about what formative assessment is--and importantly, what it is not--and standards based grading. I am am interested in both, but the former is what prompted me to pick up this book. It has affected the way i assess my students, so, in my view, this was a valuable read.

Most important question/takeaway: why do we grade students on their early attempts at learning new material, and not focus more on where they ultimately end up?

[Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, so Kay and I started reading this as part of a book study.
I got through chapter 1 yesterday. If you like data and you like lots of survey information (meta analysis stuff,) this is for you.

Chapter 1 did have a very interesting quote:
(Page 8) "In effect, Black and WIliam were saying that an ESD of 0.70 when sustained for an entire nation would dramatically enhance student achievement. " The quote goes on to note that an ES of that magnitude is associated with a 26 percentile gain in student achievement.

[Joe McCluney · Rating 3 out of 5]

In education parlance, I give this book a Score 3.0. Marzano covers the basics of standards-based grading, going diligently through the evidential literature and providing useful tips about how to implement it. However, he doesn't "go above and beyond what was taught." The book doesn't inspire creative teaching and assessment, and maybe that isn't the point (but in order to achieve Score 4.0...). If I had to mention the book's primary fault, it's its graphic presentation: the data is informative, but the graphs and charts are drily presented and somewhat of a slog to navigate.

[Alex Meeres · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked Marzano's presentation of research in the area of formative assessment, and he has some sensible ideas about organizing assessment data. In some cases, though, it seemed as though his different tiers of assessment differed according to category more than complexity. I do not feel Marzano sufficiently answered the question, "What evidence should be used for a final grade," either. I might use some of what this book offers, but it is not a comprehensive book on the subject.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 A very solid technical manual for standards-based assessment. There are more specific books just on formative assessment that would be a better place to start if that is your area of interest. however, nothing beats Marzano for detail and specific instructions when it come to fair and reliable grading systems. Our current computer program for reporting wouldn't support a standards-based report...but I have a clear idea now of what we can work toward.

[Monta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm still struggling a bit with standards based grading. This book talked about it, but a lot of the book was specifically how to implement it--with reviews and worksheets and reproducibles. Definitely more a how-to than a discussion about it, though the first chapter was research and theory. If you're a teacher looking into standards based assessment, this might not be a bad read.

[Debi · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book offers some strategies for record keeping and rationales for the superiority of formative assessment and standards based grading, I am left feeling unready to implement such changes without distorting the intent.

[Amanda Roenicke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This really shaped my beliefs about the role of assessment in the classroom. It was an uncomfortable change, yet I believe that moving to a standards-based model is more ethical and better for students.

[Stuart Macalpine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very US-based, particularly in the association between the 4.0 scale of grading and standards-based assessment. But some excellent data on effect sizes of feedback and a useful source book for standards-based assessment.

[SSC Professional Library]

Subject, Assessment

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another logical and well organized framework for quality instruction. A wonderful companion book to O'Connor's 15 fixes.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like there were some really interesting points on how to creat and score CFAs. Since we are new to CFA creation in my district it offered some good insight!

[Angela Brewington · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!!!!! The author gives plenty of examples and moves you step-by-step on how to make this change in the way grading happens in a classroom.

[Holly VanSkike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was great! I read it to learn how to implement standards-based grading in my classroom. I feel like it told me exactly what I needed to know to get started!

[Cheryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Extremely boring, and supremely unhelpful...if I could give this zero stars, I would! Don't waste your money on this one.