The Perfect Assessment System

by Rick Stiggins

It's time to move our assessment practices from the 1950s to the century we're living in. It's time to invest in our teachers and local school leaders instead of in more tests. It's time to help all students understand how to unleash their strengths and gain a sense of themselves as learners capable of choosing their own paths to success. In The Perfect Assessment System , Rick Stiggins calls for the ground-up redevelopment of assessment in U.S. education. Speaking from more than 40 years of experience in the field—and speaking for all learners who hope to succeed, the teachers who want them to succeed, and the local school leaders whose aspirations for success have been thwarted by assessment traditions—Stiggins maps out the adjustments in practice and culture necessary to generate both accurate accountability data and the specific evidence of individual mastery that will support sound instructional decision making and better learning in the classroom. He addresses We have not yet begun to explore assessment's true potential to enhance both school quality and student well-being. Stiggins kicks off this critical conversation and charts a course for a new system that promises much higher levels of student success at a fraction of our current testing costs. The door is open for assessment reform; here is a bold plan for getting it right.

Genres: Education, Teaching

122 pages, Paperback

Published March 24, 2017

Reviews

[Ally Wrenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure if this is a fault of the book, or what I was hoping to get out of it. Feels very ed policy oriented and not so much a book that should be taught for/used to learn about assessment as an educator. Could be a great book, if read for ed policy!

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had a feeling this guy was never an educator. I was right. Honestly, I felt that every chapter was written in some information vacuum leading towards chapters that somehow all talked about the same thing in the same way. Never progressing. I wanted to become better at assessing as an educator but instead I was just bored. If I didn’t have to read this for a graduate level class I’d have stopped after chapter two.

[Rachel Polacek · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to read this for a class, and it’s pretty repetitive. The whole book could be boiled down to the last chapter. It seemed like part of the “big change” for assessment suggested here was just…formative assessment? Not exactly groundbreaking.

[Julie Reece · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Have to read this for a class Master's in ed admin/CAGS program. Some interesting ideas and information. Very repetitive. It could have been distilled to a compelling article. Still, I am interested to see what my classmates thoughts are on what Stiggins' proposes.

[Kevin English · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the sense of urgency throughout and the call to bring students into the assessment conversation. We can reclaim assessment so that it's more meaningful to us and our students.

[Nurlan Imangaliyev · Rating 2 out of 5]

The information presented is useful, but I think the whole book could be summarized into a decent article.