Assessment Literacy: An Educator's Guide to Understanding Assessment, K-12

by Thomas DeVere Wolsey, Susan Davis Lenski, Dana L. Grisham

This clear, no-nonsense book guides current and future teachers through the concepts, tools, methods, and goals of classroom literacy assessment. The expert authors examine the roles of formative, summative, and benchmark assessments; demystify state and national tests and standards; and show how assessment can seamlessly inform instruction. Strategies for evaluating, choosing, and interpreting assessments are discussed, as are ways to communicate data to parents and administrators. User-friendly resources include boxed vignettes from teachers and researchers, practical assessment tips (and traps to avoid), and 12 reproducible planning forms and handouts. Purchasers get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.
 

194 pages, Paperback

Published January 21, 2020

About the author

Dr. Thomas DeVere Wolsey teaches and supervises graduate courses related to literacy, assessment, and technology. He worked in public schools for more than twenty years, teaching English, social studies, and other elective classes. He earned his doctorate at the University of San Diego/San Diego State University, and he also holds a masters degree in educational administration from California State University at San Bernardino. His articles on literacy and technology have appeared in The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Action in Teacher Education, The California Reader, The Journal of Educational Administration, The International Journal on e-Learning, The Journal of Education, and The Journal of Literacy Research and Instruction. He serves on the review boards of several journals, including The Reading Teacher and The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. His recent books include Learning to Predict and Learning from Predictions: How Thinking about What Might Happen Next Helps Students Learn, Literacy Growth for Every Child, and Transforming Writing Instruction in the Digital Age: Techniques for Grades 5-12. Second edition in progress: Teaching the Language Arts: Forward Thinking in Today's Classrooms

Wolsey is interested in how literacy intersects with online and physical learning spaces, writing as a feature of learning about disciplines (e.g., mathematics, social studies), and reading in digital environments.

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-DeVere-W...

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

DeVere Wolsey does a nice job outlining the differences between the various types of assessments (i.e. screeners, diagnositics, benchmarks, etc.) He also does a good job helping the reader determine the differences and significance between percentile versus percentage, grade based results, and other types of assessment outcomes. For a person just starting their journey as an educator, this information could serve to help a teacher understand how determine what type of assessment to give students, when to give it, and why to give it. Also, it helps educators consider what type of information the assessment provides and how to share this with students and student families/guardians.

For a seasoned educator, it served as a nice review. However, it left me questioning the extent of testing we give to students in public education. Too often, I lose valuable instruction time to give a district/state mandated test to my students that gives me NO new information. I am a firm believer that assessments that do not provide useful or helpful information to the instructor, student, or student family is wasted time, energy, and money. This book left me feeling this in my core.

Why only three stars when the book provides a solid foundation? Mostly this is due to a chapter where it felt like the book was working to sell educators on state mandated tests. The vetting process that the author promises did not reflect my personal expereince. Prior to becoming a public educator, I worked for a local, private web-based instructional design company. We picked up contracts from around the world. One year, we were tasked with creating an online end of of the year state test (for a state I will not name). The guarantees made in the book surrounding state normed tests did not reflect my experiences helping to develop one. Futher, theses tests are for profit. There is not some humble, non-for-profit, highly skilled testing group who manufactures state based tests. The for profit piece means that many states are looking to save money. This is why the company I worked for was hired. Not becuase we were the most sound or reputable. It was because we were cheap. We were cheap for a reason... This needs to be part of the greater conversation if we are going to have an honest conversation about assessments being given in public schools... especially those exciting end of the year tests used to measure student proficiency and growth.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This text provides a pretty solid introduction to assessment for beginning and early-career educators. It explains fundamental distinctions among the types of assessments (formative, summative, benchmark), how and when to use assessment, and—most importantly—the role of assessment as a way to inform and fortify teaching and learning. The “Stories from Research” inserts don’t always have a clear connection to the chapters in which they appear, and the final chapters on standardized tests, Lexiles, percentiles, norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessment caused my eyes to glaze over, but there’s enough pedagogically sound and practical information here to make this text useful.