Giving Students a Say: Smarter Assessment Practices to Empower and Engage

by Myron Dueck

Assessment is an essential part of teaching and learning, but too often it leads to misleading conclusions—sometimes with dire consequences for students. How can educators improve assessment practices so that the results are accurate, meaningful, informative, and fair? Educator and best-selling author Myron Dueck draws from his firsthand experience and his work with districts around the world to provide a simple but profound put student voice and choice at the center of the process. In this engaging and well-researched book, Dueck reveals troubling issues related to traditional approaches and offers numerous examples of educators at all levels who are transforming assessment by using tools and methods that engage and empower students. He also shares surprising revelations about the nature of memory and learning that speak to the need for rethinking how we measure student understanding and achievement. Readers will find sound advice and detailed guidance on how to

* Share and cocreate precise learning targets,
* Develop student-friendly rubrics linked to standards,
* Involve students in ongoing assessment procedures,
* Replace flawed grading systems with ones that better reflect what students know and can do, and
* Design structures for students' self-reporting on their progress in learning. Inspired by the origins of the word assessment —derived from the Latin for "to sit beside"—Dueck urges educators to discard old habits and instead work with students as partners in assessment. For those who do, the effort is rewarding and the benefits are significant

Genres: Teaching

189 pages, Paperback

Published January 26, 2021

Reviews

[Einar Jensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started Giving Students a Say by Myron Dueck because it was sent to me free for my membership in the ASCD (a standards and curriculum organization). I was surprised to find connections to Brene Brown’s Daring Greatly as well as my work in therapy. The author’s goal is to improve student assessment by engaging and empowering students to provide their voice, their choice, their self-assessment, and their self reporting in the process. It’s a book about testing and assessment, which may sound dull if you don’t work in a classroom (and maybe if you do), but I found some insightful nuggets for my risk reduction efforts.

One of those nuggets is the idea that I could see myself in the business of empowerment and engagement rather than education. Education is an essential tool in my toolbox, but community risk reduction relies on engagement and empowerment for audiences to act on what I share with them. That simple phrase embodies what I’ve already accomplished this summer and plan to do going forward. Engage and empower.

I also enjoyed Dueck’s discussion of memory and how a better understanding of it could (should) shift testing. Memory, he argues, has two elements: storage and retrieval. Research is showing that storage strength improves when retrieval strength is low. The more we struggle to retrieve a memory, the deeper it embeds in our brain. It’s a fascinating paradox. On a related note, we humans learn and remember more when we make mistakes on the journey to the correct answer. Suddenly, “failing” is an opportunity to embrace vulnerability (Daring Greatly connection) and grow.

The final gem I’ll ponder this evening is the difference between performing and learning. As a junior in high school I figured out how to perform perfectly on spelling/vocabulary tests, but I didn’t learn the meanings of the words. Cramming for exams can lead to great short-term performance, but the students who perform the worst on exams may actually learn (and thus keep) more. Testing isn’t bad, the author argues, but it could be done more effectively. Thus, the pondering comes as I try to apply these gems to my risk reduction efforts. I foresee plenty of mistakes and learning.

This book isn’t for everyone, but it is a good one for me.

[Laura-Jane Barber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 62 of 2025
Giving Students a Say, Smarter Assessment Practices to Empower and Engage
By Myron Dueck
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

This book has a lot of information—and a few too many sports analogies, which I don’t get—but it did randomly help me figure out my T-TESS goal for this year.

If you don’t know, T-TESS is the teacher evaluation system used in Texas. So now I’m ahead of the game. 🤣

[Katie Girardot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good combo of Hattie and Guskey methodologies. Well balanced with research and application.

[Jeanie Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

Podcast conversation about this book here: https://tiie.w3.uvm.edu/blog/vted-rea...

A practical guide to engaging students in their own learning.

[Shane Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for all educators looking to differentiate their curriculum and improve student-led learning

[Lizzy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Assigned reading for professional development. While occasional real world scenarios were interesting and the concepts are ideal, the advice offered was most impractical for my current teaching.

[Bebbie Racette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to read this for a class, its good, but it only covers stuff I already knew about so I got bored

[Hilary Ledford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for a book study at work- I was drawn to two titles (this was one) that aimed to center student voice and choice in their learning. As a teacher who is unable to be okay with "good enough" in terms of honoring my students for who they are, the most useful parts were the examples of the rubrics and self-assessments that are easily tailored to any content area. Now I just need more time to implement some of the strategies and structures in my high school English and French classes. 4☆

Read my other reviews on Instagram- @whathilaryreads