I’ll begin posting new questions and answers in early-to-mid-September, and during the summer will be sharing thematic posts bringing together responses on similar topics from the past three years. You can see those collections from the first two years here.
I’m alternating those posts with interviews I’m doing with authors about their new education books (I’m still waiting for the last three of them, so I’ll probably just post them all in a row next week). So far this summer, I’ve interviewed:
‘There Are So Many Inspirational Teachers Out There': An Interview With Meenoo Rami
‘A More Beautiful Question': An Interview With Warren Berger
Teaching Without Connecting Is ‘Futile': An Interview With Annette Breaux & Todd Whitaker
‘Myths & Lies’ That Threaten Our Schools: An Interview With David Berliner & Gene Glass
‘Digital Leadership': An Interview With Eric Sheninger
‘Read, Write, Lead': An Interview With Regie Routman
Today’s theme is on assessment. Previous themes have been:
Best Ways To Begin & End The School Year
Teaching English Language Learners
Teacher & Administrator Leadership
I’ll be spending the summer organizing questions and answers for the next school year, and there is always room for more!
You can send questions to me at lferlazzo@epe.org.When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.
You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo.
Anyone whose question is selected for this weekly column can choose one free book from a variety of education publishers.
Also, you can listen to ten minute interviews I’ve done with contributors to this column at my BAM! Radio Show.
Lastly, remember that you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader.
And, now, following an excerpt from one of those posts, here’s a list of all my columns related to assessment:
From 2013/14
‘The Grading System We Need To Have’
Rick Wormeli, the well-known educator, author, and speaker, provides the primary response this post. In addition, several readers contributed their own thoughts.
From 2012/13
High-Stakes Testing & Student Engagement
Three author/educators, Michael Opitz, Michael Ford and Bryan Harris, share their guest responses in this post.
From 2011/12
1. Ways to Include Students in the Formative Assessment Process
Author and educator Amy Benjamin, California teacher Cheryl Suliteanu, and I offer our suggestions.
2. Several Kinds Of Grading Systems
Professor Thomas R. Guskey, author Susan M. Brookhart, educator Bill Ivey, and I share our thoughts and practices.
3. Standardized Test Critiques & Potential Alternatives
Professors David C. Berliner and Yong Zhao offer their thoughts on the topic.
4. Helping Long-Term ELL’s & Evaluating ELL Teachers Fairly
Katie Hull Sypnieski, the best teacher I’ve ever seen in the classroom, and staff from the American Federation of Teachers researching teacher evaluation contribute their responses.
5. Ways the “Next Generation” of Standardized Tests Should Treat ELL’s
Representatives from the two groups of states preparing the new assessments, the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium, or SBAC, and The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers Consortium, or PARCC, contribute responses.
I hope you’ve found this summary useful and, again, keep those questions coming!