Kairosand Informative Assessment

In this article, the author argues that educational policymaking, teaching, and assessment are most effective and ethical when they are carried out with attention to local contexts. He explores this concept through a consideration of Nebraska's unique School-based, Teacher-led Assessment and Reporting System (STARS), which created a statewide policy framework that honored local teaching and assessments, including classroom assessments. The conceptual linchpin of STARS was a rethinking of the traditional distinction between formative and summative assessments and fostering of adaptive leadership at all levels of the system, most important, the classroom level. Using the concept of kairos to describe appropriateness for the occasion at hand, the author discusses the ways in which STARS offered an alternative to high-stakes standardized testing. Moreover, he argues that this approach holds important lessons for those who wish to understand the power of informative assessment, even in an educational world that tends toward standardization. Notes 1. Of course, there is a rich assessment literature that frames the distinction between formative and summative assessment in terms of their distinct purposes (CitationBlack, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, & Wiliam, 2003; CitationMcMillan, 2007; CitationScriven, 2003; CitationStiggins, 2004; CitationWiggins, 1998; see also Popham, this volume). My point is that despite this, discussions of formative and summative assessment often turn quickly to the forms of the assessments. This is why classroom assessments are often assumed to be only formative while in fact their status depends on what we do with the results they generate. 2. I served as Principal Investigator of the CEP from 2001–2004. 3. For the full story of the Commissioner's public battle with the USDE, see http://www.nde.state.ne.us/1STARSNCLB/STARSandUSDE.htm. Contrary to popular belief, NCLB does not require state tests. In fact, it makes provision for local assessment

Engineering ethics · Formative assessment · Knowledge survey · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Sociology · Summative assessment · Educational Assessment and Improvement · Engineering · Evaluation and Performance Assessment · Psychology

• Leadership Without Easy Answers

  Ronald A Heifetz•Leadership Without Easy Answers•1994

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