Joe Feldman has worked in education at the local and national levels for over 20 years, as a teacher, principal, and district administrator in both charter and district school settings. He began his teaching career in Atlanta Public Schools as a high school English and American History teacher, and he was the founding administrator of a charter high school in Washington, DC. He has served as the Director of Charter Schools for the New York City Department of Education, the Director of K-12 Instruction in Union City, California, and as a Fellow to U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley's Chief of Staff.

Finally, and not too soon, a resource that provides the research foundation, tools, and courage to tackle one of today's most difficult and emotionally charged conversations: our inconsistent grading practices and how they can inadvertently perpetuate achievement and opportunity gaps among our students.

Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman gets to the heart of the issue, revealing how accurate, bias-resistant, and motivational grading practices will improve learning, minimize grade inflation, lower failure rates, and serve as a catalyst for stronger teacher-student relationships and more caring classrooms. Grading for Equity is essential reading for schoolwide and individual book studies, as well as for student advocates.

• A critical historical context outlining how our inherited grading system was originally designed as a sorting mechanism to grant or deny opportunity, regulate pupils, and promote a "fixed attitude" about students' academic potentialpractices that are still in effect a century later.
• A summary of the studies on motivation and equitable teaching and learning, with a "true north" approach toward equitable grading systems.
• Specific equitable grading techniques, as well as teacher examples, strategies to address common snags and concerns, and evidence of efficacy
• Tools for reflection that promote individual or group engagement and comprehension

"Grading practices are a mirror not just for students, but for us as their teachers," Joe adds. Each of us should begin by asking themselves, "What do my grading procedures reveal about who I am and what I believe?" Then, with Grading for Equity as a dog-eared reference, let's make the decision to do things differently.

Author: Joe Feldman

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Grading-Equity-Matters-Transform-Classrooms/dp/1506391575/

Ratings: 4.7 out of 5 stars (from 654 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #3,830 in Books

#2 in Education Administration (Books)

#4 in Education Assessment (Books)

Jeffrey Selingo is a multi-award winning journalist who has covered higher education for over two decades. His work has appeared in publications such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Wall Street Journal. He is a special advisor to Arizona State University's president and a visiting scholar at the Georgia Institute of Technology. There Is Life After College and College (Un)Bound are Selingo's best-selling books.

Getting into a top-tier college has never looked more difficult, with acceptance rates at some prestigious institutions in the single digits. In Who Gets In and Why, journalist and higher education expert Jeffrey Selingo dispels established conceptions of how to compete and win at the admissions game, revealing both students and parents stand to benefit greatly from extending their definition of what constitutes a "good college." Hint: it's not all about the car window sticker.

Selingo, who spent time in three different admissions offices—a selective private university, a top liberal arts college, and a flagship public university—closely observed gatekeepers as they made frequently agonizing and often life-changing judgments. He also accompanied a select group of teenagers and their parents around the country, meeting with high school counselors, marketers, behind-the-scenes advisers, and college rankers.

While many people have long believed that admissions are merit-based, rewarding the brightest students, Who Gets In and Why reveals a more convoluted truth, demonstrating that "who gets in" is frequently determined by the college's agenda rather than the candidate. In a world where thousands of similarly qualified students compete for a limited number of spots at prestigious institutions, admissions officers frequently make split-second decisions based on a variety of factors, including diversity, money, and, ultimately, whether a student will enroll if accepted.

Who Gets In and Why, one of the most insightful books ever written about "getting in" and what higher education has become, not only provides an unusually intimate look at how admissions decisions are made, but also guides prospective students on how to honestly assess their strengths and match with the schools that will best serve their interests.

Author: Jeffrey Selingo

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Who-Gets-Why-College-Admissions/dp/1982116293/

Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars (from 894 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #5,249 in Books

#3 in Higher Education Administration

#5 in Education Assessment (Books)

#5 in Education Administration (Books)

Kim Marshall worked in the Boston public schools as a teacher, central office administrator, and principal. He now consults and coaches incoming principals through New Leaders; teaches courses and leads workshops on instructional leadership; and produces the Marshall Memo, a weekly newsletter that summarizes ideas and research from fifty publications.

Education expert Kim Marshall shows how to break away from the typical and often ineffective evaluation approaches in which principals use infrequent classroom visits or rely on standardized test scores to assess a teacher's performance in this thoroughly revised and updated edition of his bestselling book Rethinking Teacher Supervision and Evaluation . Marshall provides a larger structure for supervision and evaluation that engages teachers in improving all students' performance.

• The famous text on teacher supervision and evaluation has been revised.
• Considerations on iPad and iPhone apps for classroom observation are included.
• Provides a new chart that illustrates how principals can manage 10 mini-observations per teacher each year.
• Arne Duncan's fresh opinions on merit pay and a different approach to the test-score issue are included.

This essential resource also provides substantial time management tools and advice, as well as suggestions for employing supervision and evaluation procedures to promote teacher professional development. Rethinking Teacher Supervision and Evaluation is regarded as one of the best books on educational assessment.

Author: Kim Marshall

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Rethinking-Teacher-Supervision-Evaluation-Collaboration/dp/1118336720/

Ratings: 4.7 out of 5 stars (from 445 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #6,358 in Books

#4 in Education Administration (Books)

#7 in Education Assessment (Books)

Jay McTighe provides a lot of expertise from a long and diversified career in teaching. He was the Director of the Maryland Assessment Consortium, a state collaboration of school districts dedicated to developing and sharing formative performance evaluations.

Authentic Education's President is Grant Wiggins, EdD, of Hopewell, New Jersey. Harvard University awarded him an Ed.D., and St. John's College in Annapolis awarded him a B.A.

What exactly is comprehension, and how does it differ from knowledge? How do we identify the big ideas worth comprehending? What is the significance of understanding as a teaching aim, and how do we know when students have achieved it? In today's high-stakes, standards-based climate, how can we build a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on comprehension and leads to enhanced student performance?

In this second edition of Understanding by Design, authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other issues. The authors have considerably improved and expanded their initial work to aid educators throughout the K-16 spectrum in the creation of curriculum, assessment, and instruction, based on feedback from thousands of educators worldwide who have used the UbD framework since its launch in 1998. With an updated UbD Template as its core, the book discusses the rationale of backward design and delves deeper into key concepts like essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will discover why the traditional coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fail, and how a focus on the six dimensions of knowledge can enhance student learning. The book explains how the research-based ideas of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as specific units of curriculum, using an expanded array of practical tactics, resources, and examples from all subject areas.

This new edition of Understanding by Design, which combines innovative ideas, critical analysis, and tried-and-true methodologies, provides teacher-designers with a clear path to creating curriculum that promotes improved learning and a more stimulating experience for students and instructors alike. The book is among the best books on educational assessment.

Author: Jay McTighe and Grant P. Wiggins

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Design-Grant-Wiggins/dp/1416600353/

Ratings: 4.5 out of 5 stars (from 999 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #5,585 in Books

#1 in Education Curriculum & Instruction

#3 in Curricula (Books)

#4 in Cognitive Psychology (Books)

Don't put your child at risk of being unprepared and underperforming on exam day. Your child must be familiar with the exam subject and be able to focus for longer than most young children's 4-5 minute attention span. Gifted and Talented COGAT Test Prep allows you to accomplish both.

• The 200+ practice questions in this book will ensure that your youngster is prepared on test day.
• With the book's COGAT Level 7 Practice Exam (the book's "Practice Question Set"), ensure that (s)he has developed the mental endurance to focus on test questions.
• Using the practice test answer key, you may identify your child's areas of strength and weakness.
• Full-color pages will capture your child's attention with vibrant, colorful pictures and engaging characters.
• With full covering of the COGAT Level 7 test sections: Picture Analogies, Picture Classification, Sentence Completion, Figure Analogies, Figure Classification, Paper Folding, Number Analogies, Number Puzzles, and Number Series, you can help students pass the test.

It's difficult to engage young and noisy minds in test prep, which is why this book offers engaging characters, kid-friendly concepts, and vivid images. Such participation might help students remember the knowledge in Gifted and Talented COGAT Test Prep and use it on exam day!

What are your child's ambitions: to be a doctor, an engineer, or an astronaut? Acceptance into a G&T program or an elite institution may influence your child's educational route - or possibly his or her future job.

Assist your child in dreaming big, taking the initial steps on this exciting educational path, and achieving their goals. You are your child's finest teacher, and this book will assist you.

Author: Gateway Gifted Resources

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Gifted-Talented-COGAT-Test-Prep/dp/0997943947/

Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars (from 670 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #10,801 in Books

#4 in Gifted Students Education

#9 in Teacher & Student Mentoring (Books)

#10 in Education Assessment (Books)

Gallup is a global analytics and consulting firm that assists leaders and organizations in resolving their most pressing issues.

College provides an opportunity to start over. You will learn and grow in ways that will astound you. You get to make up your own story. So, what do you want your college experience to be like?

Every day, as a student, you have the opportunity to look for patterns in your behaviors, learn from them, and apply what you've learned to make the most of your life experiences now and in the future. To do so, you must first identify where and when you are at your best: your strengths.

CliftonStrengths for Students will assist you in discovering and developing your strengths, allowing you to attain your maximum potential.

This book includes a code for accessing the CliftonStrengths assessment. After you complete the assessment, you will be given a list of your top five skill themes, which are the themes you lead with. You can start turning your primary themes into strengths once you've identified them.

CliftonStrengths for Students will also provide you with advice on how to develop and apply your strengths in college and in the real world. Your college adventure — and the rest of your life — will be happier, more meaningful, and successful if you identify and implement your strengths. That is the purpose of honing your skills. You create your life around your areas of greatness when you accomplish more of what you do best.

Author: Gallup

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/CliftonStrengths-Students-Strengths-Journey-Begins/dp/1595621253/

Ratings: 4.4 out of 5 stars (from 1139 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #11,586 in Books

#2 in Vocational Guidance (Books)

#4 in Career Development Counseling

#8 in College & University Student Life (Books)

In 2001, Jan Chappuis, an educator and author, began working with Rick Stiggins at the Assessment Training Institute in Portland, Oregon. She had previously worked as an elementary and secondary teacher, as well as a curriculum developer in English/language arts, mathematics, social studies, and world languages.

In 1992, Richard Stiggins established the Assessment Training Institute in Portland, Oregon, to provide professional development for educators dealing with the issues of day-to-day classroom assessment.

Classroom Assessment for Student Learning assists readers in gathering reliable information about students' accomplishment and effectively utilizing the assessment process and its results to increase achievement. This user-friendly resource is jam-packed with helpful hints, activities, and real-world examples of how assessment for learning looks in today's classrooms.

The third edition maintains the emphasis on the five keys to excellent classroom assessment, with an increased emphasis on the formative use of classroom assessment data. The keys assist readers in:

• establishing a clear assessment purpose to meet the information needs of all intended users;
• basing instruction and assessment on clear learning targets;
• designing or selecting all assessments to meet accuracy standards;
• effectively communicating summative and formative results;
• involving students in the assessment process and using results to further learning.

Author: Jan Chappuis

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Classroom-Assessment-for-Student-Le/dp/0135185572/

Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars (from 159 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #42,758 in Books

#52 in Education Assessment (Books)

#174 in Educational Certification & Development

#608 in Education (Books)

Carol Ann Tomlinson is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership, Foundations, and Policy at the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education. Carol Ann Tomlinson and Tonya R. Moon is the authors of Assessment and Student Success in a Differentiated Classroom.

Carol Ann Tomlinson and Tonya R. Moon examine assessment in depth and demonstrate how differentiation can improve the process across all grade levels and subject areas. Following a basic discussion of differentiation, the authors concentrate on how differentiation applies to several modes of assessment—pre-assessment, formative assessment, and summative assessment—as well as grading and report cards. Readers learn how differentiation can:

• Increase student motivation and interest
  
• Help teachers understand what is most important to teach.
• Increase students' and teachers' conviction in students' ability to learn; and
• Assist teachers in better understanding their students' individual similarities and differences, allowing them to reach more children more effectively.
• Throughout, Tomlinson and Moon stress the need of maintaining a consistent focus on the basic knowledge, understandings, and skills that all students, regardless of starting place, must master.

Detailed scenarios show how assessment differentiation can occur in three domains (student preparation, interest, and learning style or preference), how it can increase assessment validity and reliability, and how it can reduce errors and teacher bias.

Assessment and Student Success in a Differentiated Classroom, based on research and the authors' teaching experience, provides a common-sense approach that is both intelligent and practical, empowering instructors and students to find, strive for, and reach their full potential. The book is one of the best books on educational assessment.

Author: Carol Ann Tomlinson and Tonya R. Moon

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Assessment-Student-Success-Differentiated-Classroom/dp/1416616179/

Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars (from 257 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #64,593 in Books

#97 in Education Assessment (Books)

#1,081 in Education (Books)

Rick Stiggins is the founder and retired president of the Assessment Training Institute (ATI), a professional development company founded to provide teachers, school leaders, policymakers, and communities with the assessment literacy required to face the assessment challenges that plague American education today. Pearson Education now owns ATI.

Rick Stiggins pushes for a complete overhaul of assessment in American education in his book The Perfect Assessment System. Speaking from more than 40 years of experience in the field, and speaking for all learners who want to succeed, teachers who want them to succeed, and local school leaders whose aspirations for success have been thwarted by assessment traditions, Stiggins outlines the changes in practice and culture that are required to generate both accurate accountability data and specific evidence of individual mastery that will support sound instructional decision making and be accepted by the public. He addresses:

• Assessment purpose: how (and why) to specify the objective of each evaluation and the users it will serve.
  
• Learning targets to be assessed: how to ensure that everyone focus on the relevant competencies and define consistent definitions of success.
• Assessment quality: how to ensure that every assessment, at every level, is outstanding.
• Communication of assessment results: how to disseminate information in the most effective methods for a variety of goals.
• Assessment impact: how to connect assessment to truly effective, universal student motivation.

People have yet to investigate assessment's actual potential to improve both school quality and student well-being. Stiggins starts this essential discussion by charting a path for a new system that promises substantially higher levels of student performance at a fraction of the current testing expenses. The door to assessment reform is open; here is a bold proposal for getting it right.

Author: Rick Stiggins

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Assessment-System-Rick-Stiggins/dp/1416623817/

Ratings: 4.5 out of 5 stars (from 27 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #24,557 in Books

#26 in Education Assessment (Books)

#287 in Education (Books)

W. James Popham has spent the majority of his academic career as a teacher. For example, his first teaching job was in a small eastern Oregon high school, where he taught English and social studies while also serving as yearbook advisor, class sponsor, and unpaid tennis coach.

Classroom Assessment, written with clarity and wit, teaches pre- and in-service teachers how to use classroom testing accurately and formatively to drastically boost teaching effectiveness and make a difference in how effectively children learn. In addition to providing clear and straightforward principles for developing and implementing outstanding classroom assessments, the author focuses on the effects of testing on teaching.

Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know includes an in-depth discussion of the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing and their impact on classroom assessment, as well as keys for evaluating instructionally diagnostic testing and updated coverage of relevant legislation and policy changes, such as the implications of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) on classroom teachers. A new Testing Takeaway feature and an updated Parent Talk feature introduce meaningful ways to encourage assessment literacy, educate parents, and open up discussions, in addition to enhanced consideration of technology and its implications for classroom assessment. The book is among the best books on educational assessment you should read.

The accompanying Instructor's Resource Manual now includes a new section on Distance-Learning Possibilities. The section goes through particular chapter-by-chapter tactics, activities, and solutions for optimizing distance learning in the face of unusual circumstances.

Author: W. Popham

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Classroom-Assessment-What-Teachers-Need/dp/0135569109/

Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars (from 163 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #43,231 in Books

#53 in Education Assessment (Books)

#620 in Education (Books)