Collaborative Common Assessments. Cassandra Erkens

       Foreword

      By Richard DuFour

      For many years now, my colleagues and I have asserted that the most promising strategy for sustained and substantive school improvement is to develop the capacity of educators to function as members of high-performing professional learning communities (PLCs). We have also insisted that common formative assessments, created by collaborative teams of teachers, are the lynchpin of the PLC process. Collaborative Common Assessments by Cassandra Erkens offers an invaluable asset for educators as they work to become more proficient in using this powerful tool for student and adult learning.

      In this thoughtful book, Erkens makes the central point that assessment intent is not nearly as important as the manner in which educators and school leaders use the assessments. The same assessment, she argues, can be constructive or destructive, low stakes or high stakes, depending entirely on how it is used. While there is a great deal of rhetoric in the assessment world on the philosophy and intent of assessments, this book focuses on practical application. Readers will be guided through the entire process, from developing the architecture of a system of assessment through using assessment data to improve instructional strategies and student results. There are four themes that run throughout the book that readers will appreciate: (1) credibility, (2) authenticity, (3) practicality, and (4) passion.

      Erkens establishes her credibility through the use of specific case studies with the real names of schools. That adds immensely to the credibility of the data she reports. While many books provide a composite of schools or hide the identity of the purportedly successful schools, she uses public and verifiable data to establish the validity of her claims. While collaborative common assessments are certainly not the only cause for gains in student achievement, she makes a persuasive case that in different schools with different student populations, the same assessment strategies are often associated with gains in student achievement. Another component of the credibility of this book is a superior synthesis of the research. While the author’s personal experiences are surely important, she does not attempt to generalize her own work to the universe of students. As her extensive reference section attests, she brings together a variety of other research formats, including qualitative and quantitative studies, meta-analyses and syntheses of meta-analyses. Taken as a whole, the evidence strongly supports the author’s claims that the impact of effective assessment depends not merely on the quality of the assessment itself, but on how those assessments are used to improve teaching, learning, and leadership.

      Closely related to credibility is authenticity—the degree to which the book reflects real-world classroom experiences. Readers will find extensive quotations from teachers who are directly engaged in the process. These are not authority figures making pronouncements without the distraction of having students in the room. They are real teachers in real schools, who struggle to analyze data, yet persevere through the process. They are professional and confident enough to publicly discuss their assessment results, yet they are also willing to be vulnerable, learning from colleagues and their own students. Another element of authenticity is the author’s understanding of the multiple demands on the time of the classroom teacher. Using the metaphor of the architect, she recognizes that assessment is only part of the daily challenge of classroom instruction. Rather than an afterthought, collaborative common assessments must be placed in the complex system of curriculum design, standards, and externally required tests, as well as a host of other demands on teachers who have a fixed amount of time to deliver on a growing number of demands. Teachers who are reading this book will find an empathetic voice in these pages.

      The third characteristic of this book is that it is immensely practical. Chapter 6, “Delivering New Approaches to Assessment,” is a particularly good example of what common collaborative assessments look like in practice. Just as novelists are encouraged to “show, not tell,” Erkens gives the reader not only practical advice but real examples at every level of instruction. “Show me how this works in high school,” readers demand. “Show me how this works in an urban environment, EL environment, suburban environment, and so on.” These are reasonable requests, and this book delivers. By using illustrative dialogues in a variety of contexts, the author shows readers what successful delivery looks like.

      Fourth, this book is passionate. When one considers the words passion and assessment, educators and students alike are quick to identify the emotions most associated with any sort of tests: anger, frustration, and fear. While recognizing that these emotions prevail among educators, Erkens brings a different sort of passion to the page. In the fourth chapter, she writes:

      Education must be about igniting curiosity, stirring passion, and kindling lifelong intrigue for learners and teachers. It’s time then for teaching teams to name and claim their vision for their learners, to collectively engage in risk taking and exploration, and to track progress in a manner that builds hope and efficacy for all. (p. 69)

      Engaging