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Yet a third group was stupefied, questioning the teacher's ability to write good questions. "Think the person who came up with that question really doesn't know how an orchestra works!" the Wexford Sinfonia Orchestra tweeted.

It's a trick question, Longmoor admitted, one designed to keep her students on their toes, echoing a common sentiment among test makers that such questions force students to read carefully, ensuring that they attend to substantive questions later on. But do trick questions actually work as intended?

Andrew Butler, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Washington University, doesn't think so. Trick questions are not "productive for learning" and can easily backfire, he says. The result: confused students, artificially reduced test performance, and a murkier picture of what students actually know.

Other research on test design suggests that all too often, we're not just assessing what students know, but also getting a peek into the psychological and cognitive eddies that disrupt a student's thinking-a high-stakes test that causes anxiety can become a barometer of a student's poise, rather than their knowledge. A well-designed test is rigorous and keeps implicit bias in check, while being mindful of the role that confidence, mindset, and anxiety play in test taking. Here are eight tips to create effective tests, based on a review of more than a dozen recent studies.

1. HELP STUDENTS DEVELOP GOOD TEST PREP HABITS

Students often overestimate how prepared they are for an upcoming test, which can result in unexpected low performance, according to a 2017 study. Consider asking students to make and show you a study plan involving productive study strategies like self-quizzing, teaching the major concepts to peers, or spacing out their studying into multiple sessions instead of cramming the night before.

To help address test anxiety, researchers recommend setting aside a little time for simple writing or self-talk exercises before the test-they allow students to shore up their confidence, recall their test-taking strategies, and put the exam into perspective. In a 2019 study, for example, elementary students who spent a few minutes before a test and "silently spoke words of encouragement to themselves that were focused on effort" saw their math scores rise. And in a 2019 study of ninth graders, researchers found that a simple 10-minute expressive writing activity that reframed test anxiety as "a beneficial and energizing force" led to course failure rates being cut in half for vulnerable students.

2. FIND THE SWEET SPOT FOR RIGOR

Design tests so they're at an appropriate level of difficulty for your students. Overly difficult tests not only sap students' motivation but also increase the likelihood that students will remember the wrong answers, according to a 2018 study.

In the end, "tests that are extremely easy or difficult are essentially useless for both assessment and learning," the study concludes. Students who study moderately should get roughly 70 to 80 percent of the questions correct.

3. BUT START WITH EASY QUESTIONS

Don't start a test with challenging questions; let students ease into a test. Asking difficult questions to probe for deep knowledge is important, but remember that confidence and mindset can dramatically affect outcomes-and therefore muddy the waters of your assessment.

A 2021 study found that students were more likely to do worse on a test if difficult questions were at the beginning instead of nearer to the middle or the end of the test. "Students might be disheartened by seeing a hard question early in the test, as a signal of the general difficulty of the rest of the test," the researchers explain.

4. BE AWARE OF IMPLICIT BIAS

Question format matters. In a 2018 study, researchers analyzed test scores for 8 million students and discovered that boys tend to outperform girls on multiple-choice questions, accounting for roughly 25 percent of the gender achievement gap. Girls performed significantly better than boys on open-ended questions. Consider the mix of your testing formats: Combine traditional testing formats-multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions-with creative, open-ended assessments that can elicit different strengths and interests.

Be mindful, as well, of how cultural or racial bias and background knowledge can infiltrate the language and framing of test questions. In an infamous example, an SAT analogy question required students to select "oarsman:regatta" in response to the word pair "runner:marathon," an expectation that was fraught with classist, racial, and geographic overtones.

Other studies reveal that without a threshold of background knowledge, students fail to grasp the intent of their reading-an incorrect answer on a test may signify the failure to determine the meaning of the question, rather than measure the student's understanding of the material. Keep test questions free of unnecessary jargon, revise tests to simplify questions, and consider allowing students to ask for clarification before you start the test.

5. AVOID TRICK QUESTIONS

While it may be tempting to include trick questions to make sure that students are paying attention, they can get stuck or confused, wasting precious time and compromising the rest of the test as a result, a 2018 study concludes.

Tests aren't just tools to evaluate learning; they can also alter a student's understanding of a topic. So if students try to recall information they're unsure about, they may reconstruct it incorrectly, increasing the likelihood that they will retain false information. For example, if you asked, "What was George Washington's goal with writing the Emancipation Proclamation?" some students may commit it to memory and connect the wrong president to the seminal historical document.

6. BREAK TESTS APART

Instead of a single high-stakes test, consider breaking it into smaller low-stakes tests that you can spread throughout the school year. That strategy alleviated test anxiety for 72 percent of middle and high school students, according to a 2014 study.

The likely reason? When students take high-stakes tests, their cortisol levels-a biological marker for stress-rise dramatically, impeding their ability to concentrate and artificially lowering test scores, a 2018 study found. Stress is a normal part of test-taking, but there are kinds of stress that should be avoided, such as whether the student thinks they'll be able to finish.

7. TRY TO MINIMIZE THE EFFECTS OF TIME LIMITS

Time limits are unavoidable, but you can mitigate their pernicious effects on anxiety levels. "Evidence strongly suggests that timed tests cause the early onset of math anxiety for students across the achievement range," explains Jo Boaler, mathematics professor at Stanford. This extends to other subjects as well, according to a 2020 study, which also found that timed tests disproportionately harm students with disabilities.

If a student aces most of the test but then gets the last few questions wrong or leaves them blank, it's possible that they panicked as the time limit approached-or knew the information intimately but simply couldn't finish the test. It may be helpful to time yourself taking the test and cut a few questions so that it's clearly shorter than your class period.

8. PERIODICALLY, LET STUDENTS WRITE THEIR OWN TESTS

Sometimes, less design is better: The research suggests that one effective strategy, at least periodically, is to ask students to write their own test questions.

In a 2020 study, students who generated test questions scored 14 percentage points higher than students who simply reviewed the material. "Question generation promotes a deeper elaboration of the learning content," explains psychology professor Mirjam Ebersbach. "One has to reflect what one has learned and how an appropriate knowledge question can be inferred from this knowledge." Model question-asking for students -highlighting your own examples first-and then teach them how to ask good questions. They may start with simple factual questions, but with enough practice, they can propose questions that start with "Explain" or that dig deeper into a topic with how and why questions.

9. AFTER-TEST STRATEGIES

Beyond test design, there's the important question of what happens after a test. All too often, students receive a test, glance at the grade, and move on. But that deprives them, and the teacher, of a valuable opportunity to address misconceptions and gaps in knowledge. Don't think of tests as an endpoint to learning. Follow up with feedback, and consider strategies like " exam wrappers "- short metacognitive writing activities that ask students to review their performance on the test and think about ways they could improve in future testing scenarios.

You might also rethink your policy around test retakes. While students can certainly take unfair advantage of some test-retaking policies, there are innovative approaches that preserve the integrity of the initial test while allowing students to recover partial credit for materials they haven't successfully learned. Set clear limits, pose a different set of questions-or allow partial credit for demonstrating deep knowledge of questions they missed on the test-or ask students to reflect on why they missed earlier questions and what they can do to improve in the future, teachers recommend.

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How to Design Better Tests, Based on the Research

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Yet a third group was stupefied, questioning the teacher's ability to write good questions. "Think the person who came up with that question really doesn't know how an orchestra works!" the Wexford Sinfonia Orchestra tweeted.

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A Guide for Using Webb's Depth of Knowledge

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This blog post was written by NCTE member Valente' Gibson.
A few years ago, I was given the opportunity to be a member of the Professional Dyads of Culturally Relevant Teaching, a project of NCTE's Early Childhood Education Assembly. The space was created to support educators who teach children of color, children who are emerging bi- and multilinguals, and children from low-income households. In a mutual mentorship, teacher educators and teachers work together to explore and delve deeper into culturally relevant pedagogies.

What can you learn from culturally relevant assessment in comparison to what you learn from conventional assessments?

This question was posed during my work with the Professional Dyad about culturally relevant assessments. The dyad provided an opportunity to suggest culturally relevant approaches for assessing students that get at what they know rather than concealing what they know. Culturally relevant means of assessment give insights about the kinds of assessments that lead and front students' cultural strengths and curiosities and nurture and extend literacies.

The dyad experience was my first introduction and launch into changing assessments in my classroom. My students were bogged down by standardized testing via benchmarks and end-of-the-year state assessments. Instead of griping about these assessments, I wanted to find ways to connect culturally relevant assessments with traditional assessments. I began by identifying areas and insights into what I know about culturally relevant teaching.

"All instruction is culturally responsive. The question is: to which culture is it currently oriented?" -Gloria Ladson-Billings

Assessment is one of the first words that you hear during your time as a student, as a student teacher, and as a classroom teacher. We harp on the positive and negative effects that assessments can have on students in schools. When talking with other teachers about assessment, we understand the importance of getting to know our students. We agree that we cannot create a curriculum that meets their needs, much less their cultural needs, if we don't first get to know them as human beings.

Discussions about the following questions have helped me to refine my thinking about classroom assessments:

Why do we/I assess?

As a teacher, I assess students to find out what students have learned, to hold them accountable, and to help guide and set the pace for the classroom. It was crucial that I offered traditional classroom-based assessments because of standardized testing. I found myself translating the language of standardized testing and created assessments that both students and families easily understood. The creation of these assessments was an ideal way for me to build small groups and change my instruction for upcoming days. During my process of learning about assessments, I realized that I had never considered what my students or families thought about testing. I would observe my traditional assessment results and seek to understand what my students didn't grasp.

It finally hit me that I needed to understand my students first and use my own classroom assessments to accurately understand their knowledge. I wasn't able to effectively help them in the classroom until I understood them as people and understood their culture. This process was a great way for me to improve my teaching practices and guide me to the creation of culturally relevant assessments.

Which assessment methods are most of the teachers I talk with using to assess their students' learning or understanding?

One common tool is a rubric. I've worked with other teachers to learn how I can make rubrics more culturally relevant. One strategy that I have found useful is to collaborate with families, parents, and students to create rubrics. I first discuss home language with my students and send home a questionnaire to parents that helps me understand the students better from a home perspective. I always include a section on my rubric about the student's presentation style, and my students are allowed to present on classroom tasks based on what their parents or guardians answered in the questionnaire.

For example, a student was able to present their writing in spoken word because a mother suggested that the best way they can share their knowledge is to "talk it out." In the questionnaire, the parent answered that their child "talks out" their knowledge at church by speaking in front of the congregation after a Sunday school lesson or vacation Bible school. Talking it out was a perfect way to provide an environment that allowed them to implement their home culture at school.

Another tool that I have used is written conversations. I allow my students to write in their home languages, and in one case, two partners wanted to write their conversation using African American Language. The ease at which the conversation flowed and the investment of both students was such a pleasure to observe. They were actively engaged in their writing and didn't complain that they didn't know what to write because it came naturally.

What is culturally relevant/responsive teaching and how do we become responsive as teachers?

One of the most important lessons I've learned in my journey to become more responsive as a teacher is the need for constant dialogue around assessments. We all need to look into our daily traditional assessments and discover ways that we include students and their cultural knowledge, and scaffold their learning with what students already know.

When we collaborate with other teachers, in addition to parents and students, we are in a better position to learn about cultural literacy practices of our students and more about their community. When I engaged in conversations with parents and students, I was able to find ways of integrating their lives into our classroom. As my students were able to connect with assessments, they were able to be more successful in the classroom.

As you seek to understand culturally relevant assessments, find yourself as a teacher. Question yourself about whether your assessments are responsive to students' learning in the classroom and respectful of their culture. I suggest collaborating with families and inviting them in to have a night of creating assessments.

Also, invite your peers to talk about the assessments that you are using. Share your best practices with your peers to demonstrate how you all can work together to create assessments to be relevant to your students. This collaboration is important and necessary so that we can learn from one another and best aid in the growth and development of our students.

Resources

Going Public with Assessment: A Community Practice Approach-This volume by Kathryn Mitchell Pierce and Rosario Ordoñez-Jasis shares classroom vignettes, strategies, and resources for "going public" with literacy assessment through teacher collaboration with colleagues, with families, and with the community.
Learn more about the Professional Dyads and Culturally Relevant Teaching proje ct. Valente' Gibson is a fifth-grade teacher at Jackson Creek Elementary, Columbia, South Carolina. He holds the position of Treasurer with the NCTE Early Childhood Education Assembly. Valenté was a participant in the PDCRT (Professional Dyads and Culturally Relevant Teaching) project. He is also a teacher for the Center for the Education and Equity of African American Students (CEEAAS), where he helps develop learning modules that embed culturally relevant curriculum for effective teaching of African American students.

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Working Toward Culturally Responsive Assessment Practices - NCTE

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This blog post was written by NCTE member Valente' Gibson. A few years ago, I was given the opportunity to be a member of the Professional Dyads of Culturally Relevant Teaching, a project of NCTE's Early Childhood Education Assembly.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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A review of three types of SEL assessment, with suggestions for ways to collect and report student growth to families.

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A middle school in Nevada uses a simple strategy to build deeper connections between teachers and students.

Enrollment

717 | Public, Rural

Per Pupil Expenditures

$9,796 District Per Pupil Expenditure * $11,281 State Per Pupil Expenditure

Free / Reduced Lunch

41%

Data is from the 2015-16 academic year.

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A middle school in Nevada uses a simple strategy to build deeper connections between teachers and students. Enrollment 717 | Public, Rural Per Pupil Expenditures $9,796 District Per Pupil Expenditure * $11,281 State Per Pupil Expenditure Free / Reduced Lunch 41% Data is from the 2015-16 academic year.

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Ohio's Learning Standards - Extended (OLS-E) also are commonly known as "the extended standards." These standards help to ensure that students with significant cognitive disabilities are provided with multiple ways to learn and demonstrate knowledge. At the same time, the extended standards are designed to maintain the rigor and high expectations of Ohio's Learning Standards.

The Offices for Curriculum, Assessment and Exceptional Children have worked collaboratively since July 2011 in the creation of extensions to Ohio's Learning Standards for English Language Arts and Math as well as the revised standards for Science and Social Studies. A committee comprised of special educators, regular educators, parents, administrators and other stakeholders in Ohio came together in the writing of these extensions to be used for students participating in the Alternate Assessment.

On September 18, 2018 the Ohio State Board of Education adopted the revised grade level Ohio Learning Standards-Extended (OLS-E) for students that are assessed on the Alternate Assessment for Student's with Significant Cognitive Disabilities (AASCD). The OLS-E are specific statements of knowledge and skills linked to the expectations in the Ohio Learning Standards. The purpose of the extensions is to build a bridge that provides grade level access for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities to the content of the Ohio Learning Standards.

Documents and Resources for Ohio's Learning Standards - Extended (OLS-E)

OHIO LEARNING STANDARDS-EXTENDED (revised September 2018)

Ohio Learning Standards - Extended (Revised September 2018) with Learning Progressions

Ohio English Language Proficiency Standards - Extended

Frequently Asked Questions

The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) offers online instructional modules for Ohio's Learning Standards - Extended (OLS-E). Educators can earn contact hours for completing these modules, which can be accessed at ohextendedstandards.org.

Questions?

For more information on the extended standards, contact:

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Ohio's Learning Standards - Extended (OLS-E) also are commonly known as "the extended standards." These standards help to ensure that students with significant cognitive disabilities are provided with multiple ways to learn and demonstrate knowledge. At the same time, the extended standards are designed to maintain the rigor and high expectations of Ohio's Learning Standards.

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Backward Design: The Basics | Cult of Pedagogy

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Are we planning with clear, measurable, meaningful learning goals in to guide us, or are we just keeping students busy?

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Center for the Professional Education of Teachers

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Equitable practices empower students to recognize and develop their own talents and skills, and become agents of change for their futures.

What is equity? How do we define and use it in education?

​Whenever there is a buzzword at play in education circles, we like to unpack, define, and interpret how the term applies to educators and schools.

Let's start with the difference between equity and equality.

A simple, working understanding of equity involves "trying to understand and offer people what they need to enjoy full, healthy lives." In education, equity means truly striving to achieve the best possible outcome for each individual student.

Equality, in contrast, aims to ensure that everyone is offered the same things in order to enjoy full, healthy lives. As educators, the notion of offering all people the same things immediately contradicts our understandings of differentiation. We know that not all students have the same needs. Furthermore, students from underserved backgrounds, generally low-income or students of color, may benefit from a variety of resources to succeed academically.

All students benefit from equitable practices. I'd like to suggest that we not only offer students additional opportunities or resources to "catch up" or to "level the playing field", but instead create a new playing field in education. We can start with our own assessment policies and systems in our classrooms, departments, schools, and districts.

Creating equitable education and assessment practices doesn't end with offering students what they need or deserve to succeed. Equitable policies and practices aim to empower students to recognize and develop their own talents and skills; to become agents of change for their futures. Equity means achieving lasting results for all people, regardless of their socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds.

Examining our assessment practices

​Equity work in any context may require seeing differently, thinking differently, and even working differently. Therefore, it may be helpful to start by asking ourselves some probing questions about our own assessment practices and beliefs. Consider discussing these questions at your next faculty meeting to norm understandings around assessments, or answering them individually, as a way to understand your own beliefs.
​

What are our ultimate goals for our students?

Specifically, what are our goals when assessing our students?

How many different ways can we assess key skills?

How many different approaches to an assessment are viable and realistic?

Is our aim for students to complete tasks so we can enter grades for them?

How can we develop assessment practices that offer students meaningful opportunities to demonstrate their learning, their progress, skills, and understandings?

How can an assessment drive students forward on the road to becoming empowered?

Creating equitable assessments

To work toward equity in education and in assessment, let's examine our assumptions about educational achievement and assessment.

Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Anti-Racist, explains how traditional testing policies perpetuate racist (and inequitable) ideas and policies in education. He explains that "achievement in this country is based on test scores, and since white and Asian students get higher test scores on average than their black and Latinx peers, they are considered to be achieving on a higher level."

We may not have the power to single-handedly change high-stakes testing policies that use assessment scores to measure educational achievement, but we do have influence over our curricular decisions and how we assess and grade our students. We can create more equitable curricula and assessment practices and policies to create more equitable education. To do this, we must:
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Ensure our assessments align with what we actually teach

Formatively assess students on a regular basis

Differentiate assessment products whenever possible

Offer a variety of ways to demonstrate mastery

Be flexible (but not too flexible), and offer time to make up assessments

Create relevant, engaging assessment methods

Make assessments rigorous, not rote

Develop and maintain a growth mindset

Emphasize effort and progress, not grades

Acknowledge and cultivate students' strengths and talents

Assess what we teach & teach what we assess

There are some basic rules of thumb that we can use to create a more equitable foundation for assessing students. As a starting point, we can simply ensure that we assess what we teach and teach what we assess.

Backwards design, from Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe's Understanding by Design model, offers a framing to ensure that we first plan our assessments - including all the key teaching points and skills needed for them - as a guide to our instruction. Next, we "backwards plan" our units and lessons to ensure that we are meeting each of our teaching goals as we work our way toward the end of unit assessment.

In addition to planning for end of unit assessments, we can also plan our formative assessments, which will help us understand students' mastery of each discrete skill throughout our lessons. This will also create space to reteach concepts as needed, as well as ensure that we are offering students a range of possible opportunities to learn throughout a unit.

When formative assessments reveal or confirm for us which students are struggling or need to revisit a concept or skill, we can differentiate how we reteach or review. If the teaching didn't stick as we'd hoped the first time around, why would we teach it again in the same way?

These practices can help us take initial steps toward ensuring our students are offered fair assessment opportunities, and we can build equity from there.

Differentiating assessments

Traditional assumptions about assessment may lead us to believe that asking students to complete different assessment tasks to demonstrate mastery may not feel fair - but it may actually be more equitable. I admit that early in my teaching career, the concept of differentiated assessments took me a while to grasp and to actually believe in.

Many of us use differentiation expert Carol Ann Tomlinson's helpful framework to guide our daily planning and instruction. We plan differentiated processes using a variety of scaffolds, tools, extensions, student groupings, pacing and modalities. We differentiate content in the form of offering or using a variety of "levels" of texts, math problems, and complexity of tasks. We strive to create a supportive and differentiated learning environment to meet a variety of students' needs. But, when it comes to differentiating products or assessments, it is a little more complicated.

Here are a few simple ways to differentiate assessment products to create equity:

Create a variety of approaches to assess the same skills and understandings. Make sure that you are assessing students based on their understanding of key content, concepts and mastery of skills - not task completion. Can an assessment be shortened or adapted to solely assess the primary standards or skills? For example, a history assessment may ask students to develop an evidence-based claim about a particular topic. While some students will be able to cite and explain evidence from four sources in the assessment's timeframe, other students may only be able to gather and outline evidence from two sources. To support a variety of capabilities, we can offer additional scaffolds, such as sentence starters, outlining formats, or quotations that can jumpstart students' thinking as they support their claims.

Offer realistic timelines for students to make up or redo assignments. Allow students an opportunity to retake or redo an assessment (or part of it) for a stronger score - within a specific timeframe. We know that having no deadlines for completing work is not generally helpful, since students (and teachers) may have already moved so far beyond an assessment that it no longer makes sense to make it up. But if we can create realistic windows in which students can revisit assessments, we can encourage them to demonstrate their learning, without feeling that they've missed their chance.

Alternatively, offer students streamlined or distilled, shortened assessments as make up options. For example, instead of asking students to retake a test or rewrite a lengthy argument essay, you may ask that students write a shorter piece (for a lowered grade) that allows them to demonstrate each of the target skills. Or, instead of an essay that requires them to use three pieces of evidence, you might offer students the opportunity to write a shorter essay with one body paragraph using and explaining a single piece of evidence, a strong introduction and a conclusion with a counterclaim.

Strategic use of technology can offer additional opportunities to students who need to complete an assessment, but may be struggling to access it in a specific location or at a specific time. For example, a missed lab can be completed using a recorded video of the experiment. Similarly, a student who has missed school due to a crisis or circumstances out of their control can utilize a remote learning platform to make up their work. You may also consider providing a video that students can use as they complete assessments.

Develop project-based assessments that include choice and a variety of components, which students can use to demonstrate their learning in a way that is most relevant and appropriate for them. Project-based assessments that include a choice of topics or modalities can offer students opportunities to apply their knowledge in ways that let them shine. For example, if you're seeking written arguments from students, consider also offering the opportunity to record a TED Talk-style speech, which may demonstrate the same skills as the written assignment, but create a clearer pathway to success for students who struggle with writing skills.

Make assessments rigorous, not rote

Research shows that, especially in marginalized or lower income neighborhoods, lessons for students often focus on rote skills and procedures. Often, this means that students are not expected to achieve, nor learn more rigorous skills and content, when compared with their peers in higher income communities. As we know, rote and procedural learning tends to be boring, and when learning is boring, we often disengage or act out. This may become a serious equity issue in marginalized communities, especially for students of color, where, when students opt out of learning or act out, they may face harsh (or criminalized) punishment. Either way, students lose.

Instead of focusing assessments on acquisition or mastery of rote skills or procedures, we can aim to emphasize reasoning and problem-solving skills. Research consistently proves that opportunities for supported, productive struggle can motivate students to stick with a task and to stay engaged as they learn. We all do better when we can engage in productive challenges.

Make assessments relevant

Culturally relevant curriculum and instruction create more equitable education for all students. Zaretta Hammond, in her wonderful book Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain, defines culturally responsive teaching as "encompassing the social-emotional, relational, and cognitive aspects of teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students." She believes that when we teach with these concepts as our guiding lights, we create more equitable education.

Similarly, we can create more equitable assessment practices if we offer students experiences that are adapted for their cultural and linguistic diversity and are cognitively appropriate and engaging.

Here are a few simple ways to make assessments more culturally relevant or responsive:

Choose themes, questions, authors, and texts that reflect students' cultural backgrounds and familiar experiences. Make sure that assessment questions both expose students to others, as well as reflect on their own beliefs and identities. Students need to see themselves in their assessments, as well as their daily lessons and assignments.

Survey students and learn as much as you can about them to inform curriculum and assessments. Students might be surveyed about which topics are most interesting, or asked to offer regular feedback about their experiences with an assessment and what would best support them. We benefit from learning as much as we can about students' specific cultural backgrounds and experiences for reference or inclusion in our assessments.

Offer choice. Whenever possible, allow students to choose topics or work in modalities that connect to them and that are relevant to them - with assessments, as well as in the curriculum. Simple approaches such as choice boards or project-based assessments can build student agency.

Develop and maintain a growth mindset

We often think about how important it is for students to develop a growth mindset, yet, as educators, we need to take a hard look at our own biases and assumptions that things may be "too hard" for students. As Carol Dweck points out in the The Power of Yet, with scaffolding and high engagement tasks, we may find that students surprise us and we can reframe our thinking to become, "they don't get it yet." Many factors contribute to a student's mindset and development of a learner's stance, especially a teacher's language and perspective.

Here are a few simple ways to support a growth mindset for assessment practices:

Set realistic goals and manageable steps for students to track and mark their progress so that they can see what they can do and have accomplished, as opposed to what they can't do or haven't accomplished, which encourages a deficit perspective and a mindset of failure.

Offer actionable feedback for assessments, as opposed to grades or evaluation. Change our language from "not capable" or "never" to "not yet" and "we'll get there." Emphasize effort and progress, not grades. Allow students to make up parts of assessments to demonstrate their learning, and motivate them by raising their grades accordingly. Maybe they won't be able to achieve the highest grade possible, but they should be able to increase their grades to some degree, and in doing so, increase their learning and raise their confidence.

Developing standards-based assessments, combined with standards-based scoring, can increase equity, as these identify the discrete skills that we aim for students to master. Then, instead of evaluating a student's ability to complete a task, we can see how well students have learned each skill or standard.

Rubrics-based grading is another way to support all students by breaking down a task into component parts and more specifically, assessing each skill. This way, students can see their areas of success and of challenge more clearly. Combined with a holistic grading approach, rubrics can offer students feedback and also a more equitable evaluation of each concept or skill they have learned.

We may want to rethink our grading policies. While I don't think we should inflate grades artificially, evaluations should recognize and reward students for meeting and/or mastering standards while also finding ways to acknowledge their effort and improvement. Low and failing grades jeopardize students' academic opportunities and can be demoralizing and defeating.

Cultivating strengths and talents

As educators, our job is to cultivate students' strengths, as well as help them develop in areas of struggle. All students benefit when teachers recognize and cultivate their passions, talents, and skills. Students also benefit when teachers recognize that a class or subject is an area where they need some extra support and that simply making progress is an achievement, even if their skills have not met or exceeded standards.

When students are not achieving in a particular subject area, it may be time to think differently about how we assess them. It is possibly a waste of talent and potential if we expect students to spend academic time and energy striving to achieve in an area that continues to be a struggle for them. Instead, we can think more holistically about each student, in an effort to balance supporting improvement in areas of challenge with sponsoring soaring success in areas of strength. We can continue to cultivate and encourage a student's passions and talents, even when assessing them.

Measuring and recognizing ongoing progress and effort are important components of assessing a student's learning.

Many of us were educated within systems that housed traditional or standardized assessment and grading systems. As educators, we have all consciously or unconsciously based a grading policy or assessment practices on the modeling we learned as students. It can take a leap of faith to imagine new and innovative assessment practices - but we must rethink our notions of fairness and begin to think about developing practices that are equitable for the students in our care.

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Equitable practices empower students to recognize and develop their own talents and skills, and become agents of change for their futures.

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A key element of formative assessment is feedback. The trouble is, most teachers have difficulty finding time to give all students the feedback they need when they need it. Fortunately, students themselves can be excellent sources of feedback. Under the right conditions, student self-assessment can provide accurate, useful information to promote learning.

During self-assessment, students reflect on the quality of their work, judge the degree to which it reflects explicitly stated goals or criteria, and revise. Self-assessment is formative-students assess works in progress to find ways to improve their performance. Self-evaluation, in contrast, is summative-it involves students giving themselves a grade. Confusion between the two has led to these misconceptions about self-assessment that make many teachers hesitant to try it: (1) Students will just give themselves A s, and (2) They won't revise their work anyway, so there's no point in taking time for self-assessment.

Can these misconceptions be true? Yes, sadly true- if the results of a self-assessment are counted toward a grade or students are not given time for and help with revision. If, on the other hand, students understand the value of self-assessment, are taught how to do it, share their teacher's understanding of quality (Sadler, 1989), and have the support needed to improve their work, they can accurately self-assess and effectively revise.

The differences between self-evaluation and self-assessment may seem subtle, but they are powerful in practice. When my colleagues and I asked students about their attitudes toward self-assessments they had done that did not count toward grades, the responses were positive (Andrade & Du, 2007). Students commented that self-assessment helped them feel prepared, improved the quality of their work, and gave them a better understanding of what they had achieved. Specific perceived benefits included improved ability to focus on key elements of an assignment, increased effectiveness in identifying strengths and weaknesses in their work, and higher motivation. Said one student,

Self-assessment ... just eases your mind about doing your papers and stuff; it doesn't make you so anxious, and you can actually work ahead a little bit.

Yet in another study, when the researchers asked students about self-evaluations they had done that counted for 5 percent of their grades, those students' attitudes were somewhat negative: They voiced concerns about fairness and the possibility of cheating by inflating self-evaluations (Ross, Rolheiser, & Hogaboam-Gray, 1998). Other research (Boud & Falchikov, 1989) has shown that students do tend to inflate self-evaluations when they will count toward formal grades. For these reasons, I subscribe to a purely formative notion of self-assessment as feedback for oneself from oneself.

One way to support thoughtful self-assessment is to provide a rubric or create one with students. A rubric is a document that lists criteria and describes varying levels of quality, from excellent to poor, for a specific assignment (Andrade, 2000). Many teachers use rubrics for scoring student work, but rubrics can do much more. In the hands of students, a good rubric can orient learners to the concept of quality as defined by experts in a field, inform self- and peer assessment, and guide revision and improvement. Rubrics can be informative as well as evaluative.

Unfortunately, some rubrics define quality for an assignment too narrowly, leading teachers to worry that rubrics result in cookie-cutter products from students and limited feedback from teachers. If that is the case, the rubric in question is a bad one and should be shredded.

Popham (2006) contrasts a poor rubric description with an effective one. On a rubric to assess students' performance on a writing assignment about donating blood, in which one of the criteria is organization, a narrow, overly task-specific description of the highest level of performance might require that the piece "describe the importance of blood giving, the steps in giving blood, the impact of 'Mad Cow' disease, and the reasons people cannot give blood too frequently." A more effective description of the highest level of organization might state that the piece "contains an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The structure is appropriate for the task: for instance, an order-of-importance, logical, or chronological structure."

When carefully designed, perhaps collaboratively with students, good rubrics can provide students with important guidelines without constraining creativity and can be a boon to self-assessment. The process of rubric-referenced self-assessment involves three basic steps.

The expectations for the task or performance should be clearly articulated by either the teacher, the students, or both. Because students become better acquainted with the task at hand when they are involved in thinking about what counts and how quality is defined, I often create all or part of my rubrics in class with students.

For example, in a recent study in English/language arts and social studies classes in grades 3 through 7 (Andrade, Du, & Wang, in press), I began by asking students to analyze an example of a relatively strong persuasive essay. After the class had thoroughly appraised the sample in terms of its strengths and weaknesses (something students tend to be amazingly good at), I asked them to list the qualities of a really good persuasive essay, drawing on their critique of the sample. If a class overlooked a quality that I thought was important, I added it to the list with an explanation. This activity generated a list of qualities- clearly states the opinion; supports it with facts; makes sense; is convincing; has a good beginning, middle, and ending; and so on-that provided the basis for the criteria on our rubric.

With my own classes for undergraduate and graduate students, I go on to ask students to combine related qualities into rubric-sized criteria: For instance, clearly states opinion, supports it with facts, and is convincing would become part of an Ideas and Content criterion. I create the rest of the rubric outside class, sketching out four levels of quality for each criterion. I show the rubric to the students, ask them for their questions and comments, and revise the rubric for clarity as needed. Only after I am confident that students understand and accept the rubric do I ask them to begin an assignment.

Students create rough or first attempts at their assignment, be it a story, word problem, lab report, baseball bat swing, or speech. They monitor their progress on the assignment by comparing their performances to the rubric. In my research on writing, I have had students in grades 3 through 8 use pencils in various colors to underline key phrases in the rubric, then underline or circle in their drafts the evidence of having met the standard articulated by each phrase. For example, students underlined clearly states an opinion in blue on their persuasive essay rubric and then underlined in blue the opinion they had stated in their persuasive essay drafts-if they could find it. If they discovered they had not met the standard, they wrote themselves a reminder to make improvements when they created their final drafts.

This procedure can take one or two class periods. Students working on a persuasive essay can look at global criteria like ideas and content, organization, and voice on one day and then self-assess more fine-grained criteria like word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions on another day.

Students use the feedback from their self-assessments to guide revision. For example, in the colored-pencil activity just described, we used orange pencils to look at sentence beginnings, which were part of the sentence fluency criterion. Students circled in orange the first word in each sentence in their essay and then counted up the number of times they used the most common sentence starters. If they had a word or phrase that appeared a lot (in the case of the persuasive essays, it was usually "I" as in "I think ... ") they made a note of this problem. In their next draft, they attempted to change the beginnings of some sentences to increase variety.

The revision step is crucial. Students are savvy, and they will not self-assess thoughtfully unless they know that their efforts can lead to opportunities to actually make improvements.

Although my students have told me that they thought the self-assessment I required was "a big pain" at first, their attitudes have usually become positive after they try it. They have to try it: I generally will not review or grade a piece of work that is not accompanied by a self-assessment. After experiencing rubric-referenced self-assessment, they tend to value it. In a study of my former undergraduates (Andrade & Du, 2007), students reported that they could self-assess effectively, that they were more likely to self-assess when they knew what their teachers expected, and that their self-assessments were typically followed by serious attempts to revise and improve their work.

The process of student self-assessment through rubrics can be enhanced with peer assessment and teacher feedback, of course. Just the three steps described here, however, have been associated with improvements in elementary and middle school students' writing (Andrade & Boulay, 2003; Andrade, Du, & Wang, 2007). In these and other studies (Ross, Rolheiser, & Hogaboam-Gray, 1999), students improved not just in mechanics, but also in their ability to handle such sophisticated qualities as content, organization, and voice. Further, the improvements in the quality of student writing had practical significance. For instance, when the findings of the 2007 study by Andrade, Du, and Wang were translated into typical classroom grades, the average grade for the group that engaged in rubric-referenced self-assessment was a low B whereas the average grade for the comparison group was a high C.

Similar results have been found in mathematics. After teaching some teachers but not others to implement self-assessment in their 5th and 6th grade math classes, Ross, Hogaboam-Gray, and Rolheiser (2002) found that students in the treatment group outperformed students in the comparison group. Self-assessment has also been shown to be effective in social studies (Lewbel & Hibbard, 2001); science (White & Frederiksen, 1998); and even on external national examinations (MacDonald & Boud, 2003).

Self-assessment can be useful in any subject. If students produce it, they can assess it; and if they can assess it, they can improve it.

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Rubrics can be a powerful self-assessment tool-if teachers disconnect them from grades and give students time and support to revise their work.

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Why Use Rubrics?

Rubrics help instructors grade and provide feedback on assessments that have more than one correct answer in an efficient and equitable way. They facilitate transparency in grading, as well as increase consistency in scoring. When given alongside an assignment, students can use rubrics to gain understanding about the purpose of an assignment, to provide peer feedback, or to engage in self-assessment. Multiple graders or reviewers produce more consistent results when they have been trained in using the rubric and have been provided with exemplars (for reviews of the research see Jonsson & Svingby, 2007; Reddy & Andrade, 2010).

Three Elements of a Rubric

A rubric involves three elements: 1) the criteria for assessing the product or performance, 2) a range of quality levels, and 3) a scoring strategy. There is enormous flexibility for instructors to construct rubrics that reflect their teaching perspective within these three parameters.

Criteria define the distinct elements of expert or competent performance of the tasks central to the assignment. As the number of criteria increases, so does the amount of time required to review assignments. Too few criteria can lead to a rubric that does not effectively assess the range of knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to complete the task assigned. Generally, 4 to 6 criteria assess the breadth of competencies that are most essential to an assignment.

A single criterion can be used to create a holistic rubric with very general descriptions. Holistic rubrics do not provide targeted feedback and research suggests they are less consistently used. Holistic rubrics work well to speed grading for low stakes activities that only need very general feedback (e.g., discussion forum posts or responses). For more significant assignments, an analytic rubric with multiple criteria is more useful for reviewers and students. Effectively selecting the most important criteria is the first step to designing effective analytic rubrics. For examples of each type of rubric see the resource links below.

Quality Levels

Once the most essential criteria for competently completing the assignment have been identified, different quality levels need to be identified. Selecting the number of quality levels is a critical decision. While a greater number of quality levels allows for finer distinctions, more levels increase the time required to develop the rubric and to review assignments. In addition, research has shown that as the number of quality levels increases, consistency across graders or reviewers decreases. Considering the ultimate grade distinctions that will be made in the course can help determine the appropriate levels of quality for significant assignments.

The labeling of quality levels requires careful reflection. In learning contexts, instructors typically distinguish levels of competence, mastery, or expertise. This framing emphasizes a developmental teaching perspective and communicates a growth mindset. Instructors should beware of quality descriptors that demoralize students (e.g., incompetent, barely adequate, almost competent).

The most equitable rubrics create a detailed table describing the key features for each criteria at each quality level. Criteria are listed along the left-most column (often according to hierarchy of importance or process order) and quality levels are arranged across the top row of the table (either from low to high or high to low). Each of the remaining table cells is filled with a description of key features that can be observed for the specific criteria at that quality level. These often focus on key factors that represent bottlenecks in student learning or critical steps to increased levels of competence.

Scoring Strategy

Rubrics are flexible tools and instructors use a range of strategies to score student work using rubrics including:

1) Setting weights for each criterion, and single scores for each quality level. This approach speeds grading and minimizes discretion that might be a source of bias. Many digital tools support this strategy.

2) Weighting criteria and providing a range of scores for each quality level. This approach supports instructors interested in making more fine-grained distinctions.

3) Focusing on the overall combination of quality levels across criteria to assign a grade. This is a simplified grading structure that focuses on the overall grade and holistic judgment of the instructor or grader. For larger course enrollments, this strategy increases the risk of inconsistent or biased grading.

4) For drafts and formative assessments, focusing on providing students feedback with the rubric and simply assigning a complete or incomplete grade can be an efficient and effective strategy

Suggestions for Creating a Rubric

Determine the purpose of the assignment

Consider what, exactly, you want students to learn from the assignment. Write this down; it will guide the creation of criteria for your rubric.

Clearly establish criteria

Decide how you want to grade students. What elements of the assignment do you want to give them feedback on? This means determining the criteria associated with the task. To determine the criteria, think again about the goals of the assignment. What do you want students to accomplish? What do you want them to learn? Keep these criteria descriptions brief. Also, try to have an even, rather than an odd, number of criteria. This prevents the middle criterion from becoming a catch-all, allowing for more nuance in grading.

Determine the scoring method

Decide whether you will use a letter grade, percentages, points, a rating scale, or some other scoring method in your rubric. How will you label them? With numbers or descriptive labels?

Develop the descriptors of the criteria

Make sure the descriptors follow a logical progression. That is, descriptors indicating poor performance should be distinctly different from descriptors indicating high performance. And there should be consistency within the descriptors, meaning they should focus on particular attributes that carry through all criteria.

Be sensitive to language used

Rubrics offer a more objective means of assessing student work, but that doesn't mean they should assume a negative tone or offer an overly pointed critique of the learner. Try to refer to the assignment rather than the student when developing criteria. Avoid overly subjective language and use active voice where appropriate.

Explore results with hypothetical scoring combinations

Test your rubrics with a variety of scores for each criteria and see how significantly an outlier in one criterion will impact the overall grade. Consider whether adjustments to the weighting of criteria or the way points are allocated would more accurately reflect the appropriate grade.

Share your rubric with a colleague

Asking a colleague to review the rubric in advance is one of the best ways to ensure that your expectations are clear. You can ask colleagues to focus on specific elements of the rubric or to provide overall feedback.

Rubric Tools

Gradescope

Gradescope is a tool that enables efficient and transparent grading. Foremost, Gradescope prompts instructors to grade by question rather than by student. Within each question, the platform enables graders to create a dynamic, shared digital rubric that allows for expedited, collaborative grading and point altering.

The Canvas Rubrics tool can help you grade more quickly by providing an easy way to select the appropriate feedback, or grade by the same criteria for each student. After you attach a rubric to an assignment and configure it for grading, you can use the same grading criteria for all student submissions. Canvas will then automatically calculate the total score for you in Speedgrader.

Resources and Works Cited

Rubrics for Assessment from Northern Illinois University

Types of Rubrics from DePaul Teaching Commons

Types of Rubrics: Holistic and Analytic from Queen's University

Know Your Terms: Holistic. Analytic. And Single-Point Rubrics

Jonsson, A., & Svingby, G. (2007). The use of scoring rubrics: Reliability, validity and educational consequences. Educational Research Review, 2(2), 130-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2007.05.002

Reddy, Y. M., & Andrade, H. (2010). A review of rubric use in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35(4), 435-448. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930902862859

Additionally, Dannelle D. Stevens & Antonia J. Levi, An Introduction to Rubrics (Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2005), is available as an online Brown Library resource and in the Sheridan Center's library.

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Designing Grading Rubrics | Sheridan Center | Brown University

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Rubrics help instructors grade and provide feedback on assessments that have more than one correct answer in an efficient and equitable way. They facilitate transparency in grading, as well as increase consistency in scoring. When given alongside an assignment, students can use rubrics to gain under…

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In an NWEA-Gallup survey of parents, students, and educators that we sponsored in 2016, a key finding was that more than six in 10 parents said their child's teachers "rarely" or "never" discuss their child's assessment results with them. And teachers reported in the survey that they felt comfortable with most aspects of assessments - but less so when it came to "communicating with parents about the results."

While teachers are certainly on the front lines when it comes to communicating with students about testing, we can't forget the important role that parents play in assessments. Talking to parents about assessment results is an important step in helping parents understand their child's growth, be a partner in goal setting, and generally give them a role in improving their child's learning.

As a teacher, there are points you can raise and tips you can impart to parents to help them not only understand assessment and assessment results, but also in preparing their children for testing.

1. Have them meet with you as often as needed to discuss their child's progress.

2. Suggest activities to do at home to help improve their child's understanding of schoolwork.

3. Encourage them to have a quiet, comfortable place for their child to study at home, if possible - and free of digital distractions.

4. Remind them that it's important for their child to be well rested on school days and especially on the day of a test. Children who are tired are less able to pay attention in class or to handle the demands of a test.

5. Help them understand the importance of providing books and magazines for their child to read at home. Suggest outside reading lists or provide suggestions from the public library.

When it comes to the assessment itself, teachers can start with the basics to help parents better understand the process and improve communications with them.

1. Explain the purpose of the assessment - such as the difference between those used to inform classroom instruction and those needed to meet state requirements.

2. Share with them which tests are being used in their child's classroom and how the results of each are used.

3. Send a communication about when the tests are being given, when the results will be available, and how the parents will receive the results.

4. Share their child's learning progress using assessment results as well as your classroom observations.

5. Point out academic strengths and weaknesses and how they can help address areas of concern outside of the classroom - particularly if assessment results point to specific things they can do.

For more tips, check out this previous post with resources for communicating assessment results with parents. And share these tips with your colleagues to help parents understand assessments better and equip them with even more knowledge to help their children learn.

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10 Ways for Teachers and Parents to Communicate Better about Assessments

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In an NWEA-Gallup survey of parents, students, and educators that we sponsored in 2016, a key finding was that more than six in 10 parents said their child's teachers "rarely" or "never" discuss their child's assessment results with them.

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Every kid needs a champion | Rita Pierson | TED

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An assessment called a one-pager has students use art to show what they know-and it can be used across the curriculum.

I'm not a fun teacher. It's embarrassing to admit, but making my class engaging does not come naturally. Many of my middle school colleagues fit right in with our quirky middle school students, but I don't. So I need to work extra hard at being engaging.

In my second year of teaching, I realized I could make my assessments something my students looked forward to doing by switching to a strategy called a one-pager.

Assessing Learning With One-Pagers

With a one-pager, a student mixes art with parameters related to course content on a single sheet of white 8.5 x 11 printer paper to show what they understand about the content. A teacher can make the assessment formative or summative by modifying the parameters and increasing or decreasing the rigor.

The most powerful part of using art this way is that it makes the one-pager less about finding the single correct answer and more about crafting a response to the criteria the teacher presents. Students get to be creative, and since there are many different ways for them to answer the prompt, their thinking is challenged in new ways. They're not trying to find the solution-they're trying to find a solution they can stand behind.

While one-pagers have criteria, there aren't rules. This point is critical because it means students have freedom to lay out their one-pager in any way they want. I've seen incredibly creative one-pagers, and grading them is fun. I know that doesn't sound possible, but one-pagers are often so unique that seeing how students document their learning can be really enjoyable.

The most crucial element is that students have freedom in the evidence they select, the answers they create, and the placement of different elements on the page.

I'm an English teacher, but after I shared a short presentation on one-pagers with the math department, two math teachers sought me out to let me know they had tried this strategy with their students and found it really effective. I realized that this assessment tool might be useful in other areas as well.

Using a One-Pager With a Nonfiction Text

If you want to assess students' understanding of a nonfiction text, you can start by having them write the title and author somewhere on page. Next, they should add a quote from the text-their favorite line, or the one they see as most important-and explain in writing why they chose it.

Next they should explain the main idea or ideas of the piece in their own words, and write down two questions they have about the text-I often give sentence starters for this.

Then they get to the art, drawing a picture that relates to the main idea or ideas. Students have a lot of fun with this. It's important to emphasize that you're not assessing the one-pager based on appearances-what matters is that they show their understanding.

I also ask them to list a couple of key terms-they decide what those are-and supply their own definitions, and to list a couple of interesting or fun facts they learned and a couple of personal connections to the text.

Finally, they can add images or icons to their key terms, and write captions for their images, to make the one-pager understandable to someone who hasn't read the text.

Using a One-Pager in Math Class

To use a one-pager in a math class, students write what type of problem they're explaining. They also create two real-life examples-little stories like, "We had 10 apples after the party, and we know Sarah took 5, but we aren't sure how many we had to begin with. How many was it?" Then they draw a real-life example. Coming up with the real-life examples often takes as much creativity as the artwork.

Next they show different ways to solve the problem, if there are multiple ways. They also write their own sample problem modeled on the teacher's example. They should list and explain key terms, and think of a question they have about the process or application-once again, giving them sentence starters can help here.

Finally, they should describe the step that's trickiest to remember, and come up with a strategy for remembering it.

Some Additional Tips

If students don't like to draw, they can find an image on the internet, print it, and either cut it out or trace it. Few of my students have done this, but it's an option. I tell students that icons and stick figures are fine-the idea is not to create a masterpiece but to display deep understanding.

I make coloring the images optional because sometimes students get too caught up in making the art perfect.

When making an exemplar, I always show students one that's based on a different text from the one they're working with-and it's purposefully an exemplar where the art is not outstanding. I tell students I made it and explain what I was thinking for each of the elements. I tell them I could have done better with my drawings, but was more focused on the ideas. And I let them know it's fine for them to focus on both the ideas and the art.

There are many ways to use one-pagers aside from assessment-as posters, for example. But starting off using them to assess learning will help your students see themselves as creators of their own knowledge.

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An assessment called a one-pager has students use art to show what they know-and it can be used across the curriculum.

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The VKRP readiness benchmark for fall is 538. For context, the possible range of scores is 296 (the lowest possible score) to 830 (the highest possible score). Kindergarteners can be really inconsistent testers, so don't get too concerned over one score. If you are concerned, have a conversation with your child's teacher.

Note: There is no attachment that goes with this section.

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Student Assessment & Research / Interpreting Elementary Test Scores

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The VKRP readiness benchmark for fall is 538. For context, the possible range of scores is 296 (the lowest possible score) to 830 (the highest possible score). Kindergarteners can be really inconsistent testers, so don't get too concerned over one score. If you are concerned, have a conversation with your child's teacher.

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How Do Teachers Improve Instruction Using Test Data? | Resilient Educator

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Test data makes teachers better at their jobs. Here’s how standardized tests, individual assessment, summative assessment and formative assessment inform instruction.

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I know I was a good teacher, but I never thought of myself as a great teacher. I certainly had passion, enthusiasm, and creativity, but I never thought I had the stuff for greatness (though I did the best I knew how with the resources that were available). As a teacher, I found myself naturally drawn to thinking about what I could do to improve my lessons, to overcome negative student behaviors, or to encourage individual students. I went to conferences, saw other teachers with more experience, verbal acuity, and style, and I wanted to be like them. While I was well aware of my own shortcomings, I never quit trying to improve, grow, and learn to be a better teacher.

I achieved tremendous success in getting my students to take and pass the AP Spanish language tests and to actually speak Spanish, but my strategies and skills were not unique. Aside from a little bit of personal flair (my daughter Mercedes would say fifth-grade humor), these strategies were the compilation of wisdom and experience gained mostly from other teachers.

Although I was not a world-renowned educator, I would like to believe that I eventually found my voice (or unique significance) and achieved a moderate level of greatness. During this whole process of becoming great, the varied experiences in my career as a teacher deepened my knowledge and skills, strengthening my resolve to improve my craft. In that process, I went through the typical three-stage teacher-attitude cycle (this parallels research done by Frances Fuller and John L. Watzke):

The 3-Stage Teacher-Attitude Cycle

1. Shock: "Whoa! This is too much, and I want out."

2. Cynicism: "The students don't care. The administration doesn't support us."

3. Self-Actualization: "I can do this. This is fun. If I help just one student, it's worth it!"

In each of these steps, I was lucky to have other caring individuals helping me. As a new teacher, I benefited greatly from the patient ministrations of several seasoned teachers who showed me the ropes of grading, discipline, effective lessons, and ways to manage the volume of work. Without their help, I would not have made it past the first year.

I was overwhelmed my first year, and I looked for anything to help me. As teachers are required to do, I attended workshops and teacher meetings in which I was inspired to be great. I saw Stand and Deliver, which depicts how a high school math teacher, Jaime Escalante, challenged the mental and social limitations that his students had placed on themselves, thereby bringing them to greatness. I felt that if I could be that passionate about teaching students, I could do anything. Then I went back into the classroom and faced the reality that I had only a certain amount of time, strength, and energy. I seriously doubted my own capacity to teach and my decision to become a teacher. I struggled through another year in which things improved to a moderate degree.

When Negativity Set In

In my third year, when I visited the teacher lounge or attended department meetings, I came to believe that all of the problems I faced were not my fault. I noticed that some of the other teachers thrived on loudly complaining about their situations and bemoaning their deplorable students. It wasn't long until I became cynical like them. I learned that the parents weren't participating in their own children's education. I learned to criticize the administration for not providing me with the best tools. I learned to blame middle school and elementary teachers for not doing their jobs in preparing my students. My attitude became extremely negative.

I was finally able to escape that trap of negativity in the second stage and move into the third stage of self-actualization only because of wonderful mentor teachers who helped me understand that complaining and blaming resolved nothing and just inhibited my growth. Mr. Devereaux, the Spanish department head, helped me most of all. He taught me that I first had to be the solution rather than add all my complaining to the problem. He helped me enjoy the excitement and challenges of the journey, and not concentrate on the pebbles in my shoes. He helped my find my voice. Reflecting on my teaching career, I don't think I was an effective teacher until I became self-actualized.

The Great Shift

When I decided to become an administrator, that spark of desire for greatness was rekindled and refocused: I wanted to inspire other teachers to be great and thus pass that on to their students. I've seen that spark of greatness in teachers when observing classrooms and watching teachers interact with students. I saw this greatness through students' eyes as I shadowed one student each from first grade, second grade, eighth grade, and ninth grade, attending all of their classes with them. In each, I marveled at the relationships forged by teachers, as well as their excitement and enthusiasm. I've witnessed similar elements of greatness firsthand, while spending hours at campuses and in teacher classrooms in all grades levels and in nearly every type of school.

Covey's eight habits are designed to help individuals become highly effective people. Perhaps he needed to write The 8th Habit first because, without the "voice" or passion, few of us are motivated to improve or least of all pursue greatness. As I approach a new school year, enthusiastically anticipating a crop of new students, I have to ask, "What am I going to do differently in order to achieve greatness this year? How am I going to inspire the passion for learning in my students?" In the comments section below, please share your thoughts about becoming great and your plans on how to reach greatness this year in your classrooms.

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Outstanding in Your Field: What It Takes to Be a Great Teacher | Edutopia

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I know I was a good teacher, but I never thought of myself as a great teacher. I certainly had passion, enthusiasm, and creativity, but I never thought I had the stuff for greatness (though I did the best I knew how with the resources that were available).

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Test Prep Doesn’t Have to Be Overwhelming

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Help your students use technology and build their confidence—and teach them to speak the tests’ language.