Assessment and Student Success in a Differentiated Classroom

Carol Ann Tomlinson and Tonya R. Moon take an in-depth look at assessment and show how differentiation can improve the process in all grade levels and subject areas. After discussing differentiation in general, the authors focus on how differentiation applies to various forms of assessment--pre-assessment, formative assessment, and summative assessment--and to grading and report cards. Readers learn how differentiation can
--Capture student interest and increase motivation
--Clarify teachers' understanding about what is most important to teach
--Enhance students' and teachers' belief in student learning capacity; and
--Help teachers understand their students' individual similarities and differences so they can reach more students, more effectively

Throughout, Tomlinson and Moon emphasize the importance of maintaining a consistent focus on the essential knowledge, understandings, and skills that all students must acquire, no matter what their starting point.

Detailed scenarios illustrate how assessment differentiation can occur in three realms (student readiness, interest, and learning style or preference) and how it can improve assessment validity and reliability and decrease errors and teacher bias.

Grounded in research and the authors' teaching experience, Assessment and Student Success in a Differentiated Classroom outlines a common-sense approach that is both thoughtful and practical, and that empowers teachers and students to discover, strive for, and achieve their true potential.

• The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners, 2nd Edition
• How to Differentiate Instruction in Academically Diverse Classrooms, 3rd Edition
• An Introduction to Student-Involved Assessment FOR Learning (7th Edition)
• Identifying Gifted Students: A Practical Guide
• Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement
• Differentiation and the Brain: How Neuroscience Supports the Learner-Friendly Classroom (Use Brain-Based Learning and Neuroeducation to Differentiate Instruction)
• Understanding By Design
• How to Make Decisions with Different Kinds of Student Assessment Data
• Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom (Professional Development)
• Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding