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Classroom Assessment in the Real World
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Classroom Assessment in the Real World


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Assessment

December 2025 | 344 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
Classroom Assessment in the Real World empowers teachers to make thoughtful assessment choices that reflect their strengths and values. This book delves into the philosophies, principles, and evidence behind various classroom assessment practices. With clarity and wit, best-selling author Bruce B. Frey examines the five modern approaches to classroom assessment: formative assessment, traditional paper-and-pencil methods, performance-based assessment, authentic assessment, and universal design of assessment. Grounded in educational research and theory, Frey provides clear guidance on today’s best practices, illustrated through hundreds of real-world examples and insights from expert teachers nationwide. Engaging and thought-provoking, this book encourages students to think critically about real-life testing and assessment, inspiring them to be their best selves as teachers.
 
Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Author
 
Chapter 1: Everything You Wanted to Know about Classroom Assessment (but didn’t know to ask)
How Chapter 1 Fits in Our Instructional Strategy

 
Classroom Assessment Then and Now

 
Choose Your Own Path

 
Fair and Just

 
Validity And Reliability

 
Looking Back in This Chapter

 
Listening to Teachers

 
Questions with No Wrong Answers

 
Key Terms in this Chapter

 
 
Chapter 2: Choose Your Own Path: Who are you?
How Chapter 2 Fits in Our Instructional Strategy

 
Defining Your Assessment Philosophy

 
Bloom’s Taxonomy

 
Social Justice and Equity

 
Universal Design or Accommodations (or Both?)

 
Looking Back in This Chapter

 
Listening to Teachers

 
Questions with No Wrong Answers

 
Key Terms in this Chapter

 
 
Chapter 3: Working Backwards: Connecting Learning Objectives and Assessment
How Chapter 3 Fits in Our Instructional Strategy

 
The System

 
Bloom’s Taxonomy

 
Learning Objectives

 
Backward Design

 
Choose Your Own Path

 
Fair and Just

 
Looking Back in This Chapter

 
Listening to Teachers

 
Questions with No Wrong Answers

 
Key Terms in this Chapter

 
 
Chapter 4: The Power of Formative Assessment: Feedback that Increases Learning
How Chapter 4 Fits in Our Instructional Strategy

 
Formative Assessment

 
Choose Your Own Path

 
Formative Assessment is Different from the Other Guys

 
How to Do It

 
What Informal Formative Assessment Looks Like in the Classroom

 
What Formal Formative Assessment Looks Like in the Classroom

 
Formative Assessment Land

 
Fair and Just

 
Assessing the Assessment

 
Looking Back in This Chapter

 
Listening to Teachers

 
Questions with No Wrong Answers

 
Key Terms in this Chapter

 
 
Chapter 5: Choosing the Right Answer: Multiple-Choice Questions and Stuff Like That
How Chapter 5 Fits in Our Instructional Strategy

 
Following Tradition

 
No Judgment Here

 
Item Formats

 
Analyzing Multiple-Choice Items

 
Table of Specifications

 
Choose Your Own Path

 
Fair and Just

 
Assessing the Assessment

 
Looking Back in This Chapter

 
Listening to Teachers

 
Questions with No Wrong Answers

 
Key Terms in this Chapter

 
 
Chapter 6: Building the Right Answer Constructed-Response Items
How Chapter 6 Fits in Our Instructional Strategy

 
Building an Answer

 
What Constructed-Response Items Look Like

 
Essay Tests and Writing Assignments

 
Choose Your Own Path

 
Rubrics

 
How to Make a Rubric

 
Fair and Just

 
Looking Back in This Chapter

 
Listening to Teachers

 
Questions with No Wrong Answers

 
Key Terms in this Chapter

 
 
Chapter 7: Performance-Based Assessment What Can Your Students Do?
How Chapter 7 Fits in Our Instructional Strategy

 
Assessing Ability

 
What is Performance-Based Assessment?

 
How and When to Use Performance Assessment

 
Choose Your Own Path

 
Fair and Just

 
Portfolios

 
What Performance-Based Assessment Looks Like in the Classroom

 
Assessing the Assessment

 
Looking Back in This Chapter

 
Listening to Teachers

 
Questions with No Wrong Answers

 
Key Terms in this Chapter

 
 
Chapter 8: Authentic Assessment Keeping it Real
How Chapter 8 Fits in Our Instructional Strategy

 
In Search of “Authentic” Assessment

 
What Authentic Assessment Looks Like in the Classroom

 
Choose Your Own Path

 
Fair and Just

 
Assessing the Assessment

 
Looking Back in This Chapter

 
Listening to Teachers

 
Questions with No Wrong Answers

 
Key Terms in this Chapter

 
 
Chapter 9: One for All and All for One: Universal Design
How Chapter 9 Fits in Our Instructional Strategy

 
One Test that Works for All

 
A Brief History of Accessibility

 
Designing Universal Design

 
Accommodations and Alternate Assessments

 
Fair and Just

 
Choose Your Own Path

 
Writing Universally Designed Tests

 
The Nuts-and-Bolts and the Nitty-Gritty

 
Assessing the Assessment

 
Looking Back in this Chapter

 
Listening to Teachers

 
Questions with No Wrong Answers

 
Key Terms in this Chapter

 
 
Chapter 10: Classroom Assessment Online and Onscreen
How Chapter 10 Fits in Our Instructional Strategy

 
Online Assessment

 
First, the Bad News

 
But, Now the Good News!

 
How to Think about Online Assessment

 
There’s an App for That

 
Item Analysis Online

 
Fancy Item Types

 
Fair and Just

 
Technology and Authentic Assessment

 
Choose Your Own Path

 
Looking Back in this Chapter

 
Listening to Teachers

 
Questions with No Wrong Answers

 
Key Terms in this Chapter

 
 
Chapter 11: Keeping Score Math and Stuff
How Chapter 11 Fits in Our Instructional Strategy

 
Creating Scores

 
Descriptive Statistics

 
What’s Normal Anyway?

 
Working with Real Data in the Classroom

 
Choose Your Own Path

 
Fair and Just

 
Looking Back in This Chapter

 
Questions with No Wrong Answers

 
Key Terms in this Chapter

 
 
Chapter 12: Making the Grade
How Chapter 12 Fits in Our Instructional Strategy

 
Philosophies of Grading

 
Choose Your Own Path

 
Validity and Reliability of Grading

 
Standards-Based Grading

 
Grading and the Different Approaches to Assessment

 
Talking with Parents

 
Fair and Just

 
Grading Plans

 
Looking Back in This Chapter

 
Questions with No Wrong Answers

 
Key Terms in this Chapter

 
 
Chapter 13: Standardized Tests
How Chapter 13 Fits in Our Instructional Strategy

 
Standardized Tests

 
How Standardized Tests Are Built

 
Validity and Reliability of Standardized Tests

 
Interpreting Standardized Test Scores

 
Talking to Parents about Standardized Test Scores

 
Statewide Standardized Tests

 
Ethics of Preparing Students for Standardized Tests

 
Fair and Just

 
Looking Back in This Chapter

 
Questions with No Wrong Answers

 
Key Terms in this Chapter

 

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chs1-2


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