"Kay Burke's authenticity naturally extends to her professional writing and speaking engagements. Her professional development opportunities attract educators who know they will walk away with new research, new strategies, and something to do TOMORROW. This wonderfully practical book contains real examples from real teachers, helpful checklists, and rubrics. I particularly like the application and reflection pages, and I wish every principal would use them with their teachers."
"At last, a text that I can use with my new teachers, experienced teachers and administrators that will make rubrics, to quote the author, “their friends.” Dr. Burke’s six steps can be easily implemented by all levels of educators immediately. Students will receive meaningful feedback, allowing them to assess their performance and set goals to make their work even better. The end results are empowered teachers, engaged students, and increased student performance."
"This book outlines an easy-to-follow process for designing and organizing standards-based instruction that engages students in performance-based learning. Kay Burke effectively shows teachers how to use checklists and rubrics to put students in the driver’s seat of their own assessment for learning."
"I have employed and tested the methods outlined in this must-have book in my own high school biology classes. The six steps enabled me to have a 100% pass rate on our high-stake exam with gain scores that almost doubled those of traditionally taught classrooms. Teaching instructional design classes for a college at the master’s level, I highly encourage students to follow the plan outlined in this book."
Burke's book offers a great deal of insight to new teachers in the field. I used this book in a post-bac assessment course along with a core assessment book. This book explained in very practical language how to use performance assessments and rubrics in the classroom. The examples helped my students understand how to create these powerful tools.
The book would only fit for approximately 25% of the overall course content and, in turn, is too costly for students to purchase an additional text for only a fraction of the course. It is an excellent text...just not the right one for this particular course.