Assessment as a Verb
At its most organic, assessment is a verb we can infuse within the overall instructional process. Rather than having to stop teaching to conduct a formative assessment (noun), teachers move seamlessly among the moments of instruction, assessment, and feedback; though the lines still exist, they are blurry. The assessment as noun perspective leaves teachers with what appears to be an irreconcilable dilemma: if I’m assessing my students day to day and minute by minute, when am I supposed to teach? Seeing assessment as a noun—as a tangible event—creates the illusion that assessment is synonymous with a stapled package of questions and that assessment and instruction are two separate experiences.
The assessment as verb perspective allows teachers to assess and teach within a fluid instructional cycle where the teacher need not stop to conduct anything. Much like coaches, teachers can keep learning on track in real time and allow for the necessary maneuvers and advice to improve performance at a moment’s notice. There is no moment when coaches are not assessing their athletes; they assess every serve, every tackle, every shot, and every rebound against the level of performance they desire (that is, the standard). In response, coaches provide immediate direction on how to close the gap between what the athlete displays and what they expect. Occasionally a coach will stop practice, however in most cases, he or she provides descriptive instructions during performance and expects the athlete to make the necessary adjustments on the fly. In other words, effective coaches are agile enough to know what needs to happen before the athletes’ next opportunity to perform.
Instructional Agility in Context
Instructional agility does not occur in a vacuum but rather in the context of sound assessment design and execution. In Essential Assessment: Six Tenets for Bringing Hope, Efficacy, and Achievement to the Classroom (Erkens, Schimmer, & Vagle, 2017), we outline a framework through which assessment practices can maximize both cognitive and affective outcomes for students. Instructional agility is one of these six tenets. Each tenet is contingent upon the other five, which means it is essential to understand how each of the other five tenets contributes to a teacher’s ability to be instructionally agile. Figure I.1 outlines the assessment framework.
Figure I.1: The six assessment tenets framework.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/assessment for a free reproducible version of this figure.
At the center of all six tenets is the building of hope, efficacy, and achievement, which means students emerge from assessment experiences with increased achievement, an increased sense of efficacy, and an increased hopefulness for their potential success going forward. As well, the totality of any teacher’s assessment systems should develop and nurture a culture of learning rather than accumulating points or acquiring grades; grades become a reflection of learning rather than an acquired commodity.
From there, the tenets (and their subsequent practices) work synergistically to maximize the power of assessment within any classroom. For the purposes of this book, it is important to understand how each of the other five tenets contributes to instructional agility, as we have outlined in table I.1.
Table I.1: Instructional Agility and the Other Assessment Tenets
| Assessment Tenet | Brief Explanation | Contribution to Instructional Agility |
| Assessment Purpose | Understanding assessment purpose means having a clear picture of how to use emerging assessment results. | The assessment’s purpose helps clarify what assessment results teachers should use as instruction occurs. Hesitation (or a mixed message) could interfere with the necessary instructional maneuvers and student engagement as students act on feedback they receive during instruction. If the teacher is unclear about the assessment’s purpose, he or she could lead students to care more about completing work than learning from their efforts and improving over time. |
| Assessment Architecture | Assessment is most effective when those responsible for its delivery purposefully plan it and intentionally sequence it in advance of instruction. | Planning with precision allows for maximum agility in response to emerging assessment evidence. By anticipating the most probable errors in thinking, teachers can plan their responses should those errors emerge. Identifying the most essential learning informs teachers when to make instructional moves to help students go deeper and learn more and what to revisit or let go. |
| Accurate Interpretation | Interpreting assessment results must be accurate, accessible, and reliable. | Instructional maneuvers are most efficient and effective when teachers accurately interpret assessment results. Clear next steps for individual students and instruction hinge on a teacher’s interpretation, which he or she has generated from students’ actions, dialogue, and work. Recognizing these moments is essential to accurately interpreting and providing the foundation for communicating those next steps. |
| Communication of Results | Communicating assessment results must generate productive responses from students and all stakeholders who support them. | Communicating results and next steps is essential for students to take immediate action. Opaque communication could cause an unnecessary delay in growth and achievement. Instructionally agile teachers focus on providing and facilitating next steps in learning. They must communicate this type of feedback in a way that inspires students to act and doesn’t shut them down or confuse them. |
| Student Investment | There is a symbiotic relationship between assessment and self-regulation. | The ultimate goal is for students to be instructionally agile on their own behalf. Through self- and peer assessment they can, at best, be a more readily available source of feedback and guidance for one another. |
We explore each of these five tenets in more detail throughout the book. For now, it is important to know that it is the ways in which the tenets interconnect that maximize the power of the classroom assessment experience.
About the Book
We know that you, who are K–12 teachers, instructional coaches, and administrators, will be at varying places in your understanding and assessment practice implementation specific to instructional agility. Some of you might have a noun-like, event-based view of assessment, while others may be further along in intentionally thinking about instructional agility. In this book, we explore the granular use of classroom assessment for instructional purposes, which means moment-to-moment, flexible assessment that occurs at the classroom level. So while we include a few points around grades and scores, as well as interim or large-scale assessments, the primary focus of instructional agility centers on how teachers and students use assessment results within the classroom on a daily basis.
Chapters 1 and 2 are about the culture of learning required to support instructional agility at the classroom level. Chapters 3–