Formative assessment is one of the best ways to increase student learning and enhance teacher quality. But effective formative assessment is not part of most classrooms, largely because teachers misunderstand what it is and don't have the necessary skills to implement it.
In the updated 2nd edition of this practical guide for school leaders, authors Connie M. Moss and Susan M. Brookhart define formative assessment as an active, continual process in which teachers and students work together—every day, every minute—to gather evidence of learning, always keeping in mind three guiding questions: Where am I going? Where am I now? What strategy or strategies can help me get to where I need to go?
Chapters focus on the six interrelated elements of formative assessment: (1) shared learning targets and criteria for success, (2) feedback that feeds learning forward, (3) student self-assessment and peer assessment, (4) student goal setting, (5) strategic teacher questioning, and (6) student engagement in asking effective questions.
Using specific examples based on their extensive work with teachers, the authors provide
- Strategic talking points and conversation starters to address common misconceptions about formative assessment;
- Practical classroom strategies to share with teachers that cultivate students as self-regulated, assessment-capable learners;
- Ways to model the elements of formative assessment in conversations with teachers about their professional learning;
- "What if" scenarios and advice for how to deal with them; and
- Questions for reflection to gauge understanding and progress.
As Moss and Brookhart emphasize, the goal is not to "do" formative assessment, but to embrace a major cultural change that moves away from teacher-led instruction to a partnership of intentional inquiry between student and teacher, with better teaching and learning as the outcome.

About the Author
Connie M. Moss, EdD, is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Foundations and Leadership in the School of Education at Duquesne University. Dr. Moss serves as the Director of the EdD in Educational Leadership program at Duquesne University, teaching courses and seminars at the doctoral level. She partners with school districts, state departments of education, universities, colleges, educational associations, and organizations to advance evidence-based improvement and professional learning. Prior to joining the Duquesne faculty, she spent 25 years as a K-12 public school educator. Dr. Moss has received numerous awards for her teaching, including the Duquesne University Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching. Her research engages educators at the nexus of classroom assessment, educational leadership, evidence-based decision making, and social justice.

Susan M. Brookhart, PhD, is professor emerita in the School of Education at Duquesne University and an independent educational consultant and author based in Los Angeles, California. She was the 2007–2009 editor of Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice and is currently an associate editor of Applied Measurement in Education. She is author or coauthor of 18 books and more than 70 articles and book chapters on classroom assessment, teacher professional development, and evaluation. She has been named the 2014 Jason Millman Scholar by the Consortium for Research on Educational Assessment and Teaching Effectiveness (CREATE) and is the recipient of the 2015 Samuel J. Messick Memorial Lecture Award from ETS/TOEFL. Dr. Brookhart's research interests include the role of both formative and summative classroom assessment in student motivation and achievement, the connection between classroom assessment and large-scale assessment, and grading.