This compendium is truly an encyclopedia of performance assessment, as the advertising abstract promotes! Blum and Arter, with support and assistance from educational agencies like the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, address all aspects of assessment. 
     The authors do not lay out a step-by-step curriculum for educators in the district or the community at-large to educate themselves regarding assessment. They recognize the “messiness” and “non-linear approach” that seem to underpin collaborative effort to restructure schools.  They advocate the use of the handbook as a tool to promote learning among educators about school restructuring and student performance assessment.   
     It is important to note that the authors do not intend performance assessment to be touted as better than nor opposite of multiple-choice testing.  Nor is it any more authentic than any other kind of assessment.  Rather, assessment tasks should be redesigned to more closely resemble real learning tasks and assessment should align with curriculum and instruction; it is imperative that the purpose of assessment, as well as the learning goal, is clear in the learning process.  
     The authors of the articles dealing with the implementation of performance assessment also focus attention on the process of change, ways to effect change, and what that means for the people and the organizations in the process.
 

Costa, Arthur L. and Kallick, Bena (Eds.).  (1995).  Assessment in the Learning Organization – Shifting the Paradigm.  ASCD, Alexandria, VA

     Costa and Kallick have assembled an impressive collection of writings by outstanding educators dealing with improvement of learning organizations by improving assessment in their schools.  
     All the contributors are practicing educators who reflected on their personal experiences and insights gained in their schools and classrooms to focus on assessment and its potential for improving teaching and learning.  
     They share a common jumping-off point – the concept of a learning organization directing and renewing itself through continuous improvement of processes.  
     The articles deal with subjects like systems thinking, process design, giving up old mental models, teams building assessment-and assessment building teams, authentic assessment, school improvement, feedback, portfolios, standardized assessment, self-evaluation, making parents partners, revising report cards, and staff development.  They are all predicated on the theme of school renewal or reform to improve student learning and the role of assessment in that process.  
     I found the culminating article: Envisioning the World Anew: Seven Tasks Facing Learning Organizations, written by the editors, Costa and Kallick, especially thought-provoking.  In order to improve instruction and student learning, educators have to re-educate themselves, legislators, parents, board members and the community regarding issues of accountability, the necessity of forming new identities and roles, broadening the understanding and use of assessment, and nurturing the skills of self-assessment. 
 

Combs, Arthur, Miser, Ann and Whitaker, Kathyrn.  (1999).  On Becoming a School Leader.  ASCD,  Alexandria, VA

     Combs and Whitaker have focused on an often-trivialized aspect of educational reform – the people issues of the school.  They contrast the manipulation-of-forces concept of leadership that for so long has typified working relationships among educators with a person-centered leadership model.  
     The manipulation-of-forces approach is things-oriented and based on an industrial model where the products are things and where workers are regarded as part of the machinery to bring about the production of things.  It is recognized in psychology as behaviorist or stimulus-response.  People behave as a consequence of the stimuli they confront and the way to change behavior is to manipulate the forces exerted on people.  
     There are things about education that can be dealt with the manipulation-of-forces approach but, in education, students are the products, and the goal of teaching is student welfare.  And, aside from the family, education is the most person-centered of all institutions.  This new concept of understanding people, learning, and change is called humanist, cognitive, perceptual, or person-centered psychology.  People behave according to their perceptions or beliefs that they hold at the time they act.  It follows that teachers teach and students learn as a function of their belief systems.  It means that greater attention needs to be given to collecting and using data about people to make changes in schools, instruction, and learning.  
     Interacting with information is what enhances growth and learning.  Traditional school culture rewards competition, autonomy, and individualism within a faculty.  The authors present solid data and sound recommendations to create and sustain a culture of collegiality and collaboration that has as its goal the welfare of the people who are educating and being educated.
 

Herman, Joan, Aschbacher, Pamela and Winters, Lynn (1992).  A Practical Guide to Alternative Assessment. ASCD, Alexandria, VA

     Herman, Aschbacher and Winters have composed a lucid approach to investigating and shaping the role of assessment in the teaching/learning process under the education restructuring paradigm.  
     Assessment as a cornerstone of education reform merits the same scrutiny that has been given other aspects of restructuring; standards, curriculum, and teaching methodology, and the authors provide a systematic approach to the process of creating alternative forms of assessment based on current views of meaningful learning and curriculum and a standards-oriented restructuring effort.  The authors deal with issues critical to ensuring high-quality assessments; they consider both established and evolving principles of measurement quality as well as providing an overview of the key assessment development issues.  
     Alternative,authentic and performance-based assessment are all terms used when discussing alternatives to conventional, multiple choice testing. All three terms name variants of performance assessments that require students to generate rather than choose a response. 
     Teachers are setting and communicating standards to their students and their parents through testing.  It’s not that teachers should teach to the test or that tests should drive the curriculum.  Assessment should give feedback to students regarding how they (we) are doing and what they (we) can do better to achieve success. Purposeful teaching and learning are taking place. A quality curriculum requires a quality approach to assessment.
 

Jensen, Eric.  (1998).  Teaching with the brain in mind.  ASCD, Alexandria, VA

     Jensen amalgamates the latest research about learning and the brain in exploring brain-compatible learning experiences that capitalize on what is now known about the brain’s natural proclivities.
     In the last 20 years, study of the brain (neuroscience) has exploded!  In the 90’s, brain research contributed to new findings about the psychology of teaching and learning.  Jensen suggests ways to fashion classroom learning so that students can learn more effectively; based on his teaching experiences that incorporate these recent discoveries about the brain and learning.  
     Research shows that environmental stimulation and frequent new learning experiences and challenges linked with interactive feedback are critical to brain growth.  The single best way to grow a better brain is through challenging problem solving.  It is interesting that neural growth happens because of the process, not the solution!
     New findings about motivation and rewards show us that stimulus-response rewards are not effective for learning complex behaviors.  This refutes the behaviorist assumption that learning is primarily dependent on a reward. In our culture, emotion has been thought to be a distraction to learning.  However, there is no separation of mind and emotions in the brain.  Our emotions are our personalities and help us make most of our decisions.  
     The brain’s job is to make meaning; a learning process.  We would be doing our students a great disservice if we did not use knowledge of brain processes and learning processes to create successful learning ventures for our students.
 

Lambert, Linda.  (1998).  Building Leadership Capacity In Schools.  ASCD, Alexandria, VA

     Lambert conceives leadership in schools to be more than an individual leader and a role not only reserved for principals or superintendents.  She defines school leadership as synergistic energy and suggests enlarging the concept of leadership to be shared responsibility for a shared purpose of community.  
     She describes this new concept of leadership as the activities of a group of individuals participating in reciprocal learning processes where the participants are learning themselves toward a shared sense of purpose.  Leadership is a shared endeavor, skilled and complicated work that every member of the school community can learn, and that leads to constructive change. 
     Lambert has developed a leadership capacity matrix that she uses to describe conditions in schools with different levels of leadership capacity.  The two dimensions of participation that form the matrix are breadth and skillfulness.  Broad-based participation means involving many people in the work of leadership and skillful participation refers to participants’ comprehensive understanding of and demonstrated proficiency in the dispositions, knowledge, and skills of leadership.  Lambert illustrates how building leadership capacity can positively guide the dynamic interactions of school improvement efforts.  
     She outlines what must be done to build leadership capacity in schools: Using inquiry-based information to inform decisions and practice, developing roles and responsibilities that reflect broad involvement and collaboration, and accepting reflective practice/innovations are the underpinnings for building effective leadership in schools.   Leadership capacity is an essential element of any reform.
 

Lieberman, Ann and Miller, Lynn.  (1999).  Teachers – Transforming Their World and Their Work.  Teachers College Press, New York, NY

     In writing this book, Lieberman and Miller have made a significant contribution to the growing literature focusing on the central participants in school reform – the teachers.  They aptly describe the realities of the teacher’s world as each one of us strives to meet the challenges that are posed through current educational reform agendas.  They document what growth and change look like from the perspective of teachers in the process of transformation.  They focus on the constraints and possibilities embedded in practice.  
     At the core of teacher understanding of whole-school change is the process of a systematic questioning of all current instructional practices and a willingness to modify – even, if necessary, to eliminate- basic tenets that educators have traditionally held about what learning is and how it can be promoted for all students.
     They show how the restructuring effort transforms the individualism, isolation and privatism of traditional schools towards a more dynamic and responsive common culture that embodies norms of collegiality, openness and trust among teachers.  
     Research, reflection and systematic inquiry are at the core of teachers’ work in schools that are restructuring themselves. When the topics of conversation are about the work that students produce and the strategies that teachers use, the talk is most meaningful. Let’s not assume teaching is technical work, that development can be packaged and that teachers are the passive recipients of someone else’s knowledge!
 

Rothman, Robert (1995).   Measuring Up – Standards, Assessment and School Reform.  Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA

     Rothman describes in layman’s language what setting standards and the debate over performance assessment is really about.  He focuses on achievement testing, determining whether or not schools have succeeded in their essential mission.  
     Don’t let that put you off.  What he says about school reform and the implications of a revamped education system for teaching and student learning can easily be extrapolated to the classroom.  He investigates why skepticism and resistance to reform is deepest in places that consider their schools exemplary and see no need for change.     
     Until now, we have defined education by what goes into the system and tests have indicated which students got more out of the system and which got less.  The reformed system begins with outcomes – what students should leave school knowing and being able to do.  The inputs are important only to the extent that they lead students to the desired outcomes.
     Rothman says that other reforms transform only parts of the system; changes in testing go to the heart of the education enterprise: what students know and should be able to do. Thus those attempting to measure student performance are really trying to transform the entire education system.
 

Stiggins, Richard J. (1997).  Student-Centered Classroom Assessment.  Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ

      Assessment has a reputation for being quantitative, dry and boring. Over the decades, many educators have faced assessment training with trepidation.  Even today, most see assessment as merely the process of quantifying student achievement.  
     Stiggins believes that assessment is a challenge in clear thinking and effective communication rather than a clerical exercise or sorting technique.  Assessment can be empowering! He espouses a special philosophy about classroom assessment – a philosophy that places students at the center of the assessment equation.
      Though assessment takes a great deal of a teacher’s time and attention, it is not the only activity in the job of teaching. You’ve got to keep assessment in balance in terms of your use of time and in terms of its imposition on learners. 
     Stiggin’s text is a comprehensive and thorough exploration of assessment. 
The chapter topics lead the reader through revealing study and incorporation of assessment concepts that keep the student and learning at the center of classroom activity.
Any teacher can conduct this self-study on her own and derive benefit. But it offers a great opportunity to dialogue with colleagues and share the experience!  Teachers will find the information clearly and concisely explained with ample guidance and footnotes for the reflective hands-on exercises.  This is a “cookbook” for thoughtfully and purposefully using assessment to guide classroom instruction and student learning.
 

Wiggins, Grant and McTighe, Jay (1998).  Understanding by Design.  ASCD, Alexandria, VA

     The book is about understanding and its various facets and the design of curriculums and assessments to explore and deepen understanding of important ideas and to reveal the extent of the facets of these understandings.  The authors’ premise is that understanding is not a single concept but a family of interrelated abilities and that understanding is different from knowing.   
     Standards inform and shape our work.  Teachers are guided by national, state, district, or institutional standards that specify what students should know and be able to do.  These standards, along with student interests, developmental levels, and previous achievements, provide a framework to help us identify teaching and learning priorities and guide our design of curriculum and standards.  
     The authors describe a backward curricular design as the most effective.  Rather than beginning with textbooks, favored lessons, and time honored activities, one starts with the end – the desired results (goals or standards)- and then derives the curriculum from the evidence of learning (performances) called for by the standard and the teaching needed to equip students to perform.  This also means that assessments are designed as teachers begin to plan a unit or course, rather then waiting until the end of the unit.  The initial question is what evidence would we accept that shows students have attained the desired understandings and proficiencies.  Thinking like an “assessor” helps clarify goals and also results in a more sharply defined teaching and learning target, so that students perform better knowing their goal.