I’ve been fortunate in my adult life to develop opinions which are well-reasoned, insightful and practical. The issue with everyone else is that very few people have this special gift. It is reserved for a select group, of which I am a member. And if I want your opinion, I will give it to you.

Whew! Got that out of my system. It took a lot of work to put that in writing; now that I’m re-reading it––it is amazing in its accuracy. Or it could just be that I’m simply a victim of public education, but that would be too rationale.

In my professional life, I get to visit lots of schools and see all kinds of classroom activity. Most schools are populated with all kinds of good people: principals, teachers, volunteers and more. But it is also rare that educational leadership wants to challenge the status quo to boost learning beyond the norm. In too many schools, having a failure rate, er, I mean “not meeting proficiency” of…say…30% or 40% in a subject or grade… is seen as part of the package. No doubt, there’s plenty of blame to sling around: bad measurement systems, lousy technology, outdated tests, under fed students, poor legislation…well, you get the idea. It becomes difficult to find a gutsy leader who stands-up to this—someone who is fed-up with doing the same-old, same-old. Why is that? What about trying something a bit fresher, newer and proven-to-work? As I gaze across the education landscape, it seems to me there are simply too many followers––and they look much like a group of people trying to make it through another day. Maybe I’ve just defined the achievement of mediocrity…

Landmark research published in the 90s (see Wiliam and Black, 1998) points to the necessity of educators to understand what it takes to improve classroom instruction. They urge practitioners to embrace the use of formative assessment everyday, primarily because it is incredibly effective in boosting learning.

Formative assessment is a process that the best teachers use everyday. It is the idea of asking students a relevant question, waiting for their response––then providing feedback (direct or indirect) and encouraging students to process new information…simultaneously adjusting instruction, improving interaction and encouraging participation by all students. Since this research was published, numerous others have continued down this path and providing more validity to its use. Achievement in classrooms using formative assessment show dramatic improvements (see Hertiage, et al 2010).

In a classroom of 30 kids, how difficult is this to do? Using formative assessment requires teachers to plan better questions, encourage participation, accept real-time feedback, make adjustments in teaching and––above all––acknowledge that how they teach is not necessarily being processed by every student.

Formative assessment is oft-cited as creating a richer learning opportunity for both students and teachers. Teachers are reluctant to adopt this strategy for any number of reasons: proper training, leadership and fear-of-failure are a few that come to mind. But inviting students in on this process everyday seems a compelling argument to actively pursue this concept––and just might overcome a teacher’s inhibitions.