The Assessment Bridge
Positive Ways to Link Tests to Learning, Standards, and Curriculum Improvement
- Pearl G. Solomon - St. Thomas Aquinas College
Leadership & Management | Standards & Accountability | Summative Assessment & Testing
"Just the kind of bridge we need to span the ideological wars and make schools work for teachers and their students."
Ann Lieberman
Senior Scholar, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Visiting Professor, Stanford University
"In her supremely well-written and useful book, Dr. Solomon has woven together historical perspective, research, and her own considerable experience to address reforming schools in the 21st Century. After defining the problem (productive change), Dr. Solomon has examined 'old' solutions and conceptualized new ones to create better schools for students."
Nancy Goldman, Director of Curriculum
Pearl River School District
Pearl River, NY
"Standards and implementation of the learning process go hand in hand. The Assessment Bridge makes us clearly aware of the present need for a bridge between the two so that standards may not create greater failure and the rejection of formal education by many children."
Matthew Foley, Pastor
Epiphany Roman Catholic Church
We must ensure that tests serve the needs of education—not force education to fulfill needs of test creators.
The Assessment Bridge is award-winning educator Pearl Solomon's penetrating and cogent examination of today's high-stakes standards-based testing movement, which seems to compromise effective teaching and learning rather than improve it. Committed teachers know the importance of student assessment as a guide to classroom instruction. Restoring assessment to its proper place in the curriculum is the goal of this clear-headed analysis. Chapters cover:
- The origins and history of the current testing movement
- How good tests guide teaching and learning
- How to balance standardized tests, curriculum standards, and critical local variables such as class size, socioeconomics, and teacher attitudes
- How to build bridges from test anxiety to improved student learning, teacher training, curriculum and instruction, and school administration and leadership
- How to recruit, train, and nurture a new generation of talented, committed, and effective teachers
Emphasizing the positive at all times, Solomon guides us toward creation of better schools where the best teachers and school leaders link tests to standards, curriculum, and improved student learning.
"Just the kind of bridge we need to span the ideological wars and make schools work for teachers and their students."
"In her supremely well-written and useful book, Dr. Solomon has woven together historical perspective, research, and her own considerable experience to address reforming schools in the 21st Century. After defining the problem (productive change), Dr. Solomon has examined "old" solutions and conceptualized new ones to create better schools for students. She has focused the reader's attention on critical issues to be addressed--restructuring curriculum around assessment to inform instruction; selecting, training, and retaining the best teachers; and developing shared leadership--and has offered useful and practical suggestions to address them."
"Standards and implementation of the learning process go hand in hand. The Assessment Bridge makes us clearly aware of the present need for a bridge between the two so that standards may not create greater failure and the rejection of formal education by many children."
"This book presents the needed material to follow from Dr. Solomon’s work on standards and curriculum. It completes the bridge from goals to accountability by introducing a better understanding of assessment. It will allow educators to better comprehend the key instructional issues that we face."
"Dr. Solomon's latest is, once again, a gem. The Assessment Bridge offers a wealth of concrete tools and examples to support schools, administrators, and teachers in providing meaningful student learning experiences in (and despite) a high-stakes testing environment. Her reflections and inquiry on her own teaching and learning experiences are woven throughout, and present a unique context and historical perspective that somehow make this task possible. It will be high on my list of recommended resource books."