In his session from the 2005 Conference on Teaching and Learning entitled “Using Multiple Assessments to Gather Evidence of Student Learning,” W. James Popham describes one of the benefits to his “split and switch” strategy for assessment [play audio clip]:
You see, if you can show pre-test to post-test growth on the part of kids, but it deals with a fairly pedestrian skill, you’re not going to persuade the world that you’ve done a great job of teaching. But if you can identify a really powerful, knock-your-socks-off skill and show parents, and the public at large, that kids couldn’t do it before and can do it now; then that’s very worthwhile.
This session and others is available on CD in the ASCD Online Store: http://shop.ascd.org/productdisplay.cfm?productid=506071.
