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The very best starting place, Rick contends, is for teachers and local school leaders to engage in a high-quality professional development program in formative classroom assessment. He urges them to become assessment literate in those terms.

Rick focuses on the concept of academic self-efficacy or extent to which students feel in control of their own academic well-being. He details how principles of “assessment FOR learning” or formative assessment can strengthen a student’s sense of efficacy.

Rick addresses the emotional dynamics of the assessment experience from the student’s point of view. Those dynamics reveal that learners benefit from partnering with their teacher in ongoing formative assessment as they grow.

Rick describes how to use formative assessment practices effectively in the classroom, detailing 5 keys to quality and highlighting the importance of student involvement in the ongoing assessment of their own achievement as they grow.

Rapid changes in our society necessitate that schools produce students capable of adapting the rapid changes in their professional and personal lives; they must be capable lifelong learners.

Rick outlines the elements of truly balanced local assessment systems; that is, systems that meet the information needs of all assessment users/instructional decision makers from the classroom to the boardroom.