Transformative Assessment, by W. James Popham ((Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2008)
Unlike the majority of short paperbacks published by ASCD, this book does not seem to lend itself so well to use in very brief meetings with teachers or teacher candidates. While many ASCD titles work well on weekend retreats or for “introduction, discussion, and application” in a one-day workshop, this one may need to be used in several meetings.
Because of the complicated presentation of the four major levels of formative assessment and the steps to using each one, presenters or teacher-educators may wish to assign a chapter and then cover it separately from others. The problem with adding so much complicated work to a busy teacher’s workday or semester is that a teaching tool meant to improve one’s teaching can have an adverse effect: it can confuse educators to the point that they give up trying to use it.
The author tells us there are four different levels of formative assessment, starting with the teacher’s strategies for checking on students’ ongoing mastery of concepts and ranging all the way to schoolwide implementation of the process. He tells us of the development of the term and shows the interest in this process, starting with work done by the Council of Chief State School Officers. Growing out of the work on formative assessment is Popham’s work with “transformative” aspects of assessment, meaning the ways in which a school can be changed at those four levels.
Popham here presents a helpful but difficult explanation of formative assessment, beginning by explaining that this process is one used by teachers as a way to monitor student learning and by students as a way to assess whether they are digesting the pieces of information being covered by the teacher. It has a constructivist aspect to it, in that the students are supposed to get better as figuring out what they should know and how they should be able to show it.
Murky begets murky, though, and on top of the four different levels of formative assessment there are different stages that need to be given attention. This makes the confusion a little more pointed, and it may be that many busy educators simply don’t have the energy to focus on what is being proposed here. There is, however, a very clear discussion of how standardized testing works, and why 1) it is not a form of formative assessment; 2) it does not necessarily reflect good teaching; and 3) it does not necessarily improve in a building where educators have embraced the strategies and principles of formative assessment.
The above negative points having been made, I would recommend that you regard this text as a good resource and a decent overview of formative assessment and Popham’s version of it. However, you as teacher educators and classroom experts in your own right will have to decide whether you have a good use for this short book. I might use it as optional reading in an advanced course for students who would have experience teaching and who could critique it for themselves.
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