The Classroom Assessment Podcast

Dylan Wiliam, Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at UCL, reflects on his shift from music to mathematics teaching and decades of work on formative assessment. He discusses scaling formative practices, the limits and coaching potential of AI, classroom-safe assessment strategies like oral checks, and designing teacher-led, practical reforms that actually improve learning.

James McMillan, Distinguished Career Professor and Professor Emeritus at Virginia Commonwealth University with four decades in classroom assessment research. He traces his path from dissertation work to a lifelong focus on feedback, motivation, and how assessment affects student learning. The conversation highlights teachers' decision moments, bridging psychometrics and classroom practice, and a vision for discipline-specific, practical research.

Lorrie A. Shepard, University Distinguished Professor and veteran measurement researcher, reflects on sociocultural learning and equitable assessment. She discusses the limits of standardized tests and the value of richer, open-ended tasks. Grading harms, culturally responsive approaches, and practical 'as-if' grades come up. She also urges stronger partnerships between content experts and assessment researchers.

Susan M. Brookhart, Professor Emerita and noted classroom assessment researcher, reflects on her shift from teaching to research and her influential work on grading and formative assessment. She discusses linking classroom data with measurement research, the rise of theory-driven studies, assessing co-regulated learning, and cautious integration of digital tools and AI in assessment.

Hasmik Movsisyan, an early childhood educator and MESL graduate who researched mindfulness for impulse control. Cynthia Sistek, MA SEL program director and ed-tech leader. Dee Fabry, lifelong educator and assessment specialist. They discuss student-centered formative assessing, integrating mindfulness and emotion tools, practical SEL assessment plans and tech supports, and real classroom case studies.

Tracey Tinley, an elementary teacher and instructional coach who supports colleagues in formative assessment, and Martha Koch, a university professor specializing in assessment and math education, discuss helping educators enact formative practices. They talk about pre-service teacher fears, supports for newcomer students, reducing emphasis on grades, practical classroom strategies, and balancing system accountability with formative use.

Early career scholar Erin Riley-Lepo is joined by Erin Furtak, PhD and her collaborators Clarissa Deverel-Rico, PhD, Ryann Patrick-Stuart, and Samantha Duwe. The group shares how they began their work together many years ago, their current collaborations, the challenges and joys of a changing assessment culture in a school district, and their plans for the future.

Early career scholar Erin Riley-Lepo is joined by Suzanne Abdelrahim, Margarita Jimenez-Silva, Rachel Restani, and Valeria Zunino-Edelsberg. to discuss their collaboration with math teachers of emergent bilinguals in a large California school district. The conversation focuses on engaging emergent bilingual students in talking about math, the importance of encouraging translanguaging in the classroom, and the essential role the math teachers who participate in the study play in their work.

Early career scholar Erin Riley-Lepo is joined by professor Heidi Andrade (EdD) and teacher Edwin Brathwaite, who collaborated through Arts Assessment for Learning, a partnership between the NYC Department of Education's Office of Special Projects and ArtsConnection. The conversation focuses on formative assessment in the arts. The trio also discusses how formative assessment supports Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and how it facilitates a common language between teachers and students.

Graduate Student Representative Erin Riley-Lepo is joined by Comfort Ateh, Ph.D., and Aaron Wyngowski, a middle-school social studies teacher who collaborated with Dr. Ateh on a study of formative assessment and the Common Core State Standards. The two discuss their work on subject-specific formative assessment. Mr. Wyngowski also shares his experiences with project-based learning in social studies classrooms and Dr. Ateh calls for more research into equitable formative assessment practices.