Douglas Reeves

A good description of a 100-day school improvement system, making the point that to achieve long-term goals, you need to build in short-term wins. While it does seem to overweigh the short-term benefits, the main point still holds.

Recommended for anyone interested in school leadership or school improvement.

This was a disappointing read because it didn't tell me anything that I hadn't already considered from other books about assessment, or from PD workshops and conferences. I also found it to be a bit repetitive, stressing that feedback needs to be FAST; fair, accurate, specific and timely. This was mentioned multiple times, and was the main message of the entire book. Although this is a second addition, I didn't find the updated chapter on technology use very useful. This would be a useful show more book for an educator who knew nothing about standard based grading, and wanted a place to start. In our board, I feel that we are well versed in the ideas mentioned by Mr. Reeves. We haven't necessarily mastered the implementation, but we are well on our way. show less

For the third book and trilogy on assessment, we reach back three years to the wonderful series done by Solution Tree Press on major topics in education. Like other volumes such as 21st Century Skills in the same series, the editors reach out to the major thinkers in education and assemble thoughtful essays about the topic. For any teacher librarian trying to keep up in the major ideas being discussed in the field, this series is the best source to “keep up with the Joneses” on what is show more known about teaching and learning. In this volume, Reeves includes articles by Larry Ainsworth, Lisa Almeida, Anne Davies, Richard DuFour, Linda Gregg, Thomas Guskey, Robert Marzano, Ken O’Connor, Douglas Reeves, Rick Stiggins, Stephen White, and Dylan Wiliam. Readign these experts gives one a sense of what assessment is all about and the ability to help shape what is happening in the school as we all push beyond the high stakes recall tests of NCLB. show less