Teacher Professional Development: 5 Formative Assessment Fundamentals for Common Core Success

One of the key elements of the Common Core is the notion of motivating students to apply higher-order thinking and support it with evidence. As school districts work to develop and implement curricula for the Common Core State Standards, teachers need to master an important skill in order to support this new level of thinking: engaging the entire classroom in deeper discussion.

But how can we make sure all of our teachers and instructional staff are prepared for this shift?

Professional development that is grounded in the proven fundamentals of formative assessment can go a long way toward preparing teachers for success with a Common Core curriculum. In particular, focusing teacher professional development on the following five key areas is essential:

1. Making expectations for students clear
2. Leading students to higher-order thinking by eliciting evidence of learning and providing feedback
3. Personalizing the learning environment with student-directed differentiation
4. Creating depth of knowledge and resources within the classroom by activating students as instructional resources for one another
5. Collaborating with other teachers to lead, grow, reflect, and learn

Let’s take a closer look at each of these five key areas.