Reviews
Nancy Commins - March 2, 2022
This wonderful book could not have appeared at a better time. We are most fortunate that Margo Gottlieb and Diep Nguyen have created a rational and durable framework for orchestrating the competing demands on educators for accountability, program improvement, and appropriate classroom instruction. They delineate the complex issues of assessment in linguistically diverse settings and adeptly address the different dimensions along which educators are asked to evaluate their students and their programs.
More importantly, they provide a blueprint for the creation of a comprehensive assessment system, gained through the application of their ideas in practice. Their work is predicated upon the premise that assessment is done at different levels for different purposes, all of which are valid. There is not a hierarchy in which some are the real or most important assessments, but rather the different dimensions function in a dynamic relationship that is constantly evolving..
Christine Coombe - March 2, 2022
A clear strength of this volume is the clarity in the presentation of the information and the reader-friendly graphs and charts.
At a time when educators experience the competing demands of accountability, program improvement and appropriate classroom instruction, this volume presents complex assessment issues from a variety of diverse perspectives and offers solutions at all levels.
Research is also at the fore...where Gottlieb & Nguyen draw on empirical evidence to promote their BASIC model. They describe research-based principles of assessment that help define the nature, role, and uses of different kinds of data that might be acquired through formal and informal assessments.
Even though the target audience for the Gottlieb & Nguyen book is administrators and teachers, I feel that it is very accessible for the average classroom teacher. This is helped by the initial features of the chapters 'Chapter overview', 'Guiding questions' and 'Key concepts', and those at the end, 'Questions for reflection and action'.