Dylan Wiliam, PhD, is one of the world’s foremost education authorities. He has helped to successfully implement classroom formative assessment in thousands of schools all over the world, including the United States, Singapore, Sweden, Australia, and the United Kingdom. A two-part BBC series, “The Classroom Experiment,” tracked Wiliam’s work at one British middle school, showing how formative assessment strategies empower students, significantly increase engagement, and shift classroom responsibility from teachers to their students so that students become agents of and collaborators in their own learning.
Wiliam’s most recent book Creating the Schools Our Children Need: Why What We’re Doing Now Won’t Help Much (And What We Can Do Instead) breaks down the methods American schools use to improve, and the gaps between what research tells us works and what we actually do. His additional works focus on the profound impact strategic formative assessment has on student learning. He is co-author of Inside the Black Box, a major review of the research evidence on formative assessment, as well as Embedding Formative Assessment: Practical Techniques for K-12 Classrooms, the Embedding Formative Assessment Professional Development Pack, and Leadership for Teacher Learning. Learn more about Wiliam’s research, as well as his products and services at the Learning Sciences Dylan Wiliam Center.
Rick Stiggins is a 1968 graduate of SUNY Plattsburgh, holds a master’s degree from Springfield College, and a PhD from Michigan State in educational measurement. After serving on the faculty of education at the University of Minnesota, he also acted as director of test development at the ACT® and on the senior research staff of the Northwest Regional Lab in Portland, OR. Rick founded the Assessment Training Institute (ATI) in 1992 to fulfill the mission of providing teachers and school leaders with the assessment literacy they need to fulfill their rapidly evolving assessment responsibilities. Rick has authored dozens of articles, books, and training programs, all of which promote the sound assessment practices from the classroom to the boardroom. For three decades, Rick and the ATI team have developed and refined innovative approaches to helping practitioners assess accurately and use the classroom assessment process productively to support, not merely monitor, student learning. The ATI learning team approach to in-service assessment training has been used productively across the U.S., Canada, and around the world.
Susan M. Brookhart, Ph.D., is an independent educational consultant and author based in Helena, Montana. Brookhart’s interests include the role of both formative and summative classroom assessment in student motivation and achievement, the connection between classroom assessment and large-scale assessment, and grading. She was the 2007-2009 editor of Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, a journal of the National Council on Measurement in Education. She is author or co-author of 16 books and more than 60 articles and book chapters on classroom assessment, teacher professional development, and evaluation. She serves on the editorial boards of several journals. Dr. Brookhart received her Ph.D. in Educational Research and Evaluation from The Ohio State University, after teaching in both elementary and middle schools. She was a full-time faculty member at Duquesne University, most recently as Professor and Chair of the Department of Educational Foundations and Leadership. She currently serves as a Research and Professional Development Consultant in the Center for Advancing the Study of Teaching and Learning in the School of Education at Duquesne. Check out her book Performance Assessment Showing What Students Know and Can Do.
Jay McTighe brings a wealth of experience developed during a rich and varied career in education. He served as director of the Maryland Assessment Consortium, a state collaboration of school districts working together to develop and share formative performance assessments. Prior to this position, Jay was involved with school improvement projects at the Maryland State Department of Education where he helped lead Maryland's standards-based reforms, including the development of performance-based statewide assessments. He also directed the development of the Instructional Framework, a multimedia database on teaching. Well known for his work with thinking skills, Jay has coordinated statewide efforts to develop instructional strategies, curriculum models, and assessment procedures for improving the quality of student thinking. In addition to his work at the state level, Jay has experience at the district level in Prince George’s County, Maryland, as a classroom teacher, resource specialist, and program coordinator. He also directed a state residential enrichment program for gifted and talented students. Jay is an accomplished author, having co-authored 14 books, including the award-winning and best-selling Understanding by Design series with Grant Wiggins. His books have been translated into six languages. Jay has also written more than 35 articles and book chapters, and been published in leading journals, including Educational Leadership (ASCD) and ED WEEK.