Chapter 14: Focusing On Moves-Based Formative Assessment to Increase Equity of Voice in Middle School Mathematics: A Case For Video-Based Professional Development

We have known for over two decades that what teachers do in their classrooms matters. John Hattie (2009, 2012) conducted an extensive meta-analysis examining 800 studies focused on locating a specific student achievement outcome and identifying an influence on that outcome. Formative assessment topped his list of the most influential practices that improve student outcomes.

We also know that the teacher practice of formative assessment as an instructional process connected to deeper learning—and not merely an assessment event or tool—plays a key role in helping students develop the cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal knowledge and skills needed for the 21st century (Gordon Commission on the Future of Assessment in Education, 2013; National Research Council, 2012). Such teaching and learning practices can help schools and classrooms become more equitable spaces for learning (Boaler, 2002). Inherently dialogic, the process of formative assessment between teacher and students provides linguistic-minority and high-poverty students in particular with multiple, authentic opportunities to develop academic language while engaging meaningfully with content matter and enacting discipline-specific practices (Linquanti, 2014). Teacher prioritization and practice of formative assessment can play an integral role in helping instantiate This We Believe’s (NMSA, 2010) call for middle level education to be developmentally responsive, challenging, empowering, and equitable.