Testing expert W. James Popham cuts through the jargon and the hype to provide the definitive nuts-and-bolts introduction to formative assessment, a process with the power to completely transform teaching and learning. In his inimitable style, Popham explains the research supporting formative assessment's effectiveness and why familiarity with this research is the key to preserving both teacher sanity and district funds. You'll find step-by-step guidance on how to build frameworks for formative assessment and how to carry out each of the process's four levels: teachers' instructional adjustments, students' learning tactic adjustments, a classroom climate shift, and schoolwide implementation. This book is the place to start for educators considering formative assessment, curious about why their school system is embracing formative assessment, or wondering why the ""formative assessments"" they're using now aren't producing the desired results. Here, you'll learn what formative assessment is and isn't, what it can do and what it can't, and the practical way to reap its very real rewards: better teaching and better learning.