Leaders of Their Own Learning - by Ron Berger & Leah Rugen & Libby Woodfin & El Education (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From EL Education comes a proven approach to student assessment

Leaders of Their Own Learning offers a new way of thinking about assessment based on the celebrated work of EL Education schools across the country. Student-Engaged Assessment is not a single practice but an approach to teaching and learning that equips and compels students to understand goals for their learning and growth, track their progress toward those goals, and take responsibility for reaching them. This requires a set of interrelated strategies and structures and a whole-school culture in which students are given the respect and responsibility to be meaningfully engaged in their own learning.

• Includes everything teachers and school leaders need to implement a successful Student-Engaged Assessment system in their schools
• Outlines the practices that will engage students in making academic progress, improve achievement, and involve families and communities in the life of the school
• Describes each of the book's eight key practices, gives advice on how to begin, and explains what teachers and school leaders need to put into practice in their own classrooms
• Ron Berger is Chief Program Officer for EL Education and a former public school teacher

Leaders of Their Own Learning shows educators how to ignite the capacity of students to take responsibility for their own learning, meet Common Core and state standards, and reach higher levels of achievement.

Video and other supplementary materials are not included as part of the e-book file, but are available for download after purchase.

From the Back Cover

Leaders of Their Own Learning

Leaders of Their Own Learning offers a new way of thinking about assessment based on the celebrated work of EL Education (formerly known as Expeditionary Learning). Student-Engaged Assessment involves students in understanding and investing in their own growth, changing the primary role of assessment from evaluating and ranking students to motivating them to learn. Student-Engaged Assessment ignites the capacity of students to take responsibility for their own learning, building the independence, critical thinking skills, perseverance, and self-reflective understanding they need to meet the demands of the Common Core, reach higher levels of achievement, and succeed in college, careers, and life.

This book offers teachers and leaders a clear, detailed blueprint for implementing Student-Engaged Assessment, including a wealth of videos that demonstrate core practices in action.

Praise for Leaders of Their Own Learning

"Long before the nation began discussing Common Core standards, EL Education was working with thousands of educators to design learning targets that expressed clear, shared understanding for what students should know and be able to do. Let this serve as your guide to EL Education, a concept so successful but so simple that you'll wonder aloud why it isn't universally available for those kids who would benefit from it most."

--From the Foreword by Mike Johnston, Colorado state senator

"Chockfull of examples, tips, and video illustrations, this masterful book achieves the remarkable feat of being both a practical how-to guide for how students, teachers, and school leaders can use student-engaged assessment, and a visionary argument for how we can invert the school reform pyramid and put students in charge of their own learning."

--Jal Mehta, associate professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education; author, The Allure of Order

About the Author

Ron Berger, chief academic officer for EL Education, taught public school for more than twenty-five years.

Leah Rugen has worked as an educator and writer for more than twenty years.

Libby Woodfin, a former teacher, is director of publications for EL Education.