ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on contemporary research in formative classroom assessment and its implications for online learning. The specific question examined is, how did secondary school teachers adapt their classroom assessment practices for online learning at the onset of COVID-19? In semistructured interviews, 17 secondary school teachers described how they used formative classroom assessment to meet students’ learning needs while grappling with systemic challenges during the pandemic. The chapter describes teachers’ (a) successes and challenges in adapting to online learning; (b) use of performance assessments as an authentic, defensible practice; and (c) engagement of students in cycles of feedback and self-assessment. Teachers repeatedly emphasized needing to change what and how they assessed to support students’ learning needs. Wide disparities were observed in teachers’ experiences adapting to the online environment, but the authors echo the well-established fact that emergency remote teaching and conventional online learning are fundamentally different. The chapter is firmly rooted in the belief that teachers are capable professionals whose ongoing professional learning is central to student success. The insights provided by participants will enable classroom teachers, teacher educators, and other stakeholders to consider how best to support necessary adaptations to online learning from the context of emergency assessment.
