Dr. Thomas Guskey speaks to educators.
While many educators are on summer break, the learning never stops. A group of educators and school leaders from across Rensselaer, Columbia and Greene County school districts joined the Questar III BOCES School Improvement Office for a day of professional development through a session with Dr. Thomas Guskey titled “Grading and Reporting Student Learning”.
The event was attended by 12 districts plus Questar III CTE and Special Education schools, who actively participated through large group presentations, small group discussions, and individual team meetings with Dr. Guskey himself. Together they explored the advantages and shortcomings of different grading methods and the implications of those methods for classroom policy and practice, learned how changing the meaning and consequences of grades can affect students’ motivations and understanding of the learning process, and discussed how to ensure the grades assigned to student performance is fair, accurate, meaningful, equitable and educationally sound.
Twelve area districts and Questar III CTE and Special Education schools participate in professional development.
This event is one of many organized by the Questar III BOCES School Improvement Team to support our 22 component districts with professional development opportunities for their employees. The goal is for these educators to take their newfound knowledge back to their district to help foster growth and understanding on how to better grade their students.
Dr. Thomas Guskey is Professor Emeritus in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky where he served as Department Chair, Head of the Educational Psychology Area Committee, and President of the Faculty Council. He has been a Visiting Professor at ten other universities in the U.S. and a Visiting Scholar at universities in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. He began his career in education as a middle school teacher and earned his doctorate at the University of Chicago under the direction of Professor Benjamin S. Bloom. He served as an administrator in Chicago Public Schools before becoming the first director of the Center for the Improvement of Teaching and Learning, a national research center.
Dr. Guskey is the author/editor of 25 award-winning books and more than 250 book chapters, articles, and professional papers on educational measurement, evaluation, assessment, grading, and professional learning. His work is dedicated to helping teachers and school leaders use quality educational research to help all their students learn well and gain the many valuable benefits of that success. To learn more about Dr. Guskey’s accolades and work, click here.
Questar III’s School Improvement Office offers services and programs to support all stakeholders in the education community. Programs and services include: Arts and Enrichment; Data Analysis; Embedded Professional Development in ELA, mathematics, social studies, science, and special education; Grant Writing; Home Schooling Review; Leadership Coaching; Model Schools; Program Evaluation; PR/HYLI (the Angelo Del Toro Puerto Rican Hispanic Youth Leadership Institute; RBERN (the Capital District Regional Bilingual Education Resource Network); Regional Scoring; School Library System. School Improvement programs and services support best practices guided by New York State learning standards and current research. Programs and services are tailored to meet the needs of school districts and schools. Learn more about their services here.
