Many thanks to Grace Gorman, who has agreed to review Fisher and Frey's book, "Checking for Understanding," for our website.

I will be attending the ASCD Leader to Leader event in Virginia this weekend. If anyone else is planning to attend, please introduce yourself. I would welcome the opportunity to chat with you.

I need to correct an error I made in my post 2 days ago. Our group and wall are indeed available to the general public, not just ASCD members. So, the website will contain a link to the group and individuals who are not ASCD members will be able to participate in our discussions. Sorry for the misinformation!
Would anyone be willing to read and review the new ASCD book, "What Teachers Really Need to Know About Formative Assessment" so that we can publish the review on our website? We will need book reviewers on a regular basis, as well as reporters for columns on research and news about assessment. Thanks.

Hello, everyone. I'm the facilitator of the Assessment for Learning Professional Interest Community. Our group has been in existence for many years, starting out in the 1990's as the Authentic Assessment Network. This is my second term as facilitator, having served as co-facilitator with Dr. Judith Dorsch Backes about 10 years ago. We've not been very active for several years, but we've had a network forum each year at the Annual Conference, and we've been present at all of the meetings that ASCD holds for facilitators. When ASCD recently restructured its professional networking opportunities and established the Edge, I welcomed the opportunity to reestablish an active, useful network. I set up this Edge group several months ago to determine if there was enough interest to initiate a couple of other communication formats, and the response has been overwhelming. We are one of the most populated groups on the Edge! I received a small grant from ASCD to develop a website, which is in progress and will be ready for initial launch in a few weeks. We have enough money to register on the internet with Google and a few other search sources, so hopefully we will get widespread attention. I have purchased the domain name already, and will post our URL as soon as the site is launched. In the mean time, I welcome your input regarding website features and resources that you think would be helpful. Whereas the Edge site and discussion forum available here is limited to participation by ASCD members, the website will be open access. I welcome participation in the governance and development of our group from anyone who wishes to help, especially if you would like to contribute to the website by reviewing books or writing short articles. Please contact me - either just to say hello or to volunteer - at alvestad@umd.edu. I look forward to working with each of you.

I worked with a cohort group this past year going through the Assessment for Learning book from ATI. I am interested in research concerning formative assessment.

I do not doubt I would be a better teacher if I had a better understanding of how, when, and what to assess and, of course, what should be done with the data. Needless to say I am interested in this conversation. I am hearing some names here that are new to me (yes, I will check out Stiggins)and some that are familiar but about which I would like to learn more (UbD). , Robert, your passion and knowlege on the subject are easily spotted in your comments. I will definitely check out your blog. By the way, I teach fifth grade in an urban public school. I know good teaching is good teaching, but I am particularly interested in how teacher skill at assessing reflects positively in narrowing the achievemnt gap. Just going to check in now and then, get some information, learn a few things and see where it takes me.