In this back-to-school episode, Tom and Nat dive into the often-overlooked reality that your first assessments and grading decisions send powerful messages to students that can shape the classroom culture for the entire year.

They unpack how early assessment choices communicate your values, influence student confidence, and either build or erode trust. From designing low-stakes, feedback-rich tasks to avoiding common grading traps, you’ll discover practical ways to set a learning-focused tone from day one. Whether you’re a new teacher or a seasoned pro, this episode will help you start the year with clarity, intention, and an assessment culture that inspires growth.

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As the school year winds down, it’s the perfect time to pause, reflect, and refine. In this episode, Tom and Nat walk you through five powerful questions to guide an end-of-year assessment audit—no data deep dives or compliance checklists required. Just clear, practical ways to decide what assessment strategies to keep, adjust, or let go. Whether you’re packing up your classroom or planning for next year, this episode will help you carry forward what works and ditch what doesn’t.

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In this episode, Tom and Nat continue the discussion about their new book, "Rehumanizing Assessment: Gathering Evidence of Student Learning through Storytelling." This episode takes a deeper dive into how, through various story structures, students can tell the story of WHAT they're learning and HOW they're learning.

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In this episode, Tom and Nat introduce listeners to their new book, "Rehumanizing Assessment: Gathering Evidence of Student Learning through Storytelling." While subsequent episodes will focus on specific aspects and strategies, this episode is an overview of why they wrote the book and who the target audience is.

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In this episode, Tom and Nat explore the intersection between assessment and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Specifically, they highlight five important connections:

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In this episode, Tom and Nat play the game "Would You Rather," exploring five assessment dilemmas that teachers and schools often face:

Would You Rather:

#1: Allow students to redo assessments right up to report card deadlines, or cut off revisions two weeks early to protect your feedback quality and mental health? 

#2: Suppress a student’s grade when evidence is insufficient, or assign a best-estimate level using professional judgment to avoid blank spaces on reports? 

#3: Use a single holistic score to reflect overall proficiency on a standard, or break it down into multiple component scores for clarity — even if it overwhelms families? 

#4: Prioritize the accuracy of the final report card by using only summative tasks, or include some formative data to recognize effort and encourage student morale? 

#5: Give more weight to recent evidence to honor growth, or consider the full body of work to avoid inflated grades from last-minute surges? 

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Tom and Nat explore some important reminders about how to ensure that the assessment of both Project- and Inquiry-Based Learning are meaningful, cognitively complex, and substantive. Just "doing" PBL or Inquiry is not enough. The promise of these approaches to learning is deeper learning so our assessment practices need to reach that promise.

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In this Tom Schimmer Podcast classic, Tom is joined by Gholdy Muhammad to discuss her book, "Cultivating Genius, an Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy." 

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In this episode, Tom and Nat share a three-year checklist for implementing standards-based grading. Of course, every checklist must be checked" against the culture and nuances of each specific situation. but generally, this checklist will provide a road map that can at least initiate the journey; you can adjust from there

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In this episode, Tom and Nat discuss the "Secrets to Self-Assessment." Having students competent in self-assessment is the ultimate outcome of teachers' assessment literacy; teachers need to teach students how to do it.

Tom and Nat discuss (1) Why Self-Assessment matters, (2) How to overcome the inevitable challenges and roadblocks that come with early implementation, and (3) Five effective self-assessment strategies.

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