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How can assessment practices be designed to best support student learning? In school, the term “assessment” is often shorthand for “grades”—or, perhaps, tests, quizzes, rubrics, and similar evaluative tools. However, thinking of “assessment” as interchangeable with “test” or “grade” limits the potential for assessment practices to lead to meaningful and deeper learning.
In 2009 I began an internship at the Innovation Unit in London. It being an internship, I was doing a little of everything, but my main project was Learning Futures, whose goal was to make school more engaging for students. 
Charged with the challenge and the honour of trying to capture the spectacular quality of David Price’s life, an image, not words, came to mind.
School operation teams, the backbone of making the school day happen across the country, are often invisible. With little acknowledgement of success, it's easy to notice when things fall apart: when buses don’t arrive on time, admission numbers are lower, computers stop working, or thousands of dollars are wasted on food ordered, but never eaten.
“I am a teacher and I routinely make positive phone calls home,” said Laura. “But their power really hit home when my son’s teacher called me to tell me something great he did at school. I was worried that he was flying under the radar, but she noticed and that call brought me to tears.”
“You know how you can tell you’re in a happy school within 30 seconds of walking through the front door?” This is a statement/question that I’ve experienced on countless occasions during a lifetime spent in education. It has a ring of truth to it and we’ve all felt it as visitors or (worse) inspectors.
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