{"podcast":{"title":"School of Practice","slug":"school-of-practice-7494269","podcast_index_feed_id":7494269,"rss_url":"https://wpvip.edutopia.org/feed/podcast/school-of-practice","website_url":"https://www.edutopia.org/","image_url":"https://wpvip.edutopia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/school-of-practice.png","author":"Edutopia","episode_count":22,"summary":"School of Practice, the first podcast from the team at Edutopia, brings you ready-to-use strategies to improve your teaching today. Join us for 15-minute episodes filled with smart, pedagogy-shifting advice—backed by research and test-driven by teachers just like you.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-14T20:20:21.537972+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/school-of-practice-7494269"},"episode":{"title":"How to Use Formative Assessment Like an Expert Teacher","slug":"how-to-use-formative-assessment-like-an-expert-teacher","published_at":"2026-02-03T11:01:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/school-of-practice-7494269/how-to-use-formative-assessment-like-an-expert-teacher","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/school-of-practice-7494269","url":"https://www.edutopia.org/","audio_url":"https://wpvip.edutopia.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/JayM_FormAssess_v6-DK_withAD_-18LUFS.mp3","summary":"Have you ever been shocked when your students bomb a unit test after weeks of seemingly locked-in learning? Veteran educator Jay McTighe has the ultimate research-backed solution: formative assessment. In the best-case scenario, it’s frequent, quick, and highly attuned to the content and your students. “You don’t want to wait till the end to find out, ‘Gosh, I didn’t realize the kids never understood this concept or had this continued skill error,’” says McTighe, an author and assessment expert. “Whatever you’re teaching, you should always be doing very quick checks to see how it’s working.” Frequent pulse checks midstream are “potentially one of a classroom educator’s most powerful tools to enhance student learning,” according to David Marzano, a leading researcher. They’re also important tools for students to gauge their own progress. The key to getting the best outcomes is *how* you deploy them. In this episode of School of Practice, we chat with McTighe about how to get the most out of formative assessments, how to choose the right technique for your content and students, how to insert them seamlessly into the flow of instruction, and whether or not they should be graded. Plus, Jay shares his “Vagoo Rule,” a mysterious yet very important tip that you won’t want to miss. Related resources: 8 Quick Checks for Understanding Building SEL Skills Through Formative Assessment 7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment 13 Super-Quick Formative Assessments Research: The Impact of Formative Assessment on K-12 Learning: A Meta-Analysis Assessing Student Learning by Design: Principles and Practices for Teachers and School Leaders Research: The Effectiveness and Features of Formative Assessment in US K-12 Education: A Systematic Review Seven Keys to Effecti…","meta_description":"Have you ever been shocked when your students bomb a unit test after weeks of seemingly locked-in learning? Veteran educator Jay McTighe has the ultimate…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1288,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/school-of-practice-7494269/episodes/how-to-use-formative-assessment-like-an-expert-teacher/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/school-of-practice-7494269/how-to-use-formative-assessment-like-an-expert-teacher.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}