by Paul Cancellieri

Assessment and grading are a sort of passion for me.  I spend a lot of time thinking about the assessments I use in my class, from informal exit tickets to full-blown tests.  I start planning every unit with an idea of what the final summative assessment will look like and I work backwards from there.  I use formative assessment data to plan differentiated instruction.  But, recently, I discovered a free online tool that made all of this much more efficient.

The tool is called MasteryConnect, and it does several things well.  First, it’s a platform for sharing assessments that are linked to state curriculum standards and the Common Core.  Second, it allows teachers to quickly scan “bubble sheet” style answer sheets using just a webcam.  Third, it displays student mastery data in an intuitive color-coded way that allows educators to immediately see which students need more attention.

MasteryConnect serves all three of these missions in a beautiful, intuitive package that teachers can use for free.  A more advanced level of service, which includes features such as sharing assessments and data with teachers in your school/district/PLC and the ability to use their webcam scanner on assessments longer than ten questions, is available for an annual fee. I enjoy that MasteryConnect keeps me honest, ensuring that every single question that I put on an assessment is relevant and measures critical knowledge.

Guest Blogger Biography

Paul Cancellieri teaches middle school Science at Wake Young Men’s Leadership Academy in Raleigh, North Carolina.  A twelve-year veteran of the classroom and a National Board Certified Teacher since 2006, Paul’s passions include educational technology and classroom assessment.  He writes about education issues at ScriptedSpontaneity.com