Harvard Education Press has just published a new book, New Frontiers in Formative Assessment, featuring chapters by Dan Damelin, Kimberle Koile, and Paul Horwitz. The book is edited by Concord Consortium board member Pendred Noyce and her colleague Daniel Hickey.

Paul’s chapter, “Interactive Technology for Formative Assessment: How We Got Here and What Comes Next” recounts his adventures with educational technology, dating back to a primitive game called “ThinkerTools” that ran on the Commodore 64 computer and was used to teach physics to sixth graders. Based on the observation that “getting good at the game does not imply learning the science behind the game,” the chapter proposes alternative strategies for designing games that produce reliable performance data that can be used to infer students’ knowledge, skill, and understanding.

Dan and Kimberle write about their experiences directing the RI-ITEST and LOOPS projects, respectively. In these projects, formative assessments are integrated at different time scales