of facilitating increased student learning and confidence.
Nicole was a school transformation specialist, where she coached individual teachers and teams of teachers in assessment, literacy, and high expectations for all students. Nicole was also a program evaluator and trainer at the Center for Supportive Schools in New Jersey. A former middle and high school English teacher, she is committed to making schools into places where all students feel invested and successful.
A featured presenter at conferences internationally, Nicole empowers educators to build their capacity for and implement engaging assessment design, formative assessment practices, common assessment design and analysis, response to intervention systems, data-driven decisions, student work protocols, and motivational strategies.
Nicole earned a master of arts degree in human development from Saint Mary’s University and a bachelor of arts degree in English and psychology from Concordia College.
To learn more about Nicole’s work, visit http://allthingsassessment.info or follow @NicoleVagle on Twitter.
To book Cassandra Erkens, Tom Schimmer, or Nicole Dimich Vagle for professional development, contact [email protected].
| INTRODUCTION
I was going to put my move to the test, to see if it was real. It had to be real if it worked on the greatest player to ever play the game.
—Allen Iverson
On March 12, 1997, as future Hall of Fame basketball player Allen Iverson’s rookie season in Philadelphia was drawing to a close, his 76ers were at home facing the reigning National Basketball Association champion Chicago Bulls. The Bulls were led by Michael Jordan, not just the best player in the league in 1997, but the player whom many considered to be the greatest basketball player of all time. Chicago would end the 1996–1997 season with sixty-nine wins and only thirteen losses, while Philadelphia would manage just twenty-two wins against sixty losses. The Bulls would go on to win not only the March 12 matchup 108–104 but also the 1996–1997 NBA championship.
However, for Iverson, the March 12 game was all about a moment, not who won or lost. During the second half of this closely fought game, Iverson would take a handoff on the left side of the court and dribble to the top of the three-point line; it was here he found himself one on one with none other than Michael Jordan. This was not the first time they had faced each other (this was their third meeting of the year), but this night was going to be different. Iverson would do something that few had ever done and that would cement his reputation as one of the most lethal offensive players in the NBA.
For those with little to no basketball acumen, here is some background on that moment, starting with a crossover dribble. The crossover dribble is effective because the offensive player makes no advanced decision to attack but simply reacts to what the defender does. In essence, the art of the crossover dribble is for the offensive player to make the defensive player think he or she is going in one direction, only to have him or her attack in the other. If the defensive player overcommits in one direction, the offensive player reacts, dribbles the ball to the opposite hand (crossover), and attacks the basket, trying to score or at least pass to another open teammate. The offensive player must, with some nimbleness, read the situation and immediately respond with quickness and agility; without the agility to adjust, the initial move (having the defender overcommit) is wasted since there will be time for the defender to recover.
The key is not just the ability to dribble the ball from one hand to the other—all NBA players can do that—but the ability to dribble with athletic agility and the ability to read the situation and make a real-time decision about when to pause, when to fake, and when to attack at maximum speed and intensity.
This athletic agility paid off during the game. When Iverson reached the top of the three-point line, he took two dribbles with his left hand, crossed to his right, sent the ball back through his legs to his left, dribbled once more on his left, and then attacked. Iverson dribble-faked to the left (Jordan moved with it), crossed to his right hand (Jordan recovered), paused, and then dribble-faked again to his left (this time Jordan overcommitted), crossed over back to his right (Jordan couldn’t recover), pulled up from twenty feet and hit the jump shot!
Now, being the greatest of all time, Michael Jordan almost recovered to block the shot (which few could do), but he didn’t. So, while Jordan was considered a smothering defender, Iverson was able to use his quickness and athletic agility to create the necessary space to hit the shot. Many pundits and former players still consider this moment to be the greatest crossover dribble in the history of the NBA.
Instructional Agility
There are, of course, many differences between what happens on a basketball court and what happens in classrooms, but both environments require real-time decisions. When teachers use emerging evidence to make real-time decisions during instruction within the context of the learning they expect, they are demonstrating instructional agility. In many ways, teachers’ best moves are tested every day against precise and exacting standards mixed with the social and political demands for the growth of all students toward proficiency. Limited time is the reality of all school systems. So, despite the fact that educators know learning is never final in the abstract, all school years come to an end. This means there is an inherent competition between students and the standards, not among students. Therefore, a teacher’s ability to be instructionally agile on behalf of each student is critical to support his or her continual learning.
Whether at the classroom or school level, teachers can realize assessment’s true power when emerging results determine what comes next in the learning. Assessment is the practice of gathering information about student learning; how educators use that information is what distinguishes formative from summative assessment. Teachers use assessment information formatively when it guides instructional decisions. At its most organic, intimate level, assessment information allows teachers to make those instructional decisions at a moment’s notice; that’s instructional agility.
Being athletically agile means one can move quickly and easily without interruption; being instructionally agile means essentially the same thing. Making quick yet thoughtful decisions about what comes next is the real power of assessment in the service of learning. Like basketball players, teachers know what they want to do but can’t necessarily forge ahead without assessing the possibilities. Certainly teachers with experience, and those who have intentionally created activities that lend themselves to quick instructional transitions, can plan ahead for anticipated responses. Understanding the typical errors students make can assist in preplanning the potential paths forward, but there is always the chance of an unanticipated outcome. Willingness paired with readiness, and precision paired with flexibility, allow teachers to develop the nimbleness required to maximize the impact of instruction.
Assessment and Standards-Based Learning
Since the late 1990s, education has seen an acceleration of research on formative assessment (Black, 2013) and the near unanimous conclusion that formative assessment and feedback are an essential part of improving student achievement (Ruiz-Primo & Li, 2013). While teachers have always used assessment to judge student performance, classroom assessment in the 2000s and beyond has seen an infusion of assessment for learning—assessment not used to judge, grade, or score, but assessment to identify what comes next.
The inertia of the standards movement throughout the 1990s brought about a renewed interest in formative assessment. As schools explored the
