GradePad Blog

An update for GradePad, Standard Edition (1.1) is now available at the iPhone App Store.

The version of the mobile performance assessment tool for teachers, trainers, and coaches improves the touch sensitivity of the scoring on GradePad assessment rubrics. This update also improves the sending of data to your email application.

With GradePad, you can assess a variety of behaviors and performances. You can create your own GradePad rubrics with criteria, definitions, and scales. You can manage groups of individuals. You can track their performance over time. You can share your data by sending the assessment scores to your email account for further analysis.

There are a number of resources available online at Google Books that can help teachers use performance assessments and rubrics. GradePad lets you create your own performance assessment rubrics on your iPhone or iPod touch and score those observations and share them with other teachers, your students, and even parents.

Here are just a few of the resources we found online:

Ten Things New Teachers Need to Succeed  By Robin Fogarty (2007)

I love what he says in his chapter on Performance Assessment. “Rubrics are our new best friend.” He says the essence of authentic assessment is an instructional method that dictates performance tasks and authentic evidence. An analogy, he says, that might look like this:

Evidence : Judgement :: Performance task : Rubric

Understanding and using reading assessment, K-12  By Peter Afflerbach (2007)

The Essentials of World Languages, Grades K-12  By Janis Jensen, Paul Sandrock, John Franklin (2007)

Performance assessments for adult education  By Robert J. Mislevy, Kaeli T. Knowles, National Research Council (U.S.). Committee for the Workshop on Alternatives for Assessing Adult Education (2002)

Teaching the Best Practice Way  By Harvey Daniels, Marilyn Bizar (2005)

Rubrics for assessing student achievement in science, grades K-12

Classroom assessment for student learning  By Richard J. Stiggins, Judith A. Erter, Assessment Training Institute, Steve Chappuis, Jan Chappuis, Educational Testing Service (2004)

Renaissance in the classroom  By Gail E. Burnaford, Arnold Aprill, Cynthia Weiss (2001)

Formative Assessment Strategies for Enhanced Learning in Science, K-8  By Elizabeth Hammerman (2008)

Standards-based Activities with Scoring Rubrics: Performance-based projects  By Jacqueline Glasgow (2002)

From standards to rubrics in 6 steps  By Kay Burke (2002)