Student Engagement in the Middle Years of Schooling (Years 7–10): A Literature Review
This 2010 research report looks into the relationship between student engagement and student achievement, and considers what teachers can do to raise levels of student engagement within their year 7 to 10 classes and schools. This report features here because many of the answers to the vexed question of student engagement focus on the practices of formative assessment.

Making Classroom Assessment Work by Ann Davies and Mary Hill, NZCER Press, Wellington, (2009)
In simple and easy to follow steps, Making Classroom Assessment Work shows how teachers can use assessment to boost learning.

Assessment: Feedback to Promote Student Learning 
This publication from the Teaching Development Unit of the University of Waikato examines some of the issues associated with feedback on assessment and provides some guidelines for effective practice.

Clarity in the Classroom by Michael Absolum, Hodder Education, Auckland, (2006)
With an emphasis on assessment for learning principles and well-developed learning-focused relationships, Clarity in the Classroom provides key strategies for developing effective and meaningful classroom practices.

National Education Findings of Assess to Learn (AtoL) Report
This report by Jenny Poskitt and Kerry Taylor, published in July 2008, describes the impact that the Ministry of Education’s professional development Assess to Learn (AtoL) project had on teachers, students, and schools in New Zealand.

The Nature of Learning: Using Research to Inspire Practice (PDF)
This practitioner's guide is based on extensive research findings on different aspects of learning and applications. It provides a powerful knowledge base for the design of learning environments for the 21st century. The principles help to inform everyday experiences in current classrooms, as well as future educational programmes and systems. When you look at the seven principles, you'll see that Assessment for Learning is at number six, a key message for educators about its importance. 

Check out this New Zealand Curriculum Online blog about the seven principles of learning. You can analyse how well your learning environment reflects what is known from current research using this chart, developed by Ellen Hauser and Bernadette Pearce:

Seven learning principles chart (Word 2007 107 KB)

Research and Evaluation of Narrative Assessment 
The Research and Evaluation of Narrative Assessment and Curriculum Exemplars for Students with Special Education Needs (2010) was conducted over a three–year period (2007–2009). The purpose was to evaluate the development of exemplars and the introduction of professional development and learning for teachers in the use of learning stories, and also collect baseline data on current assessment practices used in primary and secondary schools for students with high and very high educational needs.

Research and Evaluation of Narrative Assessment (2010) (PDF 3 MB)

In conversation with John Hattie
Educational Leaders reports on the Spring 2013 issue of the Ontario Ministry of Education paper In Conversation, which is an interview with Professor John Hattie entitled Know Thy Impact: Teaching, Learning and Leading. In this, Professor Hattie sets out eight mind frames for leaders and teachers from his research and book on "visible learning". Much of this discussion focuses on how the attitudes and actions of teachers, when assessing what is taking place in the classroom, can best be framed to increase the focus on the process of learning.

Seven practices for effective learning
Educational Leaders highlights an Educational Leadership article by Jay McTighe and Ken O'Connor, available at the ASCD website. McTighe and O’Connor summarise the key assessment practices that improve teaching and learning, providing descriptions and examples of diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment. For each kind of assessment described, the authors provide a classroom-based example, making this a very accessible introduction to, and/or reminder of, effective assessment practice.

Learners in the driving seat
Who is responsible for students’ learning? This 2009 article by Chris Watkins from the UK looks at how young people themselves can take the lead – and the excellent results that can follow. Although the assessment regime in the UK is very different from that in New Zealand, the principles of self-regulated learning apply in both contexts.

Using Classroom Data to Give Systematic Feedback to Students to Improve Learning
How can teachers capitalize on evidence about student learning that is generated in their classrooms every day? How can this information best be collected and used to increase student learning? This webpage provides a summary of how best to provide feedback to students, on the website of the American Psychological Society. The messages reinforce the main ideas in Dylan Wiliam’s work.

Keeping learning on track: formative assessment and the regulation of learning
In this paper, Dylan Wiliam outlines some of the research that suggests that focusing on the use of day-to-day formative assessment is one of the most powerful ways of improving learning in the mathematics classroom.

Learning to Love Assessment
In this 2008 article from Educational Leadership, Carol Ann Tomlinson explains her journey with informative assessment. From judging performance to guiding students to shaping instruction to informing learning, coming to grips with informative assessment has been an insightful journey for one of the gurus of differentiated learning.

Assessment Through the Student's Eyes
In this 2007 article from Educational Leadership, Rick Stiggins argues that our mission compels us to embrace a new vision of assessment that can tap the wellspring of confidence, motivation, and learning potential that resides within every student. To enable all students to experience the productive emotional dynamics of winning, we need to move from exclusive reliance on assessment that verifies learning to the use of assessment that supports learning – that is, assessment for learning.