Cassandra Erkens

Cassandra Erkens is a highly respected educator, author, and facilitator recognized for her transformative work in educational assessment and collaborative instructional practices. With a career spanning several decades, she has served as a teacher, principal, and district-level administrator, bringing practical, ground-level insights to her educational theories.

Erkens is perhaps best known for her comprehensive approach to formative assessment, which she details extensively in Collaborative Common Assessments: Teamwork. Instruction. Results. and her co-authored work, Evaluating the Educator. She frequently speaks at national conferences, helping professional learning communities (PLCs) build systems that foster student growth and teacher efficacy. Her methodologies emphasize that assessment should be an ongoing conversation that empowers both the learner and the educator rather than a definitive judgment.

Driven by a passion for continuous improvement, Erkens challenges schools to align their grading practices with actual student learning. By championing proactive collaboration, she has equipped countless educators with the tools needed to rethink traditional teaching paradigms and effectively respond to the diverse needs of modern classrooms.