“So, are you going to write another book?” Matt asked me as we looked through a close-to-final draft of The Next Big Thing in School Improvement. It was summer 2021, the first time we’d seen each other in person since deciding to write a book together (with Ben White) at researchED Birmingham in March 2020.
“I think so,” I said. “I’m not sure what, exactly, but I’d like to write about school assessment. Assessment and reporting seem like the strangest, most messed-up things I observe when I visit schools. Will you write another book?”
“I want to, but I haven’t decided what I’d like to write about most,” Matt replied.
“Do you want to write about assessment?” I asked.
“Why not,” he said.
That was how we ended up spending the last few years talking and writing about assessment. About everything—from the minutiae of what a teacher can and can’t infer when a student gets a question wrong, to the big-picture questions about how talking about attainment makes students feel. Our conversations and writings covered curriculum theory, cognitive science, psychometrics, behavioural psychology. Everything, really.
The only problem? We never got any closer to finishing a book.
There were reasons. We wrestled with whether we were writing for secondary school assessment leads or all teachers. We struggled to separate assessment from curriculum. We had day jobs. But perhaps, most of all, we’re just not the kinds of people to write a simple ‘how-to’ guide—yet that’s what we kept trying to do. Those who’ve read The Next Big Thing in School Improvement will know that we both hold a complex, messy view of how schools work.
So, our solution? Start a Substack.
Instead of worrying about structure, audience, or whether each post fits into a grand narrative, we’re committing to writing one idea at a time. 1000 words or so. No rigid rules—just ideas about assessment we find interesting and useful.
It’s called 100% Assessment, and we’ll be posting approximately once a week (though, given we thought we’d have finished a whole book by now, no promises!). There may be guest contributors from time to time too.
To get started, we have three posts up:
📌 What if every test made students smarter?
📌 Why motivation matters in assessment
📌 Why we don’t talk about summative and formative assessment
We’d love for you to subscribe and join the conversation. See you over there!
Becky Allen 
Thank You!My inciting momentIn the spring of 2005, the state of Georgia published individual student CRCT reports. When looking at my autistic child’s results, the 800-something number was irrelevant because there was no reference point. However, the number of questions and correct answers were relevant to middle school math. That is when I realized I had been lied to. Since then, I have made scale score conversions and studied things that impact the results. My current favorite is parental impact. I suspect it’s because I am trying to discover what I could have done better and what I could have tried to do if I had known it needed doing.When starting out, my level of earned knowledge about the field of education could be summed up with, “Go West, My Friend, Go West, and if you are lucky, don’t get lost or die along the way. You might find the Pacific Ocean.” I suspect Lewis and Clark had better training and preparation. So, off I went with no teacher, guide, coach, mentor, syllabus, list of study materials, or rubric. Today, I am nothing more than a Student and Explorer.And this is why I am grateful for what you are working on!