New!
An Elementary extension module to provide an additional 16 hours of professional development for elementary teachers.

• DCA Home
• Program Overview
• Program Developers
• Course Offerings
• Participant Materials Order Form
• Registration Information

Dynamic Classroom Assessment:
Linking Mathematical Understanding to Instruction

Developed by George W. Bright, University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Jeane M. Joyner, Meredith College

Learn Research-Based Assessment Techniques to Improve Student Achievement in Grades K–12

Dynamic Classroom Assessment (DCA) is a sustained professional learning course that presents a research-based, proven process for assessing what math students know and can do. Teachers learn how to apply this knowledge to the curriculum to more effectively align instructional decisions with the needs of individual students and an entire class.

Training for facilitators is provided on-site by the program authors or other certified facilitators.
By participating in DCA professional learning courses, teachers will strengthen their ability to:

• Probe student understanding—differentiate between what students know and what they show us they know
• Provide effective feedback—develop adaptive questioning and assessment skills that allow them to more effectively root out misconceptions students have about math concepts
• Adapt instruction to students’ needs—discover how to effectively incorporate an expanded understanding of students’ thinking and comprehension levels into instructional decisions

Create Your Own Local DCA Trainers

Your district’s staff development providers can become certified DCA facilitators by attending 2-5 days of training, depending on the desired DCA course: Elementary, Secondary, or both. Facilitator training can be achieved through scheduled sessions at our training site or arranged at your site for groups of 25 or more.

DCA facilitators receive thorough preparation in DCA content and strategies directly from the program authors. When your staff developers return to your district, they will be certified to conduct DCA training with your teachers and they will have all of the print, software, and video support to begin training right away!

Train Your Own Teachers

Certified DCA facilitators work with the provided course materials, suggested presentation outlines, and implementation guidelines to deliver DCA strategies and techniques to classroom teachers. Participant teachers build confidence to implement proven instructional approaches through a structured combination of theoretical and practical experiences.

Secondary math teachers will receive up to sixty hours of sustained professional development from your certified DCA facilitators with thirty hours in the Core program and an additional thirty hours through a series of three extension modules. Thirty hours of professional development is available to elementary teachers in the elementary program.

Achievement gains for classroom assessment are "among the largest ever reported for educational interventions. The effect size of 0.7, on average, illustrates just how large these gains are… If mathematics teachers were to focus their efforts on classroom assessment that is primarily formative in nature, students’ learning gains would be impressive."— Wilson & Kenney, 2003, p. 55, based largely on Black & Wiliam, 1998