Abandoning the Plan: Making Assessment Actionable with Starr Sackstein

How do we move teachers from being "expert data collectors" to active facilitators of real-time growth? In this episode of Growth Over Grades, host Jordan Lewis sits down with Starr Sackstein, a veteran educator and world-renowned assessment expert with over 24 years of experience.Starr currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer and part-owner of Mastery Portfolio, an organization dedicated to mastery-based progress tracking. She is also a Distinguished Educator Fellow with PDK International and the Educators Rising State Coordinator for Massachusetts.Drawing from her latest book, Actionable Assessment: Making Teaching and Learning Better for All, Starr challenges the traditional classroom power dynamics. She explains why teachers must have the vulnerability and confidence to abandon a rigid lesson plan the moment they notice students are struggling. We dive deep into the mic drop moment of removing grades to foster genuine inquiry and explore practical strategies like backward feeding—a math-context scaffolding technique that reduces cognitive load by having students solve the final piece of a problem first.In this episode, we discuss:The Data Barrier: Why collecting data is useless if teachers wait too long to use it or feel restricted by pacing guides.Vulnerability in Leadership: Why admitting you don’t have all the answers creates a more collaborative and effective learning environment.Assessment as Learning: Transforming reflection from an afterthought into an integral skill that students use to advocate for their own needs.Consistent Culture: How district leaders can establish a shared assessment language across different subjects to prevent student confusion.