Beyond the Gradebook: Rethinking Assessment for the Whole Learner

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Join our Free Info Session to learn what PeerSphere can do for you!

Beyond the Gradebook: Rethinking Assessment for the Whole Learner

November 29 (Saturday), 2025 | 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM

YK Pao Hong Qiao Campus

Thank you Otus for sponsoring this event!

This PeerSphere gathering brings together educators from international schools across the region to explore how assessment can move beyond grades and benchmarks to support the whole learner. From academic achievement to cognitive growth and self-regulation, participants will examine how assessment can be used as a tool for daily reflection, instructional decision-making, and school-wide improvement. Whether you’re rethinking your current assessment systems or seeking practical strategies to strengthen your school’s approach, this event offers rich opportunities for peer sharing, interactive breakout discussions, and resource exchange.

We are deeply grateful to YK Pao School for hosting this event and creating a space for meaningful professional collaboration. Special thanks to our event sponsor, Otus, a learning and assessment platform that helps schools turn data into actionable insights, aligning with our shared mission to make assessment more purposeful and student-centred.

We welcome Nancy Weinstein as our keynote speaker, the founder of MindPrint. A company leader in delivering whole child cognitive assessments to support teaching and learning. As a recognised voice in educational assessment, Nancy brings powerful insights into how schools can transform their assessment practices to better serve student growth and learning.

Following the keynote, participants will join one of three breakout rooms, each designed to support different aspects of assessment practice:

Data-Rich, Student-Centered: Using Formative/Common Assessment to Drive Daily Instruction
Measuring the Invisible: Assessing Cognitive Skills, Executive Function, and Metacognition
Building a Culture of Assessment: Fueling Growth, Not Just Accountability

Keynote Speaker

Nancy Weinstein

Nancy Weinstein is the founder and CEO of MindPrint Learning, an educational assessment and intervention company that identifies student learning strengths to support differentiated instruction and improve learning outcomes. Prior to founding MindPrint, Nancy worked in industry at Bristol-Myers Squibb, The Walt Disney Company and Goldman Sachs. She holds a BSE in Bioengineering from University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard. She is co-author of The Empowered Student (CAST Publishing, 2018) and Humanized Education (Marzano Publishing, 2024) and is a national speaker on using science of learning best practices to improve student outcomes in her role as CEO and ASCD Faculty. She is the Principal Investigator on four National Science Foundation grants.

Hosts

Faustina Martinez

Head of School,
Shanghai Livingston American School

Robert Staples

IB Middle Years Programme Coordinator (MYPC)
Shanghai Community International School – Pudong Campus

Daniel Rosenberg

Head, OTUS Asia

Agenda

13:00–13:10 PM — Welcome & Framing

13:10–13:40 PM — Keynote: Beyond the Gradebook: Rethinking Assessment for the Whole Learner

Traditional achievement assessments provide information on what students know, but they don’t tell us why or what to do differently to help them learn. While the efficacy evidence is a half century old, schools around the world now have the technology available to adopt cognitive assessments to understand students’ learning needs and accelerate outcomes for every learner.

13:45–15:15 PM — Breakout Room Discussions

Refreshments Break (30 minutes)

15:45–16:15 AM — Market Place

16:20–17:00 PM — Panel and Closing Remarks

Assessment is not an endpoint, it’s a conversation starter. When we shift the question from “Did they get it?” to “How are they growing?”, we unlock a deeper, more human view of learning.

Breakout Rooms

Data-Rich, Student-Centered
Using Formative/Common Assessment to Drive Daily Instruction

This breakout focuses on how formative tools and common assessments can empower teachers to adapt instruction responsively. Participants will share examples of how real-time data collection can enhance classroom learning without adding burden.

Measuring the Invisible
Assessing Cognitive Skills, Executive Function, and Metacognition

This session focuses on the challenge of making the “invisible” visible. Educators will explore tools and frameworks that assess how students think, plan, and reflect, offering a more complete picture of growth beyond academic content.

Building a Culture of Assessment
Fueling Growth, Not Just Accountability

This room will focus on systems-level change. How can leaders and teams build a culture where assessment supports collaboration, reflection, and instructional improvement, not just compliance? Participants will share school-wide strategies and challenges, from report card redesign to data conversations in team meetings.