Ken Mattingly

Ken Mattingly

Ken Mattingly is a retired classroom teacher with 27 years of experience teaching sixth and seventh grade. He holds national certification for early adolescent science.

Ken has worked on implementing classroom assessment for student learning practices in his classroom for the past 15 years, resulting in a culture that values mistakes (and learning from them), as well as total student control over the grades they earn.

For the past 10 years, Ken has worked with multiple school districts across Kentucky, as well as nationally and internationally, to help develop a vision of balanced assessment, promote transparency in grading practices, and shift the teacher-student focus to the learning instead of the grade.

Ken’s work focuses on developing student-friendly learning targets from standards documents, designing sound assessments, and integrating meaningful feedback and self-assessment practices into the classroom. His most recent presentations have focused on moving gradebooks toward standards-based operation so that they communicate the level of mastery and serve as clear indicators of students’ current level of attainment.

Ken earned a bachelor’s degree in math and science education from the University of Kentucky and a master’s degree in middle school education from Eastern Kentucky University.

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Presentations by Ken Mattingly

• Targets, Assessments, and Grading: Implementing Assessment for Learning in the Secondary Classroom
• Standards, Targets, and Assessments: Coordinated Development and Implementation
• Developing Learning Targets and Formative Assessments
• A Teacher’s Experiences with Tracking and Reporting Formative and Summative Information
• Transitioning from Traditional to Standards-Based Grading: Perspectives for Any Classroom
• Implementing Assessment for Learning Practices that Build Student Confidence and Change Student Mindset