Damian Cooper

Damian Cooper is an independent education consultant who specializes in helping schools and school districts improve their instructional and assessment skills. In his varied career, Damian has been a secondary English, Special Education, and Drama teacher, a department head, a librarian, a school consultant and a curriculum developer. He has specialized in student assessment since 1986. Damian served as assessment consultant to the School Division of Nelson Education where he worked on the development of assessment principles and strategies for a wide variety of K-12 resources. Prior to that appointment he was Coordinator of Assessment and Evaluation for the Halton District School Board in Burlington, Ontario. 

Damian's expertise in assessment is valued across Canada and internationally. He is in constant demand, both as a consultant and as a dynamic, entertaining speaker. His current work focuses on helping teachers and administrators connect curriculum, instruction and assessment in ways that improve learning for all students. He is a frequent speaker at major conferences and Solution Tree Events. In 1997, Damian was a member of the Canadian delegation invited by Nelson Mandela's government to establish a national curriculum and assessment framework for South Africa. Damian has worked in all Canadian provinces, many US states, as well as in India, Greece, the UK, Thailand, Australia, Malaysia, Egypt, Brazil and Dubai helping educators improve their planning, instructional and assessment practices. 

In Ontario, Damian has worked under contract to the Ministry of Education and the Assessment Training Consortium on a variety of projects. After studying with Rick Stiggins and Grant Wiggins, Damian was instrumental in introducing qualitative and performance based assessment to Ontario educators. 

Damian served on the executive of the Association of Educational Researchers of Ontario (AERO) from 1997 to 2002. In 2013 Damian and his colleagues Lorna Earl and Ken O'Connor launched the Canadian Assessment for Learning Network (CAfLN). 

Damian's resources Talk About Assessment: Strategies and Tools to Improve Learning (2007), Talk About Assessment: High School Strategies and Tools (2010), and Redefining Fair: How to Plan, Assess and Grade for Excellence in Mixed-Ability Classrooms, are all best sellers. Together with Jeff Catania and David Steele, Damian developed the online course for teachers, VOCAL: Validating Observation and Conversation when Assessing Learning. Damian's latest book, also written in collaboration with Jeff Catania, is Rebooting Assessment: A Practical Guide for balancing Conversations, Performances, and Products. It is published by Solution Tree.