Rebecca Stobaugh, an assistant professor in the School of Teacher Education at Western Kentucky University, has written a book to help educators engage students in higher-level critical thinking.

“Assessing Critical Thinking in Elementary Schools: Meeting the Common Core” was recently released by Eye on Education. It is a resource to help elementary school teachers and curriculum leaders develop the skills to design instructional tasks and assessments that engage students in higher-level critical thinking, as recommended by the Common Core State Standards.

The book contains real examples of formative and summative assessments from a variety of content areas and demonstrates how to successfully increase the level of critical thinking in every elementary classroom.

Dr. Stobaugh is a former middle school and high school teacher and was named Social Studies Teacher of the Year by the Kentucky Council for Social Studies in 2004. She also served as a middle school principal. At WKU, she teaches assessment and unit-planning courses in the teacher education program. She also supervises first-year teachers and consults with school districts on critical thinking, instructional strategies, assessment, technology integration and other topics.