Eileen Depka

Eileen Depka, PhD, is an educational consultant and author specializing in assessment, standards-based grading, and effective questioning in the classroom. She has extensive experience in areas such as common assessment design, rubric development, standards-based assessment, and classroom questioning practices, and has served in roles overseeing curriculum, instruction, assessment, special education, educational technology, and continuous-improvement efforts. Depka has taught all subjects at the elementary and middle levels as well as graduate-level courses, and she provides professional development for K–16 educators across the United States. She holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary and middle-level education from the University of Wisconsin and both a master’s and doctoral degree from Cardinal Stritch University.

Depka is the author of Raising the Rigor: Effective Questioning Strategies and Techniques for the Classroom, which focuses on helping K–12 educators use questioning to strengthen students’ higher-order thinking skills. Her other works include Bringing Homework Into Focus, Formative Assessment in the RTI Framework, Designing Rubrics for Mathematics, Designing Assessment for Mathematics, The Data Guidebook for Teachers and Leaders: Tools for Continuous Improvement, and Letting Data Lead: How to Design, Analyze, and Respond to Classroom Assessment.