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Embedding Formative Assessment: not just a box-ticking exercise but something long-term and meaningful for all

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Thank you to Mrs Jo Allan, Junior Assistant Vice Principal, Castle View Enterprise Academy for sharing the impact that Embedding Formative Assessment has had in her school. As a school that serves a community with high levels of deprivation and challenges, we knew that transforming teaching and learning at Castle View Enterprise Academy wouldn’t be

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Booth (2017) https://my.chartered.college/impact_article/what-is-formative-assessment-why-hasnt-it-worked-in-schools-and-how-can-we-make-it-better-in-the-classroom/

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'Smart is not something you are, smart is something you get' (Wiliam, 2013a).

What is formative assessment?

There is more than 40 years' research evidence to suggest that enhancing formative assessment within the classroom has a significant impact on student learning. Within the context of the UK, the term 'formative assessment' (also used interchangeably with 'Assessment for Learning') tends to be built on the pioneering work of Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam. Black and Wiliam have defined formative assessment as 'all those activities undertaken by teachers, and/or their students to modify teaching and learning activities in which they [the students] are engaged' (1998: p.8). What is crucial to know is that formative assessment is a process and involves working with students so that learners know where they are in their learning, where they need to be, and how they are going to get there. In short, formative assessment normally involves a dialogue (whether oral or written) which moves teaching and learning forward.

Within the classroom, teachers who model, observe and give learners constructive comments are using formative assessment. As Keith Swanwick puts it, 'to teach is to assess' (Swanwick, 1988: p.149) and although this may not be seen, by some, as assessment, this is exactly what is happening. The nature of formative assessment does not include marks, levels or grades, nor does it compare students with one another. Instead, it focuses on what the next steps are on an individual and personal level. The key component of formative assessment, though, is not just the collection of information, but that it is actively used and acted upon by the teacher to improve future teaching, and the student to improve future learning.

Why hasn't it worked in schools?

Firstly, one reason worth exploring is given by the Assessment Reform Group (1999), which explains:
'The term "formative" itself is open to a variety of interpretations and often means no more than that assessment is carried out frequently and is planned at the same time as teaching. It may be formative in helping the teacher identify areas where more explanation or practice is needed. But for the pupils, the marks or remarks in their work may tell them about their successes or failures, but not how to make progress towards future learning' (p.7).

This point is further exemplified by Wiliam who, in an interview published in the Times Educational Supplement, stated: 'The big mistake that Paul and I made was calling this stuff "assessment"... because when you use the word assessment, people think about tests and exams' (Stewart, 2012). He later commented that it should probably have been called something like 'responsive teaching' (Wiliam, 2013b). This means that when students are given a mark or score after a class test or quiz, student learning has, in fact, been 'summed up'. What can happen, therefore, is that instead of formative assessment practise taking place within the classroom there is, in place of it, a culture of mini-summative assessments

Secondly, it is quite common in schools, following a class test, for teachers to give students a score with comments to improve. This notion has been widely researched, along with other modes of feedback, including in the oft-quoted work by Butler (1988) who looked into the effects of different types of feedback on students in Israel between two lessons, and reported the following findings:
- Students who were given marks only made no gain in attainment between the two lessons.
- Students who were given comments only improved, on average, by 30 per cent compared with their previous performance.
- Students who were given marks and comments made, surprisingly, no gain.

While the idea of giving marks and comments to improve might appear favourable, and may even be part of a school's assessment policy, what seems likely to happen in practice is that students look at their score, compare it with the person nearest to them, and ignore the comments. As such, the efforts of the teacher, having spent time writing the comments, is largely wasted.

A third reason could relate to Fautley and Savage's (2008) acknowledgement that, in some schools, there is pressure on teachers and students, presumably from senior leadership, to produce high levels of attainment in the form of marks or grades from assessments. With this in mind, consideration should be given to the fact that teachers may consciously be neglecting their formative practices and beliefs in favour of summative assessments, albeit mini ones, to meet requests for data tracking purposes.

In the Department for Education's (Department for Education - a ministerial department responsi... More ) Final Report of the Commission on Assessment Without Levels, it was reported that 'formative assessment was not always being used as an integral part of effective teaching' (DfE, 2015: p.13) and that the previous focus on National Curriculum levels in schools meant that 'Instead of using classroom assessment to identify strengths and gaps in pupils' knowledge and understanding of the programmes of study, some teachers were simply tracking pupils' progress towards target levels' (DfE, 2015: p.13). The removal of levels from the English National Curriculum in 2014 meant there could be a more significant emphasis on embedding formative assessment within day-today teaching and learning. Even before this, though, research suggests that in schools and within the classroom, the term 'formative assessment' has become misunderstood and confused (James et al., 2006). As such, 'there has been no (or at best limited) effect on learning outcomes nationally' (Coe, 2013: p.10).

How can we make it better in the classroom?

Although formative assessment is useful for gathering evidence to be used as feedback to improve learner performance, it can also be integral to effective teaching on a day-to-day basis. Based on the work of Leahy et al (2005), these formative strategies include learning intentions, success criteria, eliciting evidence of student learning, feedback, and both peer-and self-assessment. A brief summary of each is given below.

Learning intentions

A common feature within classroom practice today is the sharing of learning intentions (also known as learning objectives) with students where the intended learning behind the tasks and activities is revealed. The clarification and understanding, at student level, of learning intentions, however, is essential so that students become able to hold a concept similar to that of the teacher (Sadler, 1989). Writing good learning intentions, though, is hard as we need to distinguish clearly in our planning not only what the students will be doing, but what they will be learning by doing it.

Success criteria

Sharing what success looks like with students is at the very heart of formative assessment and provides regular opportunities for such assessment to take place throughout the lesson. As one student puts it, knowing and understanding the success criteria is 'like knowing the teacher's secret' (Spendlove, 2009: 18). Within formative assessment, success criteria can act as an aide memoire to students throughout the lesson so that, through on-going reflection, their learning can be kept on track. The regular referral to success criteria also allows teachers to engage in conversations with their students where meaningful oral feedback is given on where the learner is now, where they need to be, and how they are going to get there.

Eliciting evidence of student learning

Questioning is an excellent way of gathering evidence of student learning. Traditionally, this may be done by questioning a small number of students, they get the answers right, and the teacher moves on. This is problematic, though, as we do not know whether the rest of the class is ready to move on, too. Although some may consider feedback to be at the heart of formative assessment, the quality of the feedback depends on the quality of the evidence gathered. Asking a small number of students before moving on may not constitute quality evidence. A more reliable source of information, however, could come from asking questions at whole-class level via the use of mini-whiteboards with, perhaps, ABCD multiple-choice responses for students to choose from. The information this elicits, then, can be immediately interpreted by the teacher before deciding whether to move on or not.

Feedback

The notion of any kind of feedback, according to Sadler (1989), is powerful for several reasons:
1. It informs teachers about levels of knowledge, understanding and skills attained or yet to be attained by the student
2. It aims to facilitate learners in being able to identify and amend a gap in learning
3. It assists teachers in reducing and selecting suitable tasks or activities, and
4. It allows teachers to modify their teaching in order to support the closing of the gap.

Peer- and self-assessment

Peer- and self-assessment 'is essential to learning because students can only achieve a learning goal if they understand that goal and can assess what they need to do to reach it' (Black and Wiliam, 2006: 15). Within the understanding of formative assessment, what this means is that the students know what to do to develop each other's, as well as their own, learning.

The interaction between these key strategies not only fosters engaging learning environments, but also makes clear to both teachers and students that learning is, indeed, heading in the intended direction. The information these strategies elicit is then used to decide what to do next. This is formative assessment in action.

References
Assessment Reform Group (1999) Known as AfL for short, and also known as formative assessme... Assessment for Learning More : Beyond the Black Box. Cambridge: Cambridge School of Education.

Black P and Wiliam D (1998) Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment. London: King's College School of Education.

Black P and Wiliam D (2006) Assessment for learning in the classroom. In: Gardner J (ed) Assessment and Learning (2nd ed). London: SAGE, pp. 11-32.

Butler R (1988) Enhancing and undermining intrinsic motivation: The effects of task-involving and ego-evolving evaluation on interest and performance. British Journal of Educational Psychology 58(1): 1-14.

Coe R (2013) Improving Education: A Triumph of Hope Over Experience. Durham: Durham University Centre for Education and Monitoring.

The ministerial department responsible for children's serv... Department for Education More (2015) Final Report of the Commission on Assessment Without Levels. London: The Stationery Office.

Fautley M and Savage J (2008) Assessment for Learning and Teaching in Secondary Schools. Exeter: Learning Matters.

James M, Black P, Carmichael P, Conner C, Dudley P, Fox A, Frost A, Honour L, Macbeth J, McCormack R, Marshall B, Pedder D, Procter R, Swaffield S and Wiliam D (2006) Learning How to Learn: Tools for Schools. Abingdon: Routledge.

Leahy S, Lyon C, Thompson M and Wiliam D (2005) Classroom assessment: Minute-by-minute and day-by-day. Educational Leadership 63(3): 18-24.

Sadler R (1989) Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems. Instructional Science 18: 119-144.

Spendlove D (2009) Putting Assessment for Learning into Practice. London: Continuum.

Stewart W (2012) Think you've implemented assessment for learning? Times Educational Supplement. Available at: https://ww.tes.com/news/tes-archive/tes-publication/think-youve-implemented-assessment-learning (accessed 25 June 2017).

Swanwick K (1988) Music, Mind and Education. London: Routledge.

Wiliam D (2013a) Assessment: The bridge between teaching and learning. Voices from the Middle 21(2): 15-20.

Wiliam D (2013b) Example of a really big mistake: Calling formative assessment formative assessment and not something like "responsive teaching". Twitter blog available at: https://twitter.com/dylanwiliam/status/393045049337847808 (accessed 25 June 2017).

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What is formative assessment, why hasn't it worked in schools, and how can we make it better in the classroom?

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'Smart is not something you are, smart is something you get' (Wiliam, 2013a). What is formative assessment? There is more than 40 years' research evidence to suggest that enhancing formative assessment within the classroom has a significant impact on student learning. Within the context of the UK, the term 'formative assessment' (also used interchangeably with [...]

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Laud, L., & Patel, P. (2013). Using formative assessment to differentiate middle school literacy instruction: 7 practices to maximize learning. Corwin Press. Chicago

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Formative assessment and differentiated instruction made manageable

We all recognize the countless benefits of differentiated instruction. The challenge is in its implementation. Faced with a classroom of 25 students-each with very different needs-how can we possibly keep every student on track and motivated? Through formative assessment and efficient follow-up instruction. This start-to-finish guide will show you how through seven classroom-tested practices for maximizing student learning.

Established experts on this subject, Leslie Laud and Pooja Patel demonstrate how to:

Establish new classroom norms

Involve students in the use of assessment data and feedback to inform their next steps

Clarify end-of-unit criteria to help map learning progression

Apply assessment data to grouping students for tiered activities

Differentiate assignments based on student readiness, characteristics, and interest

Best of all, Using Formative Assessment to Differentiate Middle School Literacy Instruction is packed with vignettes, sample worksheets, and charts to assist you through each step in the process. Armed with this toolkit, you′ll quickly discover new ways to keep all students engaged in their learning.

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Using Formative Assessment to Differentiate Middle School Literacy Instruction

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Formative assessment and differentiated instruction made manageableWe all recognize the countless benefits of differentiated instruction. The challenge is in its implementation. Faced with a classroom of 25 students-each with very different needs-how can we possibly keep every student on track and motivated? Through formative assessment and efficient follow-up instruction.

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This is from https://www.jamieleeclark.com/graphics so is classed as a secondary source. It refers to this text: Wiliam, D., Leahy, S. (2015). Embedding Formative Assessment: Practical Techniques for K-12 Classrooms. United States: Learning Sciences International.

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Dylan Wiliam : What is formative assessment?

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Dylan Wiliam : What is formative assessment?

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This is a secondary source from but the original information comes from : http://jamieclark/graphics

Wiliam, D., Leahy, S. (2015). Embedding Formative Assessment: Practical Techniques for F-12 Classrooms. Austria: Hawker Brownlow Education.

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High-quality PDFs of my one-page guides are available to download for free. These resources were created by Jamie Clark and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License. All Rights Reserved 2024.

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Miller, D. and Lavin, F. (2007), ‘But now I feel I want to give it a try’: formative assessment, self-esteem and a sense of competence. The Curriculum Journal, 18: 3-25 CURJ09585170701292109. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585170701292109

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TES Editorial. (2024) 'What is formative assessment and how do schools use it?', TES.

Available at: https://www.tes.com/magazine/teaching-learning/general/what-is-

formative-assessment-and-how-do-schools-use-it

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Links for journals - select 'open access' 

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Links for journals - select 'open access' 

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https://journals.sagepub.com/

https://www.tandfonline.com/openaccess

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https://journals.sagepub.com/

Search for 'open access'

https://www.tandfonline.com/openaccess

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An introduction to formative and summative assessment 

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An introduction to formative and summative assessment 

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National Foundation for Educational Research

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
An introduction to formative and summative assessment

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Many people assume that ‘assessment’ means taking a test, but assessment is broader than that.

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National Foundation for Educational Research

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
An introduction to formative and summative assessment

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Many people assume that ‘assessment’ means taking a test, but assessment is broader than that.

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Read and reflect on current government guidance

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What the 2025 Curriculum Review Means for Primary Schools

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See what the 2025 Curriculum and Assessment Review means for primary schools, from inclusivity and assessment to preparing pupils for a digital future.

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Assessment is always a contentious issue, with ongoing debates about methods, uses and implications. Formative and summative assessment are often pitched against each other, with summative concerns driving the taught curriculum and formative focusing more on individual progress. Of course, all education systems need both assessment to support and to summarise progress. With schools closed across the world, both purposes of assessment are currently difficult to implement, but which should be the priority when schools return? This article argues that to make the most of the time back in school, the focus should be on using formative assessment to support learning.

Our current situation is unique, making it difficult to predict the implications of the pandemic on children's learning. However, there has been a lot of research in the past on 'summer learning loss', especially in those countries with long summer holidays. There is general agreement in seasonal learning research that attainment may slow or decline during long periods of school closures, but there is little consensus on the extent of summer learning loss, which differs in each study. To take account of the variability in research results, Kuhfeld and Tarasawa (2020) made projections for a small impact 'Covid-slowdown' and a larger impact 'Covid-slide'. The Covid-slowdown projection showed learning effectively paused at school closure, with any teaching gains which would normally have been made in the final term, largely cancelled out by summer holiday losses. However, the Covid-slide modelling was a little more sobering, with a projected drop of 30 per cent in reading and nearer 50 per cent in maths.

The Education Endowment Foundation (2020) focused its rapid evidence survey on the effect of school closures on children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Their analysis suggests that such children are more likely to experience a Covid-slide, with the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers widening by a median estimate of 36 per cent (arising from a spread of 11 per cent to 75 per cent due to the substantial differences between studies). Of course, all of these projections are based on typical summer learning loss, so cannot take into account the potential mitigating effect of online learning, or the potentially damaging economic and traumatic effects of the pandemic.

The Chartered College of Teaching's research evidence review concluded that learning will be adversely affected by extended school closures and that this is likely to affect disadvantaged children from lower income families to a greater degree (M√ºller and Goldenberg, 2020). In addition, these children may have less access to devices and parental support for online learning, together with facing other challenges like increased poverty and food insecurity (Montacute, 2020). Such widespread concern of an increasing disadvantage gap may galvanise us into action, but what should we prioritise when children return to school?

Decades of international research points to formative assessment as key to supporting children's learning (for example, Black and Wiliam (1998), Black et al. (2004), Gardner et al. (2010)). However, this is not a bolt-on list of tasks, it is embedded assessment as an integral part of teaching and learning which demands careful listening and flexible planning. Formative assessment is about clarity of teaching aims, elicitation to identify pupil ideas, providing ongoing feedback and actively engaging pupils and their peers in thinking about their learning (Wiliam, 2018; Earle, 2019). Prioritising responsive teaching, rather than detailed advanced planning or multiple summative checks, will direct the focus on to the learning and help us to be flexible in a time of ongoing change.

Formative assessment directs us to consider our expectations of prior learning. There is always a spread of prior learning and experience within a class, so one could argue that when children return to school, this will not be that different to starting any other new term. However, this global pandemic has led to unprecedented experiences for us all and so we will need to consider what has changed for us and our students. We will need to examine our own expectations about what children will or will not have experienced before. For example, there may be chunks of the curriculum that have not been taught, been partially taught, switched to online (so only accessed by some) etc. We can do a certain amount of mapping to identify gaps in coverage, but ongoing disruption and individual circumstances regarding shielding or access to online learning means that learning experiences will be more disparate than ever, making elicitation a key teaching tool.

Some may be wondering (or worrying!) that I am advocating individual education plans for each child, but this is clearly not possible or sustainable. I am also not suggesting long-term 'catch up' plans, with missed units slotted into non-existent gaps in later year groups. What I am proposing is that more attention be paid to ongoing formative assessment. For example, when embarking on a new unit of work, we cannot make assumptions about children's prior understanding of concepts which would normally have been covered the year before. Formative assessment should provide opportunities for children to show us what they know and can do, eliciting their knowledge, understanding and skills in order that we are able to identify misconceptions and consider how to support the next steps in their learning.

The seasonal learning studies tell us little about whether the learning is lost and needing to be re-taught, or just 'rusty' and in need of a little revision (Education Endowment Foundation, 2020, p. 70). Eliciting children's ideas through discussion, a short quiz or drawings, for example, helps them to remember and make connections to prior learning, so can be a learning opportunity in itself. Such formative assessment strategies are useful for the teacher during the unit of work, so that they can inform further discussion and follow-up activities. Long quizzes or tests which seek to identify gaps across a wide range of topics are less useful because they cannot all be acted upon and may demotivate the children at a time when they are transitioning back into school.

Formative assessment needs to be open enough so that children have the opportunity to 'surprise' us, showing us what they know and do not know. Some may have carried out extensive home learning projects of their own, or developed a range of 'life skills' like cooking, gardening or setting up Zoom meetings with their grandparents, which have provided them with experiences they can now draw upon to enrich school learning - whilst others may have been in families where the focus was on survival, keeping safe, using foodbanks or parents' work commitments. Every child's experience of the pandemic will have been different and returning to school learning may take differing amounts of time.

Predictions of a Covid-slide, particularly for disadvantaged children, accentuates the importance of effective teaching practices. This article argues that use of formative assessment, as an integral part of teaching to support learning, is time well spent.

Key questions for you and colleagues

Which children in your class are likely to have had a Covid-slide rather than a Covid-slowdown?

Which key topics were not taught in school, which act as important precursors to later learning?

Which age- and subject-appropriate formative assessment strategies could you use to find out about what your children already know and can do?

References

Black P and Wiliam D (1998) I nside the Black Box . London: GL Assessment.

Black P, Harrison C, Lee C, et al. (2004) Working inside the Black Box: Known as AfL for short, and also known as formative assessme... Assessment for learning More in the classroom. Phi Delta Kappan 86(1): 8-21. Available at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ705962 (accessed 5 June 2020).

Earle S (2019) Assessment in the Primary Classroom: Principles and Practice . London: Learning Matters, SAGE.

Education Endowment Foundation (2020) Impact of school closures on the attainment gap: Rapid evidence assessment. Available at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/best-evidence-on-impact-of-school-closures-on-the-attainment-gap/ (accessed 3 June 2020).

Gardner J, Harlen W, Hayward L, et al. (2010) Developing Teacher Assessment . Maidenhead: OUP.

Kuhfeld M and Tarasawa B (2020) The COVID-19 slide: What summer learning loss can tell us about the potential impact of school closures on student academic achievement. Collaborative for Student Growth: Brief. Available at: https://www.nwea.org/blog/2018/summer-learning-loss-what-we-know-what-were-learning/ (accessed 2 June 2020).

Montacute R (2020) Social mobility and Covid-19: Implications of the Covid-19 crisis for educational inequality. Available at: https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/COVID-19-and-Social-Mobility-1.pdf (accessed 2 June 2020).

M√ºller LM and Goldenberg G (2020) Education in times of crisis: The potential implications of school closures for teachers and students. Available at: https://chartered.college/2020/05/07/chartered-college-publishes-report-into-potential-implications-of-school-closures-and-global-approaches-to-education/ (accessed 2 June 2020).

Wiliam D (2018) Embedded Formative Assessment (2nd ed). Bloomington: Solution Tree Press.

Share your experiences with educators globally by joining the discussion below. How is 'covid-slide' affecting your students or how might it?

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We need formative assessment now more than ever

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Chartered College of Teaching ¬∑ We need formative assessment now more than ever Assessment is always a contentious issue, with ongoing debates about methods, uses and implications. Formative and summative assessment are often pitched against each other, with summative concerns driving the taught curriculum and formative focusing more on individual progress.