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What makes any particular assessment formative is not the specific measuring tool employed but how the information gathered from the tool is used. If a teacher uses information from a particular assessment to track learning, give students feedback, and adjust instructional strategies in a way intended to further progress toward learning goals, that teacher is engaging in formative assessment.Formative assessment is also a systematic way for teachers and students to gather evidence of learning, engage students in assessment, and use data to improve teaching and learning. When you use an assessment instrument— a test, a quiz, an essay, or any other kind of classroom activity—analytically and diagnostically to measure the process of learning and then, in turn, to inform yourself or your students of progress and guide further learning, you are engaging in formative assessment. If you were to use the same instrument for the sole purpose of gathering data to report to a district or state or to determine a final grade, you would be engaging in summative assessment.

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by Laura Greenstein

Teachers who participate in my workshops often ask very pertinent questions that go right to the heart of formative assessment. I use these questions in a formative manner: to guide my decisions about what to teach and about what material to include in this book. In this chapter, I offer responses to many of those core questions with the hope that in reading them you may find some answers to your own questions about formative assessment.

Is Formative Assessment Something New?

No and yes. The idea of measuring students' progress in learning in order to determine how and what to teach them has been around at least since the time of Socrates. Today's movement to include formative assessment as a routine part of classroom practice, however, has its roots in work spanning the last 40 years.

As noted in Chapter 1, Michael Scriven kicked things off in the late 1960s by coining the term "formative," and others (Bloom, Hastings, & Madaus, 1971; Crooks, 1988; Sadler, 1989) expanded and refined the idea over the next two decades. However, it wasn't until 1998, when Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam published their seminal article "Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment," that the advancement of formative assessment in today's classrooms and schools began to gain momentum. Black and Wiliam's research led them to the conclusion that formative assessment can raise standards and improve learning outcomes. This evidence moved many educational leaders to define and apply formative assessment in classrooms not just in the United States but worldwide.

How Does Formative Assessment Differ from Other School Reform Efforts?

A teacher once commented that the professional development sessions that kick off every school year always feature the "reform du jour." Over the years, we all have seen many reforms come and go, but formative assessment differs from most in two important ways. First, it incorporates much of what research has told us about how people learn and about best practices for measuring and improving that learning. Second, formative assessment focuses on the day-to-day interactions between the teacher and the students. Teachers routinely using formative assessment in their classroom practice have insight into what and how well their students are learning and know how to quickly adapt instruction to meet students' needs and further progress toward goals. So formative assessment is different in that it is not a reform but a way to reform and in form education.

Formative assessment's focus on informing instruction also means that it can be used in concert with other educational approaches. Whether you are interested in differentiation, constructivism, authentic learning, or standardized testing, formative assessment can help you help your students along the path to mastery.

What Makes an Assessment Formative?

There are many definitions of formative assessment. Margaret Heritage (2007) describes it as "a systematic process to continuously gather evidence about learning" (p. 140). Carol Boston (2002) explains that it is "the diagnostic use of assessment to provide feedback to teachers and students over the course of instruction" (p. 1). Essentially, formative assessment is a process rather than a product in that it focuses on uncovering what and how well the student understands throughout the course of instruction.

What makes any particular assessment formative is not the specific measuring tool employed but how the information gathered from the tool is used. If a teacher uses information from a particular assessment to track learning, give students feedback, and adjust instructional strategies in a way intended to further progress toward learning goals, that teacher is engaging in formative assessment.

Formative assessment is also a systematic way for teachers and students to gather evidence of learning, engage students in assessment, and use data to improve teaching and learning. When you use an assessment instrument- a test, a quiz, an essay, or any other kind of classroom activity-analytically and diagnostically to measure the process of learning and then, in turn, to inform yourself or your students of progress and guide further learning, you are engaging in formative assessment. If you were to use the same instrument for the sole purpose of gathering data to report to a district or state or to determine a final grade, you would be engaging in summative assessment.

Does Formative Assessment Work in All Content Areas?

Yes, formative assessment is effective for any content area. It can be used in language arts, social studies, science, and math, and it is equally effective in health and PE, the arts, and vocational subjects. It also has potential as an interdisciplinary tool. For example, a pre-assessment asking biology students to summarize what they already know about cell structure yields information about vocabulary as well as content knowledge; the teacher can use this insight to inform instruction in both areas.

How Can Formative Assessment Support the Curriculum?

Curriculum defines the content and sequence of instruction. It identifies the process and products of teaching and learning. Some curricula are broadly designed-think of a scope and sequence or a curriculum map. Other curricula include daily objectives, specific content, learning activities, and assessment strategies.

Formative assessment can support all kinds of curricula by providing essential feedback about what students are learning and how well they are learning it. Formative assessment includes strategies that each teacher can employ on a regular basis in the classroom to track learning. Teachers can then change the content and products of instruction to customize learning based on a student's achievement of curricular goals. In this respect, formative assessment guides curriculum through a reflective process focused on student attainment of the goals and standards.

How Can Formative Assessment Be Used to Establish Instructional Priorities?

Through the consistent use of formative assessment, teachers can quickly gather data to determine whether students are mastering the goals and standards or there are gaps in students' learning. Teachers can then use this information to establish priorities for future lessons. For example, if the majority of your class has mastered a specific standard, you may choose to use instruction time to delve into that standard further or explore an applied aspect of it. If, however, formative assessment data indicate that your students need more instruction or more practice, then you may decide to reteach certain elements or assign more group exercises targeting a particular skill. In this way, formative assessment guides the establishment of priorities for teaching and learning.

Although "data-driven instruction" has become a current buzz phrase, it can mean many different things. Some districts are disaggregating the data from standardized tests and using those data to pinpoint students' strengths and weaknesses. Other districts are using this same information to develop "common formative assessments"-assessments given to students in the same grade and taking the same subject-in order to measure subsets of standardized tests. These strategies have a documented purpose but differ from daily formative assessment in that the teacher cannot immediately and routinely use them to determine teaching priorities.

How Can Formative Assessment Be Used as a Teaching Strategy?

As the saying goes, formative assessment is assessment for learning more than it is assessment of learning. In a formative assessment classroom, teachers still present information through lecture and demonstration and still set tasks; students still complete these tasks and interact with the teacher and with one another.

There are a variety of specific strategies associated with formative assessment that are designed to gather data related to student understanding and further instructional objectives. The lexicon in Appendix B describes many of these strategies, and the chapters in Part 2 of this book, covering applications of formative assessment before, during, and after instruction, provide specific examples. The most important idea to keep in mind, however, is that formative assessment as a whole is a planned strategy carried out to improve learning.

How Is Formative Assessment Used in Grading?

The answer to this question depends on the teacher. There is a brewing controversy about using formative assessment in grading, and it centers on whether or not to grade all students consistently at their level of achievement or to grade their growth toward mastery of standards. If a top student arrives knowing about 90 percent of the content and rises to 100-percent mastery during the course (a net gain of 10 percent), should that student receive a higher grade than a student who came in knowing 50 percent of the content and rose to 75-percent mastery (a net gain of 25 percent)? If the expectation is that all students will master certain standards, then grading at the level of achievement will typically reflect the spread of abilities students bring to the class combined with the additional learning they acquire. If we grade progress toward standards, then a student coming in at 50 percent and rising to 75 percent has learned more than the one going from 90 to 100 percent, and therefore, grades will reflect their growth and final achievement level rather than just their final achievement level.

Teachers who believe that grading should reflect growth toward standards include selected formative assessment data in grade determination. They typically do not count every formative activity toward a grade but may factor in data used as benchmarks during instruction. The value placed on formative assessment data will vary among teachers, but generally it is weighted less than summative assessment data. Keep in mind that counting some formative assessment data in grading helps to fairly reflect the learning of those students who have difficulty with more traditional testing formats or experience test anxiety. For the purist who believes that grades should reflect only final summative assessments, the compromise is to report that final grade along with improvement indicators. The bottom line is that everything should be assessed, but not everything needs to be graded, and grades should reflect progress and results.

Can Formative Assessment Close Achievement Gaps?

Formative assessment definitely helps to close the gap between what students know and what we want them to know. It makes both teachers and students aware of holes in knowledge or understanding, leading teachers to address specific content and provide additional learning strategies to fill in these holes, leading students to set goals and track their progress toward achieving them. In some states and districts, "closing the gap" means teaching specific test content. In others, teaching students how to think and learn across a broad curriculum is thought more effective. Whatever system you may be operating under, formative assessment can help you close achievement gaps.

What's the Relationship Between Rubrics and Formative Assessment?

Rubrics and formative assessment perform some of the same functions. When used in the formative classroom, rubrics help teachers monitor learning and instruction and also provide meaningful feedback to students. Analytical rubrics include defined criteria that reflect standards, and they have descriptions of varying levels of "quality" performance. When rubrics are given to students prior to an assignment, they help to clarify students' understanding of expectations. Teachers can adapt or adjust a rubric to give more weight to particular criteria in order to differentiate the assignment to meet individual needs. Rubrics support revisions of student work because they make it easy for students and teachers to identify changes that need to be made to meet goals. Teachers find that rubrics make assessment more objective because work is rated only on the given criteria. The development of quality rubrics does take time and thought, but in the long run, they make assessment more consistent and efficient, and the same one can be used for both formative and summative purposes.

How Can I Help My Students Understand Formative Assessment?

Formative assessment can be a revelation to students who have come to think of themselves as "dumb" or as academic losers, because it gives them a clearer idea of what they need to do to succeed: master this material, acquire this knowledge, or develop these skills. The point of formative assessment is to inform and improve, not to pass judgment. Success breeds success, and motivation grows from it.

Use formative assessment from the first day of class, and be sure you scaffold to catch the students who need more support. Research shows that formative assessment is most effective with students at the lower end of the achievement spectrum. This is not to say that these students are less capable; sometimes, they are just disenfranchised and disconnected from traditional school subjects, and the feedback from formative assessment helps to reengage them.

Do I Have to Do This?

The list of things that teachers have to do is a long one, stretching beyond simply teaching, testing, and reporting grades to engaging parents in their child's learning, participating in professional learning communities (PLCs), and responding to psychosocial dilemmas. But I trust that incorporating formative assessment is something that you are going to want to do. Formative assessment is one of the few proven strategies that directly support high-quality instruction and effective assessment. We all want our students to be successful; after all, that is why we become teachers. Teachers incorporate formative assessment because it improves teaching and learning. Try it and you'll see.

How Can I Learn More?

As a starting point for learning more about formative assessment, please consult the References section at the back of the book. Particularly indispensable are the works of Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam (1998), Linda Darling-Hammond (2004), Robert Marzano (2003, 2006), Lori Shepard (2000), Margaret Heritage (2007), W. James Popham (2008), Rick Stiggins (2001, 2002), and Susan Brookhart (1997, 2003).

Teachers know that learning gets embedded when it is observed, practiced, discussed, and taught to others. After you have read this book and other source materials, I hope you will reflect on what you have learned. Discuss formative assessment with others. Start a study group or add discussion to PLC time. Attend a workshop or a class. Apply your new knowledge in the classroom.

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Questions and Answers About Formative Assessment

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by Laura Greenstein Teachers who participate in my workshops often ask very pertinent questions that go right to the heart of formative assessment. I use these questions in a formative manner: to guide my decisions about what to teach and about what material to include in this book.

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by Susan M. Brookhart

Formative assessment refers to the ongoing process students and teachers engage in when they

1. Focus on learning goals.

2. Take stock of where current work is in relation to the goal.

3. Take action to move closer to the goal.

The best formative assessment involves both students and teachers in a recursive process. It starts with the teacher, who models the process for the students. At first, the concept of what good work "looks like" belongs to the teacher. The teacher describes, explains, or demonstrates the concepts or skills to be taught, or assigns student investigations-reading assigned material, locating and reading materials to answer a question, doing activities or experiments-to put content into students' hands. For example, the teacher shares the aspects of a good descriptive paragraph and tells students how their work compares to the ideal. Gradually, students internalize the learning goals and become able to see the target themselves. They begin to be able to decide how close they are to it.

A student's self-assessment process marks the transition to independent learning. When students monitor their own learning and make some of their own decisions about what they need to do next, they are using metacognitive skills. These are important skills in their own right. Learning how to learn-that is, learning the metacognitive skills that will ultimately contribute to lifelong learning-begins with specific acts of self-assessment. Students learn how to monitor their own performance first with respect to specific learning goals they understand; for example, they learn to check sentences for specific comma faults or to check math problems for specific errors. These specific acts of self-assessment during the formative assessment process are critical building blocks as well as strategies for achieving the immediate learning goals. Gradually, students begin to be able to monitor more and more aspects of their work at once.

This process is the essence of learning-the continuous process of assessing one's own mastery of content and skills, and discerning and pursuing next steps to move forward toward a goal. The goal may exist only as an objective in a teacher's lesson or unit plan at first, but as students focus on their work, see and monitor their progress, and understand both what they are learning and how they learn, they become full participants in formative assessment and true learners.

Not For Grading

Formative assessment is not used for grading. Students need-and deserve-an opportunity to learn before they are graded on how well they have learned. Formative assessment is used before instruction, to find out where students are, and during instruction, to find out how they are progressing. The fact that the results of formative assessment are not used for grading makes it even more useful for learning, especially for less-able students. They are free to pay attention to figuring out how they are doing and what they need to work on without worrying about a grade. There is some evidence that good students use all information, including graded work, formatively. This is not the case for students who experience negative feelings after failure. These feelings get in the way of processing additional information about their learning. For such students, the value of feedback is lost, overshadowed by the low grade.

Some experts call assessment before instruction "diagnostic" assessment and reserve the term "formative" for assessment during instruction. Others use "diagnostic" to mean the kind of assessment that, whenever it occurs, gives information to teachers to inform specific lesson plans, the main idea being that diagnostic assessment identifies student weaknesses for teachers to address. Because an important aspect of formative assessment is that both teachers and students use the information, this action tool will use the term "formative assessment" to mean collecting any information, before or during instruction, that can be shared with students and used for improvement.

The Relationship Between Formative And Summative Assessment

Formative and summative assessment should both serve the same learning goals. This is how they are connected. The assessments students use as they develop, practice, and learn should be based on the same knowledge and skills they will ultimately demonstrate for a grade.

Formative assessments give a teacher information about how long to "form" and when to "sum." Some students simply need more practice than others to master knowledge or skills. If formative assessment information says students' work is close to the learning target, those students obviously don't need as much practice and are ready to demonstrate achievement on a summative assessment. Such students can then be given enrichment work related to the learning target or use their time for some other work.

Formative assessment information can come from questioning and discussion with students, from their work (quizzes, assignments, homework), or from direct observation of students doing their work. The tools in this manual are designed to help with this exchange of information by focusing students on aspects of their work and putting those observations on paper where they are easy to see and discuss. When students and teachers routinely share information about the quality of student work relative to the learning targets, learning improves.

In Understanding by Design, Wiggins and McTighe (2005) show how formative assessment is an essential part of teaching and learning. They emphasize planning instruction and assessment around desired understandings. These desired understandings are the learning targets that should focus both formative and summative observations.

Benefits of Formative Assessment

Research on the use of formative assessment has shown that when teachers practice good formative assessment and students participate in it, both achievement and motivation increase.

The effects of good formative assessment on achievement can be as much as .4 to .7 standard deviations, the equivalent of moving from the 50th percentile to the 65th or 75th percentile on a standardized test. These effects exist at all levels-primary, intermediate, and secondary-and are especially noticeable among lower achievers.

The reasons for these effects are numerous. Formative assessment helps identify what students can do with help and what they can do independently. Participating in formative assessment involves students in active learning, keeps them on task, and focuses them on learning goals. Formative assessment, especially peer evaluation and self-evaluation, helps students with the social construction of knowledge. But more important, formative assessment allows students to receive feedback on precisely what they need to do to improve. It shows them what to do next to get better.

Motivational Benefits

The effects of formative assessment on motivation are a little more complicated. Feedback is a message, so the effect depends not only on the information itself but also on the characteristics of the people who send (teachers) and receive (students) the message. One student may hear a helpful, clear description of how to improve a paper with gratitude, while another may hear the same feedback as just another confirmation of how stupid he is. Covington (1992) talked about "motivational equity," saying that while no two children come to school with equal academic abilities and backgrounds, there is no reason that they should not all have access to equally motivational feedback. The trick is to find out what is motivating for each student. When it's right, it's the best part of teaching and learning. As one teacher said, "To our students it's personal. We are influencing their learning process."

Student self-assessment satisfies both motivational and achievement needs. Students who can size up their work, figure out how close they are to their goal, and plan what they need to do to improve are, in fact, learning as they do that. Carrying out their plans for improvement not only makes their work better but helps them feel in control, and that is motivating. This process, called self-regulation, has been found to be a characteristic of successful, motivated learners.

Student use of formative assessment varies according to students' developmental levels. Younger children can and should participate in evaluating their own work, but they need to be taught how to do that. Research suggests that younger children may focus only on neatness and other surface characteristics of work when they first do self-evaluation. With instruction and practice, however, they learn to focus on the learning target.

Students also have individual differences in their preferences for and use of teacher feedback. Some students may need instruction about how to use feedback and how to do self-assessment. Students who have never experienced self-assessment may at first claim that feedback is solely "the teacher's job." Research suggests, however, that once students realize that information from both teacher feedback and their own self-assessment can help them improve, they will process material more deeply, persist longer, and try harder. In short, they will become more self-regulated learners.

For unsuccessful learners, feedback must deal with negative feelings first, to break the cycle of failure. For these students, formative assessment can help identify specific next steps they can take to do better. Once the students see they are making progress toward achievement, they are more likely to think it is worthwhile to continue. Thus, for unsuccessful students, formative feedback should begin with statements of accomplishment and small, doable steps for improvement.

References

Covington, M. V. (1992). Making the grade: A self-worth perspective on motivation and school reform. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Section 1: What Is Formative Assessment?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
by Susan M. Brookhart Formative assessment refers to the ongoing process students and teachers engage in when they Focus on learning goals. Take stock of where current work is in relation to the goal. Take action to move closer to the goal. The best formative assessment involves both students and teachers in a recursive process.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
by Susan M. Brookhart

Formative assessment refers to the ongoing process students and teachers engage in when they

1. Focus on learning goals.

2. Take stock of where current work is in relation to the goal.

3. Take action to move closer to the goal.

The best formative assessment involves both students and teachers in a recursive process. It starts with the teacher, who models the process for the students. At first, the concept of what good work "looks like" belongs to the teacher. The teacher describes, explains, or demonstrates the concepts or skills to be taught, or assigns student investigations-reading assigned material, locating and reading materials to answer a question, doing activities or experiments-to put content into students' hands. For example, the teacher shares the aspects of a good descriptive paragraph and tells students how their work compares to the ideal. Gradually, students internalize the learning goals and become able to see the target themselves. They begin to be able to decide how close they are to it.

A student's self-assessment process marks the transition to independent learning. When students monitor their own learning and make some of their own decisions about what they need to do next, they are using metacognitive skills. These are important skills in their own right. Learning how to learn-that is, learning the metacognitive skills that will ultimately contribute to lifelong learning-begins with specific acts of self-assessment. Students learn how to monitor their own performance first with respect to specific learning goals they understand; for example, they learn to check sentences for specific comma faults or to check math problems for specific errors. These specific acts of self-assessment during the formative assessment process are critical building blocks as well as strategies for achieving the immediate learning goals. Gradually, students begin to be able to monitor more and more aspects of their work at once.

This process is the essence of learning-the continuous process of assessing one's own mastery of content and skills, and discerning and pursuing next steps to move forward toward a goal. The goal may exist only as an objective in a teacher's lesson or unit plan at first, but as students focus on their work, see and monitor their progress, and understand both what they are learning and how they learn, they become full participants in formative assessment and true learners.

Not For Grading

Formative assessment is not used for grading. Students need-and deserve-an opportunity to learn before they are graded on how well they have learned. Formative assessment is used before instruction, to find out where students are, and during instruction, to find out how they are progressing. The fact that the results of formative assessment are not used for grading makes it even more useful for learning, especially for less-able students. They are free to pay attention to figuring out how they are doing and what they need to work on without worrying about a grade. There is some evidence that good students use all information, including graded work, formatively. This is not the case for students who experience negative feelings after failure. These feelings get in the way of processing additional information about their learning. For such students, the value of feedback is lost, overshadowed by the low grade.

Some experts call assessment before instruction "diagnostic" assessment and reserve the term "formative" for assessment during instruction. Others use "diagnostic" to mean the kind of assessment that, whenever it occurs, gives information to teachers to inform specific lesson plans, the main idea being that diagnostic assessment identifies student weaknesses for teachers to address. Because an important aspect of formative assessment is that both teachers and students use the information, this action tool will use the term "formative assessment" to mean collecting any information, before or during instruction, that can be shared with students and used for improvement.

The Relationship Between Formative And Summative Assessment

Formative and summative assessment should both serve the same learning goals. This is how they are connected. The assessments students use as they develop, practice, and learn should be based on the same knowledge and skills they will ultimately demonstrate for a grade.

Formative assessments give a teacher information about how long to "form" and when to "sum." Some students simply need more practice than others to master knowledge or skills. If formative assessment information says students' work is close to the learning target, those students obviously don't need as much practice and are ready to demonstrate achievement on a summative assessment. Such students can then be given enrichment work related to the learning target or use their time for some other work.

Formative assessment information can come from questioning and discussion with students, from their work (quizzes, assignments, homework), or from direct observation of students doing their work. The tools in this manual are designed to help with this exchange of information by focusing students on aspects of their work and putting those observations on paper where they are easy to see and discuss. When students and teachers routinely share information about the quality of student work relative to the learning targets, learning improves.

In Understanding by Design, Wiggins and McTighe (2005) show how formative assessment is an essential part of teaching and learning. They emphasize planning instruction and assessment around desired understandings. These desired understandings are the learning targets that should focus both formative and summative observations.

Benefits of Formative Assessment

Research on the use of formative assessment has shown that when teachers practice good formative assessment and students participate in it, both achievement and motivation increase.

The effects of good formative assessment on achievement can be as much as .4 to .7 standard deviations, the equivalent of moving from the 50th percentile to the 65th or 75th percentile on a standardized test. These effects exist at all levels-primary, intermediate, and secondary-and are especially noticeable among lower achievers.

The reasons for these effects are numerous. Formative assessment helps identify what students can do with help and what they can do independently. Participating in formative assessment involves students in active learning, keeps them on task, and focuses them on learning goals. Formative assessment, especially peer evaluation and self-evaluation, helps students with the social construction of knowledge. But more important, formative assessment allows students to receive feedback on precisely what they need to do to improve. It shows them what to do next to get better.

Motivational Benefits

The effects of formative assessment on motivation are a little more complicated. Feedback is a message, so the effect depends not only on the information itself but also on the characteristics of the people who send (teachers) and receive (students) the message. One student may hear a helpful, clear description of how to improve a paper with gratitude, while another may hear the same feedback as just another confirmation of how stupid he is. Covington (1992) talked about "motivational equity," saying that while no two children come to school with equal academic abilities and backgrounds, there is no reason that they should not all have access to equally motivational feedback. The trick is to find out what is motivating for each student. When it's right, it's the best part of teaching and learning. As one teacher said, "To our students it's personal. We are influencing their learning process."

Student self-assessment satisfies both motivational and achievement needs. Students who can size up their work, figure out how close they are to their goal, and plan what they need to do to improve are, in fact, learning as they do that. Carrying out their plans for improvement not only makes their work better but helps them feel in control, and that is motivating. This process, called self-regulation, has been found to be a characteristic of successful, motivated learners.

Student use of formative assessment varies according to students' developmental levels. Younger children can and should participate in evaluating their own work, but they need to be taught how to do that. Research suggests that younger children may focus only on neatness and other surface characteristics of work when they first do self-evaluation. With instruction and practice, however, they learn to focus on the learning target.

Students also have individual differences in their preferences for and use of teacher feedback. Some students may need instruction about how to use feedback and how to do self-assessment. Students who have never experienced self-assessment may at first claim that feedback is solely "the teacher's job." Research suggests, however, that once students realize that information from both teacher feedback and their own self-assessment can help them improve, they will process material more deeply, persist longer, and try harder. In short, they will become more self-regulated learners.

For unsuccessful learners, feedback must deal with negative feelings first, to break the cycle of failure. For these students, formative assessment can help identify specific next steps they can take to do better. Once the students see they are making progress toward achievement, they are more likely to think it is worthwhile to continue. Thus, for unsuccessful students, formative feedback should begin with statements of accomplishment and small, doable steps for improvement.

References

Covington, M. V. (1992). Making the grade: A self-worth perspective on motivation and school reform. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

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Section 1: What Is Formative Assessment?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
by Susan M. Brookhart Formative assessment refers to the ongoing process students and teachers engage in when they Focus on learning goals. Take stock of where current work is in relation to the goal. Take action to move closer to the goal. The best formative assessment involves both students and teachers in a recursive process.

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Traditionally, we have used assessments to measure how much our students have learned up to a particular point in time. This is called "assessment of learning" - or what we use to see whether our students are meeting standards set by the state, the district, or the classroom teacher. These summative assessments are conducted after a unit or certain time period to determine how much learning has taken place. Although assessments of learning are important if we are to ascribe grades to students and provide accountability, teachers should also focus more on assessment learning. These types of assessment - formative assessments - support learning during the learning process.

Since formative assessments are considered part of the learning, they need not be graded as summative assessments (end-of-unit exams or quarterlies, for example) are. Rather, they serve as practice for students, just like a meaningful homework assignment. They check for understanding along the way and guide teacher decision making about future instruction; they also provide feedback to students so they can improve their performance. Educational consultant Rick Stiggins suggests "the student's role is to strive to understand what success looks like and to use each assessment to try to understand how to do better the next time." Formative assessments help us differentiate instruction and thus improve student achievement.

When I work with teachers during staff development, they often tell me they don't have time to assess students along the way. They fear sacrificing coverage and insist they must move on quickly. Yet in the rush to cover more, students are actually learning less. Without time to reflect on and interact meaningfully with new information, students are unlikely to retain much of what is "covered" in their classrooms.

Formative assessments, however, do not have to take an inordinate amount of time. While a few types (such as extended responses or essays) take considerably more time than others, many are quick and easy to use on a daily basis. On balance, the time they take from a lesson is well worth the information you gather and the retention students gain.

Using a Variety of Formative Assessments

The National Forum on Assessment (1995) suggests that assessment systems include opportunities for both individual and group work. To provide you with a comprehensive repertoire, I have labeled each assessment as Individual, Partner, Small Group, or Whole Class. Listening in on student partners or small-group conversations allows you to quickly identify problems or misconceptions, which you can address immediately. If you choose a group assessment activity, you will frequently want to follow it up with an individual one to more effectively pinpoint what each student needs.

Often, the opportunity to work with others before working on their own leads students toward mastery. The group assessment process is part of the learning; don't feel you must grade it. The individual assessment that follows can remain ungraded, as well, although it will be most useful if you provide some feedback to the learner, perhaps in the form of a brief comment or, at the very least, a check, check-plus or check-minus, with a brief verbal explanation about what each symbol indicates ( You have mastered the skill, You need more practice, etc.).

By varying the type of assessment you use over the course of the week, you can get a more accurate picture of what students know and understand, obtaining a "multiple-measure assessment 'window' into student understanding" (Ainsworth & Viegut, 2006). Using at least one formative assessment daily enables you to evaluate and assess the quality of the learning that is taking place in your classroom and answer these driving questions: How is this student evolving as a learner? What can I do to assist this learner on his path to mastery?

Types of Assessment Strategies

I have chosen a variety of quick ways for you to check for understanding and gather "evidence" of learning in your classroom.

Summaries and Reflections Students stop and reflect, make sense of what they have heard or read, derive personal meaning from their learning experiences, and/or increase their metacognitive skills. These require that students use content-specific language.

Lists, Charts, and Graphic Organizers Students will organize information, make connections, and note relationships through the use of various graphic organizers.

Visual Representations of Information Students will use both words and pictures to make connections and increase memory, facilitating retrieval of information later on. This "dual coding" helps teachers address classroom diversity, preferences in learning style, and different ways of "knowing."

Collaborative Activities Students have the opportunity to move and/or communicate with others as they develop and demonstrate their understanding of concepts.

How to Use the Assessments in This Book

The quick formative assessments found within this book are designed for easy implementation in any classroom. Almost all can be used, with a little modification, throughout grades 3-8 and across the curriculum. A few are better for either younger or more sophisticated learners. Each strategy is labeled for easy identification by grade level on the list of strategies. For each strategy, I provide the following.

Introduction: A description of the strategy and the relevant research behind it. I will explain how the strategy supports differentiated instruction.

Step-by-Step Instructions: Steps for introducing and modeling the strategy for students

Applications: Suggestions regarding what you can assess with the strategy

In addition, for many strategies you'll find:

Tips for Tiering: Any ideas specific to the strategy for supporting struggling learners and challenging advanced learners

TechConnect: Ideas for integrating technology with the formative assessment

One of the easiest formative assessments is the Exit Card. Exit Cards are index cards (or sticky notes) that students hand to you, deposit in a box, or post on the door as they leave your classroom. On the Exit Card, your students have written their names and have responded to a question, solved a problem, or summarized their understanding after a particular learning experience. In a few short minutes, you can read the responses, sort them into groups ( students who have not yet mastered the skill, students who are ready to apply the skill, students who are ready to go ahead or to go deeper), and use the data to inform the next day's or, even, that afternoon's instruction.

Feedback provided by the Exit Cards frequently leads to the formation of a needs-based group whose members require re-teaching of the concept in a different way. It also identifies which of your students do not need to participate in your planned whole-group mini-lesson, because they are ready to be challenged at a greater level of complexity.

Several of the formative assessments contained in this book can be used as Exit Cards. In the table I have placed an asterisk next to those assessments that you can use as an Exit Card to quickly sort and group students for subsequent instruction.

Keeping Track of the Data

When you use formative assessments, you must keep track of the data that you collect. The easiest way to observe and assess student growth is to walk around your room with a clipboard and sticky notes. As you notice acquisition of a new skill or confusion and struggle with a skill, record the student's name and jot down a brief comment. Consider keeping a folder for each child in which you insert any notes that you make on a daily basis. This process will help you focus on the needs of individual students when you confer with each child or develop lessons for your whole class.

Another way to keep track of the data is to use a class list. On this sheet, you can note specific skills and record how each student is doing. You can use a system of check-minus, check, and check-plus or the numbers 4, 3, 2, 1 to indicate student proficiency with the skill.

Differentiating Instruction in Response to Formative Assessments

Thomas R. Guskey suggests that for assessments to become an integral part of the instructional process, teachers need to change their approach in three important ways. They must "1) use assessments as sources of information for both students and teachers, 2) follow assessments with high-quality corrective instruction, and 3) give students second chances to demonstrate success" (2007).

Once you have assessed your learners, you must take action. You will be able to help your students achieve success by differentiating your instruction based on the information you have gathered. Ask yourself, "Who needs my attention now? Which students need a different approach? Which students are not learning anything new, because I haven't challenged them?"

"Tiering" your activities for two or three levels of learners is usually what is called for after a review of assessment data. We must be prepared to provide both corrective activities and enrichment activities for those who need them. An important caveat to keep in mind, however, is that the follow-up, corrective instruction designed to help students must present concepts in new ways and engage students in different learning experiences that are more appropriate for them (Guskey, 2007/2008). Your challenge will be to find a new and different pathway to understanding. The best corrective activities involve a change in format, organization, or method of presentation (Guskey, 2007/2008).

After using any of the formative assessments contained in this book, you can choose from among these suggestions to scaffold your struggling learners or challenge your advanced learners. The suggestions for struggling learners will help students during their "second-chance" learning on the road toward mastery. The suggestions for advanced learners will challenge those students who, in my opinion, are frequently forgotten in mixed-ability classrooms. With these easy adjustments to your lesson plans, you will be able to respond to the diverse readiness needs of students in your heterogeneous classroom.

Gathering Multiple Sources of Evidence

In differentiated classrooms everywhere, a resounding mantra is "Fair is not equal; fair is getting what you need." Assessments enable us to determine what students need. But for our assessments to be accurate, we need multiple measures of student understanding. We need evidence gathered over time in different ways to evaluate how effective the teaching and learning process has been. Tomlinson and McTighe (2006) suggest that when we gather a "photo album" rather than a "snapshot" of our students, we can differentiate instruction based on a more accurate evaluation of our students' learning needs.

I wish you success as you gather your own "photo album" of your students and choose from a variety of reflective, unique, and engaging assessment tools. This book offers you an "assessment tool kit" to choose from as you create a classroom that is continually more responsive to the needs of your diverse learners. These assessments will provide you and your students "evidence" of their learning and help them on their journey to greater achievement in school.

Response to Intervention (RTI)

With the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) under No Child Left Behind, schools are searching for ways to implement the newly required Response to Intervention (RTI) model. This new way of delivering intervention to struggling students encompasses a three-tiered model.

Tier 1 interventions include monitoring at-risk students within the general education classroom, ensuring that each student has access to a high-quality education that is matched to his or her needs. RTI focuses on improving academic achievement by using scientifically based instructional practices.

According to the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (2005), Tier 1 strategies encompass "alternative assessment which utilizes quality interventions matched to student needs, coupled with formative evaluation to obtain data over time to make critical educational decisions." Not to be confused with tiered activities, which are a cornerstone of a differentiated classroom (where one concept is taught at two or three levels of readiness), Tier I activities are any of the in-class interventions classroom teachers provide to assess and monitor their at-risk students.

The evidence-based formative assessments provided in this book are excellent methods for classroom teachers to measure the progress of their Tier 1 students.
This article is excerpted from 25 Quick Formative Assessments for a Differentiated Classroom by Judith Dodge.

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What Are Formative Assessments and Why Should We Use Them? | Scholastic

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Traditionally, we have used assessments to measure how much our students have learned up to a particular point in time. This is called "assessment of learning" - or what we use to see whether our students are meeting standards set by the state, the district, or the classroom teacher.

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Formative assessmentThe goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. More specifically, formative assessments:help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need workhelp faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediatelyFormative assessments are generally low stakes, which means that they have low or no point value. Examples of formative assessments include asking students to:draw a concept map in class to represent their understanding of a topicsubmit one or two sentences identifying the main point of a lectureturn in a research proposal for early feedback

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Formative assessmentThe goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. More specifically, formative assessments:help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need workhelp faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediatelyFormative assessments are generally low stakes, which means that they have low or no point value. Examples of formative assessments include asking students to:draw a concept map in class to represent their understanding of a topicsubmit one or two sentences identifying the main point of a lectureturn in a research proposal for early feedback

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Formative assessment

The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. More specifically, formative assessments:

help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work

help faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately

Formative assessments are generally low stakes, which means that they have low or no point value. Examples of formative assessments include asking students to:

draw a concept map in class to represent their understanding of a topic

submit one or two sentences identifying the main point of a lecture

turn in a research proposal for early feedback

Summative assessment

The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark.

Summative assessments are often high stakes, which means that they have a high point value. Examples of summative assessments include:

Information from summative assessments can be used formatively when students or faculty use it to guide their efforts and activities in subsequent courses.

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Formative vs Summative Assessment - Eberly Center - Carnegie Mellon University