a by Susan Collins— May 30, 2021

Formative and Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment is utilized to immediately determine whether students have learned what
the instructor intended. This type of assessment is intended to help instructors identify material
which needs to be clarified or re-taught and should not be used to evaluate or grade students.
Results of formative assessment can assist instructors to ascertain whether curriculum or learning
activities need to be modified during a class session or before the next class meets.

Summative Assessment

Summative assessment is cumulative in nature and is utilized to determine whether students have
met the course goals or student learning outcomes at the end of a course or program.

Formative and summative

Assessment is often divided into formative and summative categories for the purpose of
considering different objectives for assessment practices.

 Summative assessment - Summative assessment is generally carried out at the end of a

course or project. In an educational setting, summative assessments are typically used to assign
students a course grade.
 Formative assessment - Formative assessment is generally carried out throughout a
course or project. Formative assessment, also referred to as "educative assessment," is used to aid
learning. In an educational setting, formative assessment might be a teacher (or peer) or the
learner, providing feedback on a student's work, and would not necessarily be used for grading
purposes.
Benefits of Summative assessments

1) Summative assessments offer an opportunity to refresh students’ memories of what they

previously learned.
2) Summative assessments reinforce the overall learning objectives of the course.
3) Summative assessments provide a snapshot for class members to see if they know the
collective language points or not.
4) Summative assessments can tell learners if they should proceed to the next level.
By helping learners understand these points, we may be able to reduce their apprehension.
Then, class members may be more apt to look forward to these times. As they prepare, remind
learners of areas they may have forgotten or that need a little more focus.

Benefits of Formative Assessment

1) Use formative assessments with regularity (e.g., a quiz every Friday). This way you can use
them to provide an element of stability for learners.
2) Since formative assessments can take many forms, they can also break up the monotony of
traditional classroom environments where the teach-test-teach system prevails.
3) Formative assessments do not require traditional numbered or lettered grades. They can
simply be pass or fail, or even labeled with colors, stars, or other indicators. This takes some
of the stress from learners and allows them to simply focus on language acquisition instead of
grades.
4) Formative assessments reinforce language acquisition.

Differences between formative and summative assessments

Difference 1

The first big difference is when the assessment takes place in a student’s learning process.

As the definition already gave away, formative assessment is an ongoing activity.

The evaluation takes place during the learning process. Not just one time, but several times.
A summative evaluation takes place at a complete other time. Not during the process, but after
it. The evaluation takes place after a course or unit’s completion.

Difference 2

There is also a big difference between the assessment strategies in getting the right information
of the student’s learning.

With formative assessments you try to figure out whether a student’s doing well or needs help by
monitoring the learning process.

When you use summative assessments, you assign grades. The grades

Difference 3

The purposes of both assessments lie miles apart. For formative assessment, the purpose is to
improve student’s learning. In order to do this, you need to be able to give meaningful
feedback.

For summative assessment, the purpose is to evaluate student’s achievements.

So, do you want your students to be the best at something, or do you want your students to
transcend themselves each time repeatedly?

Difference 4

Remember when I said that with formative assessment the evaluation takes place several times
during the learning process end with summative assessment at the end of a chapter or course?
This also explains the size of the evaluation packages.

Formative assessment includes little content areas. For example: 3 formative evaluations of 1
chapter.

Summative assessment includes complete chapters or content areas. For example: just 1
evaluation at the end of a chapter. The lesson material package is much larger now.

Difference 5

The last difference you may already have guessed. Formative assessment

considers evaluation as a process. This way, the teacher can see a student grow and steer the
student in an upwards direction.

With summative assessment it’s harder for you to steer the student in the right direction. The
evaluation is already done. That’s why summative assessments or evaluations are considered to
be more of a “product”.
 Examples of formative assessments

Formative assessments can be classroom polls, exit tickets, early feedback, and so on. But you
can make them more fun too. Take a look at these three examples.

1. In response to a question or topic inquiry, students write down 3 different summaries. 10-
15 words long, 30-50 words long and 75

2. 100 words long.

3. The 3-2-1 countdown exercise: Give your students cards to write on, or they can respond
orally. Students have to respond to three separate statements: 3 things you didn’t know before, 2
things that surprised you about this topic and 1 thing you want to start doing with what you’ve
learned.

4. One-minute papers are usually done at the end of the lesson. Students answer a brief
question in writing. The question typically centers around the main point of the course, most
surprising concept, most confusing area of the topic and what question from the topic might
appear on the next test.

Examples of summative assessments

Most of you have been using summative assessments whole their teaching careers. And that’s
normal. Education is a slow learner and giving students grades is the easier thing to do.

Examples of summative assessments are midterm exams, end-of-unit or –chapter tests, final
projects or papers, district benchmark and scores used for accountability for schools and
students.

So, that was it for this post. I hope you now know the differences and know which assessment
strategy you are going to use in your teaching. If you want to know more about implementing
formative assessment you

ASSESSMENT OF EXCEPTIONAL LEARNERS

Assessing students with learning disabilities can be challenging. Some students, such as those
with ADHD and autism, struggle with testing situations and cannot remain at a task long enough
to complete such assessments. But assessments are important; they provide the child with an
opportunity to demonstrate knowledge, skill, and understanding. For most learners with
exceptionalities, a paper-and-pencil task should be at the bottom of the list of assessment
strategies. Below are some alternate suggestions that support and enhance the assessment of
learning-disabled students.
Presentation

A presentation is a verbal demonstration of skill, knowledge, and understanding. The child can
narrate or answer questions about her task. Presentation can also take the form of discussion,
debate or a purely interrogatory exchange. Some children may require a small group or one-on-
one setting; many students with disabilities are intimidated by larger groups. But don't discount
the presentation. With ongoing opportunities, students will begin to shine.

Conference

A conference is a one-on-one between the teacher and the student. The teacher will prompt and
cue the student to determine the level of understanding and knowledge. Again, this takes the
pressure away from written tasks. The conference should be somewhat informal to put the
student at ease. The focus should be on the student sharing ideas, reasoning or explaining a
concept. This is an extremely useful form of formative assessment.

Interview

An interview helps a teacher to clarify the level of understanding for a specific purpose, activity
or learning concept. A teacher should have questions in mind to ask the student. A lot can be
learned through an interview, but it can be time-consuming.

Observation

Observing a student in the learning environment is a very powerful assessment method. It can
also be the vehicle for the teacher to change or enhance a specific teaching strategy. Observation
can be done in a small group setting while the child is engaged in learning tasks. Things to look
for include: Does the child persist? Give up easily? Have a plan in place? Look for assistance?
Try alternate strategies? Become impatient? Look for patterns?

Performance Task

A performance task is a learning task that the child can do while the teacher assesses his
performance. For example, a teacher may ask a student to solve a math problem by presenting a
word problem and asking the child questions about it. During the task, the teacher is looking for
skill and ability as well as the child's attitude toward the task. Does he cling to past strategies or
is there evidence of risk-taking in the approach?

Self-Assessment

It's always positive for students to be able to identify their own strengths and weaknesses. When
possible, self-assessment can lead the student to a better sense of understanding of her own
learning. The teacher should ask some guiding questions that can lead to this discovery.

Formative versus Summative Evaluation

Formative evaluation is a process of ongoing feedback on performance. The purposes are to
identify aspects of performance that need to improve and to offer corrective suggestions. Be
generous with formative evaluation. Share your observations and perceptions with the student.
You might simply share your observation and then ask the student if (s)he can think of a better
approach for the next time. Formative evaluation need not make a judgment. When giving
formative feedback, offer some alternatives to the student, e.g., "That procedure will be more
comfortable for the patient if you?" If you observe unsafe or questionable practices, address
those directly and immediately with the student.
Use the student's patient management documentation as well as your observations of
performance to offer formative evaluation. The student's charting

reveals organizational skills, priorities, thought process, and judgment. Over the duration of the
student's experience with you, point out improvement to the student.
Summative evaluation is a process of identifying larger patterns and trends in performance and
judging these summary statements against criteria to obtain performance ratings. The faculty
assumes responsibility for completing the summative evaluation at the end of the course.
However, faculty rely upon your evidence and perceptions to justify ratings.
The table below compares formative and summative evaluation according to the kind of
information provided and the timing.

Formative Evaluation Summative Evaluation

What Specific description of daily General trends based on specific

information events descriptions

Organizational skills Overall attitude

Needs assessment Comparison with evaluation tool

When to give At the time of the incident Mid-point in the course

End of the day End of the course

Weekly re: progress

Give both formative and summative evaluation to the student in private as a rule. However,
formative evaluation is needed if safety concerns arise in a student's practice while with a patient.
Also, at times you will lose a learning opportunity if you do not give the student a chance to
practice an alternative approach at the time but reserve your suggestions for a later conversation.
Use your judgment and employ tact and sensitivity to avoid embarrassing the student.
Formative vs. Summative Evaluation

Formative Evaluation Summative Evaluation

Formative Evaluation is a bit more complex than Summative evaluation provides information
summative evaluation. It is done with a small on the product's efficacy (its ability to do
group of people to "test run" various aspects of what it was designed to do). For example, did
instructional materials. For example, you might the learners learn what they were supposed to
ask a friend to look over your web pages to see if learn after using the instructional module. In
they are graphically pleasing, if there are errors a sense, it lets the learner know "how they
you've missed, if it has navigational problems. did," but more importantly, by looking at how
It's like having someone look over your shoulder the learners did, it helps you know whether
during the development phase to help you catch the product teaches what it is supposed to
things that you miss, but a fresh set of eyes might teach.
not. At times, you might need to have this help
from a target audience. For example, if you're Summative evaluation is typically
designing learning materials for third graders, quantitative, using numeric scores or letter
you should have a third grader as part of your grades to assess learner achievement.
Formative Evaluation.
So, what is the difference between a
Here are some different author's definitions of Summative Evaluation and Learner
Formative Evaluation that will help you Assessment?
understand the difference.
Although both might look at the same data, a
Scriven, (1991) Learner Assessment generally looks at how
an individual learner performed on a learning
Formative evaluation is typically conducted task. It assesses a student's learning -- hence
during the development or improvement of a the name Learner Assessment. For example,
program or product (or person, and so on) and it you might assess an entire class of students,
is conducted, often more than once, for in-house but you are assess them individually to see
staff of the program with the intent to improve. how each did.
The reports normally remain in-house; but
serious formative evaluation may be done by an A Summative Evaluation, on the other hand,
internal or an external evaluator or preferably, a looks at more than one learner's performance
combination; of course, many program staff are, to see how well a group did on a learning task
in an informal sense, constantly doing formative that utilized specific learning materials and
evaluation. methods. By looking at the group, the
instructional designer can evaluate the
Weston, Mc Alpine, and Berdonar, (1995) learning materials and learning process --
hence the name Summative Evaluation. For
The purpose of formative evaluation is to validate example, here you may find that, as a group,
or ensure that the goals of the instruction are all of the students did well on Section A of
being achieved and to improve the instruction, if some instructional materials, but didn't do so
necessary, by means of identification and well on Section B. That would indicate that
subsequent remediation of problematic aspects. the designer should go back and look at the
design or delivery of Section B.
Worthen, Sanders, and Fitzpatrick, (1997)

Formative evaluation is conducted to provide

program staff evaluative information useful in
improving the program.

Robert Stakes

"When the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative;

when the guests taste the soup, that’s
summative."

Scriven, (1996)

 "Is research-oriented vs. action-oriented"

 "Evaluations are intended - by the
evaluator - as a basis for improvement"
 "The summative vs. formative distinction
is context dependent"

Explain how assessment data can be used to help guide immediate and future instruction.

The standardized testing data can be useful; however, we teachers spend the entire
year collecting all sorts of immediate and valuable information about students that
informs and influences how we teach, as well as where and what we review, readjust,
and reteach.

Here’s how teachers collect student data and some of the ways we use it.

FROM THE CLASSROOM

Formative Assessments: Low-stakes assessments are really the most important and
useful student data. Exit slips , brief quizzes, and thumbs up/thumbs down are a few of
my favorite ways to gather information on where students are and where we need to go
next.

Observations: The beauty of having a constructivist, student-directed classroom? The

kids are comfortable with you walking around and sitting with them in their groups—
 your “guide on the side” role. In other words, they don’t freeze up when you step
away from the podium or your regular spot by the whiteboard. This freedom allows
you to be a fly on the wall, gathering data on individual students: How well are they
making sense of the content? Interacting with others? Are they struggling with a
learning activity? Such data from observations then leads us to adjust pacing for the
whole class or scaffold for those students who are still struggling.

Projects, Essays, and Exams: Summative assessments, such as literary analysis essays
or end-of-unit science exams, allow us to measure the growth of individual and whole-
group learning. If a large number of students don’t do well on a high-stakes
assessment, we need to reflect back on the teaching and make necessary adjustments
in the future.

2 . F R O M C U M U L AT I V E F I L E S

It’s difficult to find the time to read students’ files, but if you haven’t before, trust me,
it’s well worth it. Much information is found in these files. From trekking to the
counseling office after school, sitting down with a cup of coffee, and reading through
the files of students I had questions about (beyond the data in hand), I’ve discovered
critical information. Here are some notable examples:

 A girl who often missed class was homeless, living in the family car
 Several students who had been identified as gifted were inaccurately placed in my
general education English class
 A boy struggling to fit in had been recently diagnosed with schizophrenia
 More than a dozen students who never wore eyeglasses in class (or contacts—I checked)
had prescriptions

From a child’s cumulative files, you can sometimes see a dramatic grade change at a
specific point during their school journey. Perhaps prior to eighth grade, the child had
been an A student and then started earning Ds and Fs. You can express concern about
this, sharing the data with them. The students may then share a reason with you: Their
parents divorced, or they moved to a new city/community. One student told me that
she just gave up on school when her dad went to prison.

You then have an opportunity to be empathetic, acknowledge their hardship, and set
some goals together for them to improve academically. I’ve also used this data to refer
students for further counseling services or advocate for additional support for them.

3 . F R O M S TA N D A R D I Z E D T E S T S C O R E S

Looking at previous standardized test scores for your current students is beneficial in
several ways. A disclaimer: Just as one grade does not determine all that a student is
or is not, neither does one test score. Use standardized testing results along with other
data (e.g., in-class assignments and observations) when making instructional
decisions. That said, here are some suggestions for using standardized test data:
Share Testing Results with Students Individually: After doing this, set some
obtainable, realistic goals for each of them to work toward before the next test. (By
the way, I don’t agree with making this data public for other students to see, as was
done at one Orange County, California, high school .)

Use the Data to Decide Student Grouping and Differentiation: Standardized test data
reveals how your students performed: advanced, proficient, basic, and below basic.
This could help inform how you choose student groups, create seating charts, and
differentiate for individuals. For example, if I have a student who has historically
scored below basic and exhibits other signs of a struggling student, I like to place her
in the front of the class so that I can easily access her when she needs extra support. If
you have many students who scored advanced in your third period class, and many
students who scored basic in period two, this may give insight into why period three is
moving more quickly and more deeply through content. You can adjust the learning
and support accordingly.

Get Curious About Contradictions and Act: How about that ace student who did not do
so well on the standardized test? Possibly a nervous test-taker? Or it could simply be
low motivation since many students never hear about their standardized test results
from previous years? Prior to a test, a brief pep talk or quick review of strategies for
lowering test anxiety could be all they need. Also, there is much information to be
gained from having individual conversations with students who have these
contradictions between their standardized test scores and their classroom grades and
performance.

My Plans for the Future

In the future, I can use all the information gained and be sure that I am devoted to my student's
success. After learning more about formative and summative assessments, I would stick towards
the formative because it allows the student a chance for success while they still have a "chance".
Most of all, I will make "no excuses" for why my students cannot be successful.

References
Lopez, D. (2013). No Excuses University: How six exceptional systems are revolutionizing our
schools (2nd ed.). Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu

Wisconsin DPI – Resources for the Field. (2016, March 23). Formative assessment (Strategic
assessment system, part 1) (Links to an external site.) [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://youtu.be/h8O0hQ32IIQ
Wisconsin DPI – Resources for the Field. (2016, August 2). Summative assessment (Strategic
assessment system, part 3) (Links to an external site.) [Video File]. Retrieved from
https://youtu.be/ySYFrQDRZHQ