Here is how you can get a better understanding of FORMATIVEASSESSMENTS

Formative assessment: Designed to give students feedback on theirprogress towards the development of knowledge, understanding, skillsand attitudes rather than assessment for marks or grades, which arenot given to students.Formative Assessment: is a form of assessment intended to givestudents feedback on their learning progress and to give the teacheran indication of what students have mastered and areas of difficulty.Formative assessment is not used to assign marks or grades towarddetermining whether the student gains credit for the module.Formative assessments help monitor the progress of learning and theacquisition of learning outcomes during instruction; its purpose is toprovide continuous feedback to both students and teachers on learningsuccesses and failures.Another distinction that underpins formative assessment is studentinvolvement. If students are not involved in the assessment process,formative assessment is not practiced or implemented to its fulleffectiveness. Students need to be involved both as assessors of theirown learning and as resources to other students. There are numerousstrategies teachers can implement to engage students. In fact,research shows that the involvement in and ownership of their workincreases students' motivation to learn. This does not mean theabsence of teacher involvement. To the contrary, teachers are criticalin identifying learning goals, setting clear criteria for success, anddesigning assessment tasks that provide evidence of student learning.One of the key components of engaging students in the assessment of their own learning is providing them with descriptive feedback as theylearn. In fact, research shows descriptive feedback to be the mostsignificant instructional strategy to move students forward in theirlearning. Descriptive feedback provides students with anunderstanding of what they are doing well, links to classroom learning,and gives specific input on how to reach the next step in the learningprogression. In other words, descriptive feedback is not a grade, asticker, or "good job!" A significant body of research indicates that suchlimited feedback does not lead to improved student learning.

Assessment

Learning and Assessment

for

LearningNotes from Chapter 3 of Ahead of the Curve

•

Page 60, “First, we must assess accurately. I will describeexactly what this means. Second, we must use the

assessment process and its results productively: to keepstudents believing in themselves as capable learners whomake sound decisions tat will lead them to greater levels of achievement.

•

Page 61, The Keys to Assessment Quality1.Start with a clear purpose for assessment – a sense of whywe are assessing.2.Include a clear achievement target – a vision of what weneed to assess3.Design an assessment that accurately reflects the targetand satisfies the purpose4.Communicate results effectively to the intended users

•

Page 70, “But what is we supplement it with assessment forlearning by asking, ‘How can we use the assessment processto cause students to learn more; that is, to increaseachievement in the future?’”

•

Page 70, “If assessments of learning check to see if ourstudents are meeting standards (state, district, or classroom),assessments for learning ask if our students are makingprogress toward meeting those standards (day to day in theclassroom – during the learning). One is for accountability,while the other is used to support learning.”

•

Page 71, “Assessments for learning occur while the learning isstill happening and throughout the learning process. So earlyin the learning, students’ scores will not be high. This is notfailure – it simply represents where students are not in theirongoing journey to ultimate success.”

•

Page 71 and 72, The teacher’s role in assessment of learningis as it always has been: to administer accurate assessmentsand use sound grading practices. But in assessment forlearning, this role changes. The teacher’s role in this case isto carry out the following sequence:1.Become confident, competent master of the standard ourstudents are expected to master2.Deconstruct each standard into the enabling classroomachievement targets that form the scaffolding leading upto the standard3.Create a student-friendly version of those targets to sharewith students from the beginning of the learning4.Create high-quality classroom assessments that reflectthose targets5.Use those assessments (in collaboration with students) totrack improvement over time

•

Page 72, “The student’s role in assessment of learning is as italways has been: to study hard and strive for the highest

scores and grades; that is, demonstrate competence. But inassessment for learning, the student’s role is to strive tounderstand what success looks like and to use eachassessment to try to understand how to do better the nexttime. In other words, students seek to understand what goodwriting looks like so they can assess where they are currentlyand then close the gap between the two.”

•

Page 73, “The Black and William synthesis instructs us thatthe keys to maximizing these gains are to increase:1.The accuracy of classroom assessments2.Student access to descriptive (versus judgmental)feedback3.Student involvement in assessment, record-keeping, andcommunication

Content Then Process:Teacher Learning Communities in the Service of FormativeAssessmentNotes from Chapter 9 of Ahead of the Curve

•

Page 183 – “Raising student achievement is important, butnot for the reasons many educators think. Forget No ChildLeft Behind and adequate yearly progress. Forget district andstate reports that rank schools by proportion of proficientstudents. Raising achievement is important because itmatters for individuals and society. If you achieve at a higherlevel, you live longer, are healthier, and earn money.”

•

Page 184 – “First generation thought that schools made adifference. Second generation found that most of the schoolsgetting good results were in affluent areas, and most of theschools with low student achievement were in areas of poverty. Third generation found that it does not matter verymuch which school students attend. What matters very muchis which classrooms they are in in that school. Students onthe most effective classrooms learn at four times the speed of those in the least effective classrooms.”

•

Page 191, “If students have left the classroom before teachershave made adjustments to their teaching on the basis of whatthey have learned about students’ achievement, then theyare already playing catch-up. If teachers do not makeadjustments before students come back the next day, it isprobably too late. This is why the most important formativeassessments are those that occur minute-by-minute and day-by-day.”