The functions of assessment can be summative, formative, or

diagnostic.
TGAT, the Task
Group on Assessment and Testing report (TGAT, 1988) described
four purposes for assessment.
These are:
formative;
. summative;
. diagnostic;
. evaluative.
we can see that
summative assessment has a number of uses in documenting
achievement. It is important to
realise, however, that because by its very nature summative
assessment looks back on
achievement, what it is troublesome to use it for is to develop
future learning. In other
words, how to work out what needs to be done next, what could
be done to improve performance
or achievement, or what aspects of learning would benefit from
intervention. It is
possible to use summative assessment in a formative fashion,
and this is a topic we shall
return to afterwe have consideredwhat is going on in formative
assessment itself in Chapter 4.
Summative assessment is generally considered to
be undertaken at the end of a course or programme of study in
order to
measure and communicate pupil performance for purposes of
certification
and (latterly) accountability. Formative assessment is generally
defined as
taking place during a course with the express purpose of
improving pupil
learning.
The purpose of diagnostic assessment was to

diagnose learning difficulties in the individual student, so that

appropriate interventions
could be planned and executed
Evaluative assessment is that which evaluates the success of a
whole school.

assessment uses are the ways in which you will derive

information from
assessments formal, informal, summative and formative and
employ these with the students you teach.