What are formative assessments in education?
Put simply, a formative assessment is a short, low-stakes check that provides both teacher and student with immediate feedback on the student’s comprehension of a learning target.
There is not one correct way to perform formative assessments in a classroom. However, as a general rule of thumb, formative assessments are low stakes so that students feel the freedom to be very honest about their lack of understanding without worrying about grading penalties. This allows teachers to quickly grasp where the breakdown in learning occurs and pivot instructional strategies or provide necessary intervention so as to ensure students do not miss out on learning objectives.
Additionally, formative assessments are typically used frequently within each unit of study. Teachers often set up certain rhythms within units or semesters, and perform formative assessments daily, weekly, or in the middle of each lesson. Teachers use the feedback they gather to inform their instruction to be most effective.
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What does a formative assessment measure?
While summative assessments shed light on final student achievement or the overall success of a teacher or curriculum (what a student has learned), formative assessments are typically used to shed light on how a student is learning at the moment. For example, often teachers find themselves asking themselves:
- Are students grasping the content, and if not, why?
- What do students need to meet the learning objectives?
- Is it a single student struggling? What intervention plan does that one student need?
- Or is the whole class struggling? Does the instructional approach need a complete overhaul?
Formative assessments provide instant answers to these questions. However, the data provided through formative assessments is worthless unless teachers choose to use it to inform future instructional practices.
Why are formative assessments used in education?
Unlike summative assessments, which allow teachers to evaluate student learning at the end of a unit or school year, formative assessments are ongoing throughout the school year. They equip teachers to quickly comprehend a student’s understanding of a learning target. This is useful in education as it provides teachers with ongoing feedback on their instructional strategies.
Additionally, good formative assessments shine a light on where the breakdown in learning occurs, so that teachers can quickly adjust the method of instruction to guide students toward the learning objective.
Furthermore, research has shown that the “testing effect” of formative assessments – in which students “test” themselves on what they know in a low-stakes environment – can enable students to recall up to 67% more of what they’ve learned than studying, memorizing, or re-reading.
Perhaps most importantly, formative assessments provide teachers with a framework for providing immediate, descriptive feedback to students on their learning progress. Descriptive feedback – clear, exact descriptions of what a student got wrong, and more importantly, why they made that mistake and how to correct it – is one of the most powerful tools a teacher can carry in their instructional feedback.
Research overwhelmingly shows that using descriptive feedback during formative assessments not only improves student achievement but student buy-in as well. Descriptive feedback opens the door for conversations between student and teacher, and allows students to own their education and develop their knowledge base and application abilities more than a simple number score or letter grade ever will.
