What is Formative Assessment?
Formative assessment involves evaluating student learning at intermediate points before any summative assessment.
It is typically designed for the purpose of providing feedback on student learning that is immediate, continuous, specific, and action-oriented (Suskie, 2004).
Formative feedback is a crucial part of the student learning process, allowing students to reflect on areas for improvement and growth, in order to deepen and improve their remaining learning.
Faculty can use formative assessment feedback to identify concepts that may need additional clarification.
Formative assessments are typically “no stakes” or “low stakes,” and ungraded.
Role in Equity-Minded Assessment
Formative assessment plays a key role in equity-minded assessment, aiming for equal outcomes for all students regardless of their backgrounds.
Equitable assessments are typically learning-focused, inclusive, relevant, rigorous, and transparent (Artze-Vega et al., 2023). They provide practice opportunities and actionable feedback or clear ideas to improve, helping all students achieve learning objectives through approaches that can support specific needs.
Good feedback should be kind and supportive of the individual and their improvement. (Formative Assessment and Feedback - Stanford University)
Learning as an iterative process can enhance student motivation, engagement, belonging, and success by focusing on the learning journey rather than just grades or credentials.
Engaging Students with Formative Assessments
Involving students as part of the assessment process within a course can position assessment as a formative opportunity for learning, not just summative demonstrations (Hattie, 2009).
Assessments provide greater impact when they give the opportunity for students to evaluate their own progress in the course. Students can be empowered to take ownership of their learning when they understand that the goal is to improve learning, not apply final marks (Trumbull and Lash, 2013). Encouraging self-reflection of skills and knowledge can allow students to make connections in their learning and apply information to new situations.
Combining Formative and Summative Assessments
Combining formative and summative assessments supports a balanced approach and creates a dynamic learning environment focusing on continuous improvement.
Faculty can consider a variety of ways to combine and align summative and formative assessments.
A combined approach can reduce pressure for students and increase their ability to perform better in later stages of the course.
Regular feedback provided by formative assessments can contribute to improvement of teaching and learning processes, whereas summative assessments can provide comprehensive evaluation of student achievement and program effectiveness.
Formative and Summative Assessments. (n.d.). Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/Formative-Summative-Assessments
Formative Assessment Examples for Any Course or Discipline
Giving students detailed, actionable feedback tied to predefined criteria provides opportunities for students to apply feedback or revise before final submission. Feedback may be corrective and forward-looking, rather than just evaluative.
Formative and Summative Assessments. (n.d.). Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/Formative-Summative-Assessments
Examples include comments on multiple paper drafts, early feedback on a research project, or short quiz on main points of a lecture.
Other examples include:
- Encouraging students to think creatively/synthesizing information:
- Word journal
- Invented dialogue
- Enhancing problem-solving skills:
- Documented problem solutions
- Problem-and-solution type recognition
- Assessing student application of knowledge and skills:
- Directed paraphrasing
- Student-generated test questions
50 CATS by Angelo and Cross. (n.d.). University of California, San Diego. https://vcsa.ucsd.edu/_files/assessment/resources/50_cats.pdf
Additional Sources Consulted
- Forms and Purposes of Student Assessment (Northern Illinois University)
- Formative Assessments (University of Colorado Boulder)
- Assessment Considerations (University at Buffalo)