Formative Assessment

Get insights about short, classroom-based pulse checks teachers use to determine students’ growth and learning on skills and topics

Explainer

What Is Formative Assessment? An EdWeek Video Explainer
Formative assessment can be a tricky kind of testing to understand. EdWeek's video explainer can help.
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Assessment Survey: Classroom, Formative Tests Far More Useful Than End-of-Year Exams
NWEA, which makes the MAP tests, commissioned a poll that found educators, parents, and students value classroom testing and formative tests because they help improve teaching and learning.
Catherine Gewertz, May 5, 2016
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2 min read
Curriculum Acclaimed Educator Jaime Escalante Featured in New U.S. Postage Stamp
Escalante, the Bolivian native and former U.S. high school math teacher, died of cancer in 2010.
Kristine Kim, January 29, 2016
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1 min read
Sony Gomez, a 4th grade student at Gust Elementary School in Denver, uses a red pen and a rubric, or scoring guide, to assess a classmate’s writing sample.
Sony Gomez, a 4th grade student at Gust Elementary School in Denver, uses a red pen and a rubric, or scoring guide, to assess a classmate’s writing sample.
Nathan Armes for Education Week
Special Report Understanding Formative Assessment
This special report aims to deepen educators' understanding about formative assessment, what it is, and how to use it effectively to get good information about students' learning progress in real time.
November 11, 2015
Elementary students learn to think critically and solve complex problems through deeper learning on April 4, 2017 at Capital City Public Charter School in Washington, D.C.
Elementary students learn to think critically and solve complex problems through deeper learning on April 4, 2017 at Capital City Public Charter School in Washington, D.C.
Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for All4Ed
Assessment Video Formative-Assessment Videos
Watch how formative-assessment techniques play out in the classroom.
November 9, 2015
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1 min read
Image of students taking a test.
smolaw11/iStock/Getty
Assessment Q&A Q&A: Misconceptions About Formative Assessment
Richard J. Stiggins, an advocate of classroom assessments in the service of learning, identifies misconceptions about formative assessment.
Catherine Gewertz, November 9, 2015
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5 min read
Tiffany Palmer, a 4th grade teacher at Candeo Schools, a K-8 charter school in Peoria, Ariz., participates in an online professional development program with her colleagues. The program aims to help teachers identify where their students are in the learning process and how they might tailor their teaching to meet students’ needs.
Tiffany Palmer, a 4th grade teacher at Candeo Schools, a K-8 charter school in Peoria, Ariz., participates in an online professional development program with her colleagues. The program aims to help teachers identify where their students are in the learning process and how they might tailor their teaching to meet students’ needs.
Nick Cote for Education Week
Assessment Arizona Leans In on Formative Assessment
In the Grand Canyon State, teachers are getting a leg up in their efforts to improve the on-the-spot assessments and instructional decisions they make in the classroom.
Liana Loewus, November 9, 2015
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8 min read
Assessment Technology Fed Growth in Formative Assessment
Education-technology tools have made it easier for teachers to keep tabs on students' understanding.
Michelle R. Davis, November 9, 2015
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3 min read
Caroline Wylie
Caroline Wylie
Assessment Should Formative Assessments Be Graded?
Experts warn against grading formative assessments, but teachers sometimes worry that students won't take the tasks seriously any other way.
Liana Loewus, November 9, 2015
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5 min read
Alan Velazquez, a 5th grader at Gust Elementary School in Denver, helps a peer with a math equation. Gust is among a growing number of schools that are teaching students to look at their own work and their classmates’ work to figure out where they are in the learning process and where they need to be. Some consider such evaluations to be one form of formative assessment.
Alan Velazquez, a 5th grader at Gust Elementary School in Denver, helps a peer with a math equation. Gust is among a growing number of schools that are teaching students to look at their own work and their classmates’ work to figure out where they are in the learning process and where they need to be. Some consider such evaluations to be one form of formative assessment.
Nathan W. Armes for Education Week
Assessment Searching for Clarity on Formative Assessment
Ask five teachers what formative assessment is and you're likely to get five different definitions.
Catherine Gewertz, November 9, 2015
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5 min read
Image is teenagers taking a test
E+/Getty
Assessment Explainer Types of Assessments: A Head-to-Head Comparison
This chart provides a guide for distinguishing different kinds of student assessments.
Sarah D. Sparks, November 9, 2015
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3 min read
Classroom Technology Educators Evaluate Array of Formative Testing Products
Many schools' personalized learning efforts hinge on the use of formative assessment tools, including embedded online curriculum, adaptive-learning platforms, and stand-alone tests.
Michele Molnar, October 17, 2014
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7 min read
Assessment Opinion Morality, Validity, and the Design of Instructionally Sensitive Tests
David C. Berliner of Arizona State University emphasizes that teachers, as it turns out, affect individuals a lot more than they affect aggregate test scores.
David C. Berliner, June 5, 2014
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4 min read
Assessment Opinion Correcting a Harmful Misuse of Students' Test Scores
W. James Popham of University of California at Los Angeles concludes: The higher the stakes associated with the use of an educational test's results, the greater should be the scrutiny given to both the accuracy of score-based interpretations and to the appropriate usage of the test's results.
W. James Popham, June 3, 2014
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6 min read
Assessment Opinion Formative Classroom Assessment and Assessment For Accountability: Finding a Balance
In this final blog, Madhabi Chatterji of Teachers College, Columbia University responds to three queries with some closing thoughts and takeaways on the "Assessing the Assessments" blog.
Madhabi Chatterji, May 16, 2014
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5 min read
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