Understanding Formative Assessment - WestEd
WestEd April 2013Understanding FormativeAssessmentInsights from Learning Theory andMeasurement Theoryby Elise Trumbull and Andrea LashThis paper explores formative assessment, a process intended to yieldinformation about student learning—information that teachers canuse to shape instruction to meet students’ needs and that studentscan use to better understand and advance their learning. This purpose—promoting learning by informing instruction—distinguishesit from other kinds of student assessment, such as diagnostic, whichis used to identify students who have special learning needs, or summative, which is used by teachers to form final judgments aboutwhat students have learned by the end of a course, or is used at thestate level for the purpose of evaluating schools.This paper comes at a time ineducation when this last purpose,school accountability, has beendominating assessment use formore than a quarter of a century(Shepard, 2006). Since implementation of No Child Left Behind in2001, state departments of education have assessed studentsannually in English l anguagearts and mathematics with teststhat survey a broad spectrumof content. Although each student is assessed, these tests arenot intended to help identify anindividual student’s learning needs or to provide informationthat can be used to modify subsequent instruction. Instead, thetests serve an accounting or monitoring function, such as countingthe number of individuals whomeet grade-level standards; testresults of individual students areaggregated into reports of schooland district progress, reportsthat are useful for district- andstate-level decision-makers. Butwhile such tests may identifystudents who lack the knowledgeand skills expected for their gradeIncreasingly, educators are callingfor education assessment systemsthat are more balanced, and thatyield useful information for a variety of education purposes, fromhow to shape ongoing instructionin the classroom to accountabilitydecisions made at the state level(Darling-Hammond & Pecheone,2010; Pellegrino, 2006; Wilson& Draney, 2004; Pellegrino,Chudowsky, & Glaser, 2001). Theyare also calling for coherent systems, in which assessments at alllevels (from classroom to state)would be aligned with the samelearning goals and views of whatconstitutes learning and wouldproduce relevant informationabout student learning over time(Herman, 2010; Pellegrino, 2006).The purpose of this paper is to helpreaders understand the importance and potential of formativeassessment as a key component oflevel, these achievement tests donot identify why students are notproficient; the tests are not linkedcloselyenoughtoclassroomThis paper is one ina series produced byinstruction and curriculum toWestEd on the topic ofidentify what misconceptions stu-formative assessment.dents hold or what skills they aremissing, information that couldhelp guide instruction.1
WestEd Formative assessment isdefined by its purposewhich is to help form,or shape, a student’slearning during thelearning process.a balanced and coherent assessment system—a component thathas been somewhat eclipsed by thefocus on assessment for accountability purposes. The paper firstdescribes formative assessmentand its key features. It then turnsto learning theory and measurement theory and their implications for effective use of formativeassessment. Subsequent to that,and prior to the conclusion, isa brief review of summaries ofresearch on how formative assessment affects student learning.Features of FormativeAssessment inClassroom InstructionBlack and Wiliam (1998a) characterize formative assessment as“all those activities undertaken byteachers and/or by their students[that] provide information to beused as feedback to modify theteaching and learning activitiesin which they are engaged” (p. 7).The goal of any modificationsto instruction is enhanced student learning. It is often claimedthat the practice of formativeassessment is rooted in Bloom’sconcept of “mastery learning,”2an instructional approach thatespouses the use of assessmentsto gauge students’ progresstoward mastering a learning goal(Bloom, Hastings, & Madaus,1971). Bloom suggested that,rather than waiting to assess students at the end of a unit (commonpractice at the time), teachers useassessments “as an integral partof the instructional process toidentify individual learning difficulties and prescribe remediation procedures” (Guskey, 2010,p. 108). According to Guskey,Bloom borrowed the term “formative” from Scriven (1967), whoused it to describe program evaluation activities conducted duringthe course of a program to givefeedback on the program’s progress so that it could be improvedif need be.Formative assessment does nottake the form of a particularinstrument or task (Moss, 2008),but is defined by its purpose(Shepard, 2009), which is to helpform, or shape, a student’s learning during the learning process.Some suggest that formativeassessment is better described asa process (“using assessment formatively” [Frohbeiter, Greenwald,Stecher, & Schwartz, 2011, p. 3])than as a type of assessment (seealso McManus, 2008). Erickson(2007) has used the term “proximal formative assessment” toindicate that it is an activity closeto instruction (Ruiz-Primo, Shavelson, Hamilton, & Klein, 2002).Erickson (2007) defines it as“the continual ‘taking stock’ thatteachers do by paying firsthandobservational attention to students during the ongoing courseof instruction—careful attentionfocused upon specific aspectsof a student’s developing understanding” (p. 187) in order tomake decisions about next stepsin instruction (see also Heritage,Kim, Vendlinski, & Herman,2009). To facilitate this process,the teacher needs to use practicesthat will reveal not only whethera student appears to have mastered a concept but also how heor she understands it (Pryor &Crossouard, 2005). The assessment practices need to be so wellgrounded in the instructionalprocess that the informationthey reveal will identify whetherand how instruction should beadapted to advance students’understandings. H eritage, whohas made significant contributions to the theory and practiceof formative assessment, emphasizes the close linkage—if notthe inseparability—of formativeassessment, teaching, and learning (Heritage, 2010a).In theory, any assessment—including a commercially developedtest—could be used for formativepurposes. However, as Pellegrinoet al. (2001) caution, using thesame assessments for differentpurposes tends to lessen theireffectiveness for each purpose (seealso Shavelson, Black, Wiliam,& Coffey, 2007). For example, itwould be difficult to design anassessment for school accountability systems that elicits studentperformance at the level necessaryfor fine-grained understanding ofindividual learning needs withoutcompromising the scope necessary for an accountability measureor without making excessive time
April 2013demands for administration andscoring.Suchaccountabilityassessments are generally not coupled closely enough to instructionto instruction to yield informationthat would help a teacher thinkabout what a student might needin order to better learn what hasbeen assessed.To serve a formative purpose,assessment needs to provide actionable information for teachers andstudents (Heritage, 2010a; Shepard,2005). Ideally, it reveals somethingabout a student’s progress towardcertain learning goals, the student’s thought processes, and anymisconceptions the student mayhold (Supovitz, 2012). Formativeassessment is highly “contingent”on the instructional situation andthe student(s) (Black & Wiliam,2009, p. 12). Thus, it should betailored to the particular studentsbeing assessed, the relevant learning targets, and a specified pointin the instructional process; also,it should take a form most likely toelicit the desired learning evidence(Ruiz-Primo & Li, 2011). Therecan be no prescription for what asingle instance of formative assessment should look like. Any instructional activity that allows teachersto uncover the way students thinkabout what is being taught and thatcan be used to promote improvements in students’ learning canserve a formative purpose.Formative assessment is oftenhighly integrated with instruction (Herman et al., 2006) andmost commonly takes the formof classroom exchanges betweenteachers and students (or, lesscommonly, between students).These exchanges have the potentialto make students’ thinking explicitand thus open to examination andrevision. In this way, the exchangesserve as learning opportunities(Ruiz-Primo, 2011). Given insightsinto students’ thinking, a teacheris in a position to counter misconceptions and steer learningback on track through feedbackor instructional modifications(Black & Wiliam, 2004). Teacherscan also mentor students tobecome proficient at asking theirown questions of each other andresponding with ideas, reasoning,and evidence, as well as providingfeedback to each other (Black &Wiliam, 1998b). Some have calledfeedback the “linchpin” that linksthe components of the formativeassessment process (Brookhart,Moss, & Long, 2010, p. 41).Feedback is “information provided by an agent (e.g., teacher,peer, parent, the assessmentitself) regarding aspects of one’sperformance or understanding”(Hattie & Timperley, 2007, p. 81).Feedback takes on a formativerole when it provides informationabout the gap between a student’scurrent understanding and thedesired level of understanding,and it is most effective for the student when it is targeted at the rightdevelopmental level and helps thestudent identify ways to close thegap (Hattie & Timperley, 2007;Sadler, 1989). Feedback helps students clarify the goals of learning,their progress toward such goals,and what they need to do to reachthe goals (Hattie & Timperley,2007). The challenge for a teacheris to gain insight into students’ wayof thinking about the subject matter at hand and to frame feedbackThere can be noprescription for whata single instance offormative assessmentshould look like. Anyinstructional activity thatallows teachers to uncoverthe way students thinkabout what is being taughtand that can be used topromote improvementsin students’ learning canserve a formative purpose.that helps them move towardspecific learning goals (Black &Wiliam, 2009).The topic of feedback is large andcomplex, with a lengthy researchhistory; yet much remains to bedone to clarify just how to meetthe challenge that Black andWiliam (2009) identify. Researchin classrooms (not laboratory settings) documenting how feedbackis used and with what impact overtime is particularly needed (RuizPrimo & Li, 2013).Heritage and Heritage (2011)refer to teacher questioning as“the epicenter of instruction andassessment” (title). Teachers’ questioning during instruction may be informal and spontaneous or maybe formal and planned prior tothe lesson (Shavelson et al., 2008).A teacher’s informal questions tostudents during class may be forUnderstanding Formative Assessment: Insights from Learning Theory and Measurement TheoryWestEd 3
WestEd Exhibit 1. Some Dimensions on Which Formative AssessmentMay Vary1. Informal vs. formal2. Immediate feedback vs. delayed feedback3. Curriculum embedded vs. stand-alone4. Spontaneous vs. planned5. Individual vs. group6. Verbal vs. nonverbal7. Oral vs. written8. Graded/scored vs. ungraded/unscored9. Open-ended response vs. closed/constrained response10. Teacher initiated/controlled vs. student initiated/controlled11. Teacher and student(s) vs. peersto instruction, there is a conceptual question as to whether formative assessment is more likeinstruction or more like assessment, as traditionally conceived.Some writers (e.g., Heritage2010a) situate formative assessment within a paradigm of learning and instruction; others (e.g.,Phelan et al., 2009) have placed itsquarely within a measurementparadigm. The following sectionsexamine formative assessmentwithin each paradigm becauseboth contain concepts that arehelpful to understanding effectiveuse of formative assessment.Formative AssessmentWithin a Theory ofLearning and Instruction12. Process oriented vs. task/product oriented13. Brief vs. extended14. Scaffolded (teacher supported) vs. independently performedthe purpose of checking certainstudents’ learning, or for probingmore deeply to gather evidencethat will yield better understanding of their thinking. At the otherend of the spectrum of formativeassessment are more formal procedures, such as specific promptsthat require a written responseand that are embedded in instruction at key points to help identifythe next steps needed to advancestudent learning (Furtak et al.,2008). These embedded tasks maybe so integrated with instructionas to seem natural and unobtrusive, or they may be given to students at the end of a lesson, as aseparate activity, such as when4students make entries in their science notebooks for the teacher toexamine later.Formative assessments can bedescribed along a number ofdifferent dimensions. Some ofthe most salient dimensions arelisted in Exhibit 1 above. Whileformative assessments may varyon a number of dimensions, “thecrucial feature is that evidence isevoked, interpreted in terms oflearning needs, and used to makeadjustments [to instruction] tobetter meet those learning needs”(Wiliam, 2006, p. 3).As noted earlier, because formative assessment is so tightly linkedFormative assessment is notnecessarily associated with anyparticular theory of learning(Wiliam, 2010). However, currentconceptualizations of formativeassessment are typically rootedin a sociocultural constructivistview of learning (Heritage, 2010a;Pellegrino et al., 2001; Shepard,2000). This theory of learning issupported by research (Pellegrinoet al., 2001), is most compatiblewith current goals of education,and best explains the processesof effective formative assessment(Heritage, 2010b; Pellegrino et al.,2001; Shepard, 2000).From a sociocultural constructivist perspective, learners are seenas actively constructing knowledge and understanding throughcognitive processes (Piaget, 1954)within a social and cultural context (Greenfield, 2009; Rogoff,
1998, 2003; Vygotsky, 1978);as building new knowledge onwhat they already know (i.e.,prior knowledge) (Bransford,Brown, & Cocking, 2000); andas develop ing the metacognitiveskills necessary to regulate theirown learning (Bransford et al.,2000; Bruner, 1985; Vygotsky,1978). These understandingsabout learning and developmenthave implications for the use offormative assessment in classroom instruction.The work of Vygotsky (1962, 1978)forms much of the basis for current conceptualizations of thesociocultural aspects of constructivist learning theory and has beenwidely applied to models of formative assessment. Students are seento develop knowledge and understanding in a domain over time,not only as individuals but in aninteractive social context, guidedby others with greater expertise(e.g., teacher, parent, peer) (Tharp& Gallimore, 1991; Vygotsky, 1978;Wenger, 1998). One assumption ofsociocultural theory is that learning is enhanced by what Vygotskyreferred to as “joint productiveactivity” within a social setting,such as in a classroom where students and teachers collaborate asa community of learners (Ash &Levitt, 2003; Koschmann, 1999).The “zone of proximal development” (ZPD), a concept taken fromVygotsky (1978), has been invokedby formative assessment theoristsas useful for understanding thegap between a student’s actualunderstanding and the student’stargeted or potential learning.The ZPD is the developmentalspace between the level at whicha student can handle a problemor complete a task independentlyand the level at which the student can handle or complete thesame task with assistance from amore competent other, such as ateacher. Work within the ZPD isa particular example of joint productive activity, that is, teacherand student are working jointly toensure that the student reaches alearning goal (Ash & Levitt, 2003).In teaching, the teacher serves as amediator between the student andthe learning goal, providing scaffolding (i.e., learning support) toaid attainment of the goal (Black& Wiliam, 2009; Walqui & vanLier, 2010). Formative assessmentis part of this process—whetherimplicitly or explicitly—as theteacher uses information abouthow a student responds to instruction in order to give feedback tothe student and/or adjust instruction so as to prompt learningor performance. In this case,formative assessment is almostindistinguishable from instruction, as the teacher introducescontent; assesses how the studentis responding; offers supportsfor understanding and modifiesinstruction as needed; re-assesseshow the student’s learning is progressing; continues with new content or returns in a new way to thesame content, and so forth.The Roles of Teachers andStudents in FormativeAssessmentThe kind of classroom evokedby the sociocultural constructivist theory of learning is onein which teachers and studentsshare responsibility for learning(Heritage, 2010a; Tunstall & Gipps,1996). In this classroom, one wouldsee teacher and students workingtogether as part of an interactivecommunity of learners, in rolesthat may be new to some (Brown& Campione, 1994; Rogoff, 1994),including engaging in formativeassessment. Formative assessment calls upon teachers not onlyto determine whether studentshave learned something, but alsoto probe students’ ways of thinking to get at why any learninggaps exist. In addition to usingassessment evidence to plan futureinstruction, teachers are expectedto use it to help students (1) judgethe state of their own knowledgeand understanding, (2) identifythe demands of a learning task,(3) judge their own work against astandard, (4) grasp and set learning goals, and (5) select and engagein appropriate strategies to keeptheir learning moving forward(Andrade, 2010; Black & Wiliam,1998b, 2009; Bransford et al.,2000; Heritage, 2010b; Stiggins,Arter, Chappuis, & Chappuis,2009). These metacognitive skillsare critical to the development ofintentional learning and of independent, self-propelled learnerswho can regulate their own learning and self-correct as needed(Bransford et al., 2000).Students are expected to be activeagents in their own learning byengaging, in increasingly independent ways, in the previouslyenumerated skills (Clark, 2012). AsBlack and Wiliam (2009) observe,“[S]ince the responsibility forlearning rests with both the teacherand the learner, it is incumbenton each to do all they can toUnderstanding Formative Assessment: Insights from Learning Theory and Measurement Theory April 2013WestEd 5
WestEd Formative assessmentplaces demands onstudents to take amore serious approachto learning and towork harder.mitigate the impact of any failuresof the other” (p. 7). Internationalstudies on the impact of formativeassessment practices show thatsuch practices can indeed supportstudents’ ability to take responsibility for and regulate their ownlearning, but that this occursonly when students understandthat assessment can serve purposes other than summative purposes (Organization for EconomicCo-operation and Development,2005). Perrenoud (1991) notesthat formative assessment placesdemands on students to take amore serious approach to learning and to work harder—demandsthey may not happily embrace;however, when they do, they maybe their own best sources of feedback about their own learning.Student self-assessment does contribute to higher student achievement, and it is most likely to doso when students are trained inusing sets of performance c riteria,such as rubrics, to evaluate theirwork or when they receive otherdirect instruction on self-assessment (Ross, 2006). While theself-assessments of students maynot always be in sync with theirteachers’ assessments of them, discrepancies can form the basis of6“productive conversations aboutstudent learning needs” (Ross,2006, p. 9).Some forms of formative assessment require students not
2 a balanced and coherent assess-ment system—a component that has been somewhat eclipsed by the focus on assessment for account-ability purposes. The paper first describes formative assessment and its key features. It then turns to learning theory and measure-ment theory and their implica-tions for effective use of formative assessment.
assessment professional learning system. They are stepping stones along the path. Part I. Learn About Formative Assessment 1.1 Inventory your comprehensive assessment system. 1.2 Clear up misconceptions about formative assessment. Part II. Plan For Formative Assessment 2.1 Identify elements of formative practice that you do well and those you
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Performance Assessment Score Feedback Formative 1 Date . Formative 2 Date : Formative 3 Date . Formative 4 Date : Formative 5 Date . Formative 6 Date : Summative Date Implements learning activities aligned to chosen standards and incorporates embedded formative assessment. Clearly conveys objectives in student-friendly language so that the
assessment. In addition, several other educational assessment terms are defined: diagnostic assessment, curriculum-embedded assessment, universal screening assessment, and progress-monitoring assessment. I. FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT . The FAST SCASS definition of formative assessment developed in 2006 is “Formative assessment is a process used
Formative Assessment Best Practices Part I H Gary Cook, Ph.D., WIDA Consortium Elluminate Session, Pennsylvania Department of Education April 28, 2009 WIDA Consortium ELL Formative Assessment 2 Overview Definitions Balanced Assessment Systems Formative Assessment Best Practices ELL Formative Assessment 3 Definitions
of the Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety at WestEd, authored by Andrea Browning of WestEd. SELcenter.WestEd.org. 2 tion . Studies involving neuroimaging have linked changes in brain structure to mindfulness practice; effects have been observed in the areas of the brain responsible for attention .
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