Formative Assessment

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Formative Assessment

• Susan M. Brookhart, Ph.D.
• Duquesne University and
• Brookhart Enterprises, LLC
• Montana Office of Public Instruction Conference
• Theres More to Assessment than Testing
• Helena, Montana May, 2006

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• Definitions and Concepts

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Formative Assessment is a cycle

• Student must recognize a gap between actual and
  desired performance and take action to close the
  gap (Black Wiliam, 1998 Sadler, 1983, 1989)

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Students and Teachers

• (1) Focus on learning goals
• (2) Compare current work to the goal and
• (3) Take action to move closer to the goal.

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Expanding concepts in the definition of Formative
Assessment
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Relationship between Formative and Summative
assessment

• Not necessarily compatible
• Crooks (1988) if evaluation results in grades,
  students will pay less attention and learn less
  (also Ross, Rollheiser, Hogaboam-Gray, 2002
  Thomas Oldfather, 1997)
• Formative-summative mix Grades are an important
  reason for assessment and limit the kind of
  assessment teachers do (Barnes, 1985 Kusch,
  1999 Schmidt Brosnan, 1996 Wilson, 1990).

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Relationship between Formative and Summative
assessment

• Not necessarily incompatible
• Biggs (1998) not two tree trunks, but the
  backside of an elephant (also Brookhart, 2001
  Guskey, 2005)
• So it matters how the teacher handles it!
• FA and SA should be linked by common learning
  targets.

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• Benefits of Formative Assessment

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Achievement Benefits of (Good) Formative
Assessment

• .4 to .7 standard deviations equivalent of
  moving from the 50th percentile to the 65th or
  75th percentile on a standardized test
• at all levels primary, intermediate, and
  secondary
• especially among lower achievers

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Achievement Benefits of (Good) Formative
Assessment

• Reasons for achievement effects
• FA helps teachers and students identify what
  students can do with help and what they can do
  independently.
• Participating in formative assessment is active
  learning, keeping students on task and focused on
  learning goals.
• Formative assessment, especially peer and self
  evaluation, help students with the social
  construction of knowledge.
• FA gives students feedback on precisely the
  points they need in order to improve. It shows
  them what to do next to get better.

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Motivational Benefits of (Good) Formative
Assessment

• A little more complicated
• Feedback is a message, so it depends not only on
  the information itself, but also on the
  characteristics of the people who send (teacher)
  and receive (student) the message.

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Motivational Benefits of (Good) Formative
Assessment

• Students who can size up their work, figure out
  how close they are to their goal, and plan what
  they need to do to improve are, in fact, learning
  as they do that.
• Carrying out their plans for improvement not only
  makes their work better, but it helps them feel
  in control, and that is motivating.
• This process, called self-regulation, has been
  found to be a characteristic of successful,
  motivated learners.

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Motivational Benefits of (Good) Formative
Assessment

• Developmental differences younger students may
  focus on surface features of work
• Unsuccessful learners first focus on the
  negative feelings after failure before the
  message can be heard

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• Formative Assessment in Practice
• NOT for Grading

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Focus on learning goals

• Starts with clear targets
• Assignments embody learning targets for students
• Content match with learning target
• Cognitive process match with learning target
• Clear to students
• Criteria for evaluation

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Compare current work to the goal

• Teachers or students apply criteria
• Its one thing to write a rubric its another to
  know it when you see it!
• Understand typical student learning progressions
• Give good feedback
• Teacher
• Self-assessment
• Peer assessment

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Take action to improve

• Practice
• Review (or Expand)
• Reteach (or Enrich)
• Individual, Group, Class
• All of these communicate to students that you
  know where they are
• And focus attention and activities on content and
  methods most likely to lead to increments in
  learning.

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susanbrookhart_at_bresnan.net brookhart_at_duq.edu