Formative vs.

Summative Assessments
Currently we are in a transition year with our grading system. We have begun to make
each core subject reflect an 80% summative assessments and 20% formative
assessments configuration. Our school also equivalents a student receiving and A as a
student who is highly proficient in a standard. The student must be able to answer
higher level thinking questions correctly in order to receive an A on an assessment. Our
superintendent says 8 of 10 assessments should be summative. This shows us that she
may have a different definition that we do at the school site. As a school, we believe
since she made this statement, the summative assessments cannot be so
comprehensive in order to be able to complete 8 of them within a unit. With that thought,
as a school we are considering chapter tests, unit tests, unit projects, theme projects, or
unit presentation as summative. However- we have to make sure that we are allowing a
clear distinction of how a students earns an A on the assessment. Often the end of the
chapter or bi-weekly tests is not challenging enough to determine higher level thinking
skills. We need to add additional essay or short answer questions- whatever it takes for
you to defend that a child is highly proficient in a standard.
Formative assessment
The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback
that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their
learning. More specifically, formative assessments:
help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work
help faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately
Formative assessments are generally low stakes, which means that they have low or no point
value. Examples of formative assessments include asking students to:
draw a concept map in class to represent their understanding of a topic
submit one or two sentences identifying the main point of a lecture
turn in a research proposal for early feedback
Sample Site: https://wvde.state.wv.us/teach21/ExamplesofFormativeAssessment.html

Summative assessment
The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional
unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark.
Summative assessments are often high stakes, which means that they have a high point value.
Examples of summative assessments include:
a midterm exam
a final project
a paper
a senior recital
Information from summative assessments can be used formatively when students or faculty use
it to guide their efforts and activities in subsequent courses.