The Purpose of Formative and Summative Assessment – Striking the Right Balance

Chris Scarth co-founded Classroom Monitor in 2004. Since then he has taken the lead in developing online technologies and best practice for schools, helping them to drive school improvement through formative assessment.

Chris has also spear-headed a training and consultancy pathway for schools, focussing on assessing without levels, curriculum management and continuing professional development.

I founded Classroom Monitor back in 2005 and have since gone on to work with a broad spectrum of schools from around the globe. One of the striking things I’ve learnt and would like to share here, has been understanding the relationship between assessment data, curriculum and the increasing level of influence accountability has had on this relationship.

For example, in the UAE, every school has a standardised test to follow. School inspections are annual and focus heavily on the standardised data from the tests. Based on these results, schools receive an inspection grade which then dictates the school’s fee structure and heavily influences the choices parents make when looking for the best school for their children. There is also a large amount of pressure to meet the expectations of parents.

Seemingly incongruous to standardised testing, every UAE international school wants to follow their own curriculum and seek independence in matching their planning, scheme of work or resources. Their uniqueness is a reason for parents choosing them and this becomes central to a school’s success. A recent article focusing on one our customer schools, explains this interesting relationship in more detail – Getting to the heart of assessment at Hartland International School Dubai.

Working with such a wide variety of schools has progressed our understanding of the relationship between formative and summative assessment and the challenge of striking the right balance.

Critically, they are different forms of assessment, with the outcomes of each being used in different ways to improve teaching and learning, but it’s important to recognise that they’re not mutually exclusive. Both types of data can be very impactful when viewed separately but there is extra benefit when they are seen as complementary with a clear understanding of the relationship between the two.

Summative/test data should be focused on a grade or performance marker for a point in time, usually at the end of a unit to review outcomes. They should also be standardised and quantitative to support benchmarking, either within a cohort, school or wider to a region or country.

Formative assessment is used by the teacher to qualitatively evaluate pupil understanding, learning needs and their curriculum journey during a lesson or unit. Fundamentally, the purpose of formative assessment is to improve teaching and learning whilst it is happening.

There is ongoing commentary on formative vs summative assessment and the potential issues of the distinction between the two becoming fuzzy. This is being highlighted with the legitimate criticism of the process in English state primary schools, where it is seen that formative assessment is designed to find the summative judgement. This is a flawed approach, as this means the teacher’s judgement isn’t being used to improve learning as it happens – but as just another pot of data to measure performance against.

Some practitioners would advocate there should be no connection between the two at all, but I feel this ignores some important insights. The UK’s National Association of Head Teachers’ position is “we call for the primacy of teacher assessment but agree that it should be informed by testing.”

Both formative and summative assessment benefit through viewing and analysing them side by side, as broad alignment between formative and summative assessments (internal and external) can assure validity.

Whilst I believe that formative assessment is critical to the teaching and learning process and how you can enhance it, some form of additional ‘measurement’ is often seen as useful alongside it, but one can’t wholly replace the other. Summative data is often more closely aligned with accountability measures, so comparisons can be more straightforward, making it easier to identify pupils who aren’t where they should be. While summative data can provide an additional understanding of how secure learning is, and a further opportunity to highlight or verify gaps in teaching or learning that justify additional attention, formative information will always be most closely aligned to the business of the classroom. Read how Al Salam Private School, Dubai have balanced the challenges of formative, summative, inspections and managing their varied curriculum needs here.

The next development of Classroom Monitor is driven by the culmination of this understanding – we believe every school should ensure that assessment of both types can be used to inform teaching and learning. While formative and summative assessment are treated as independent, we have made it simple to benchmark and compare them to highlight issues to be addressed. For example, highlighting a requirement to tighten formative processes through internal moderation or explore whether the way that tests are administered result in an accurate reflection of pupil attainment.

If you would like to learn more about Classroom Monitor’s assessment platform visit their website at www.classroommonitor.co.uk

I founded Classroom Monitor back in 2005 and have since gone on to work with a broad spectrum of schools from around the globe. One of the striking things I’ve learnt and would like to share here, has been understanding the relationship between assessment data, curriculum and the increasing level of influence accountability has had on this relationship.

For example, in the UAE, every school has a standardised test to follow. School inspections are annual and focus heavily on the standardised data from the tests. Based on these results, schools receive an inspection grade which then dictates the school’s fee structure and heavily influences the choices parents make when looking for the best school for their children. There is also a large amount of pressure to meet the expectations of parents.

Seemingly incongruous to standardised testing, every UAE international school wants to follow their own curriculum and seek independence in matching their planning, scheme of work or resources. Their uniqueness is a reason for parents choosing them and this becomes central to a school’s success. A recent article focusing on one our customer schools, explains this interesting relationship in more detail – Getting to the heart of assessment at Hartland International School Dubai.

Working with such a wide variety of schools has progressed our understanding of the relationship between formative and summative assessment and the challenge of striking the right balance.

Critically, they are different forms of assessment, with the outcomes of each being used in different ways to improve teaching and learning, but it’s important to recognise that they’re not mutually exclusive. Both types of data can be very impactful when viewed separately but there is extra benefit when they are seen as complementary with a clear understanding of the relationship between the two.

Summative/test data should be focused on a grade or performance marker for a point in time, usually at the end of a unit to review outcomes. They should also be standardised and quantitative to support benchmarking, either within a cohort, school or wider to a region or country.

Formative assessment is used by the teacher to qualitatively evaluate pupil understanding, learning needs and their curriculum journey during a lesson or unit. Fundamentally, the purpose of formative assessment is to improve teaching and learning whilst it is happening.

There is ongoing commentary on formative vs summative assessment and the potential issues of the distinction between the two becoming fuzzy. This is being highlighted with the legitimate criticism of the process in English state primary schools, where it is seen that formative assessment is designed to find the summative judgement. This is a flawed approach, as this means the teacher’s judgement isn’t being used to improve learning as it happens – but as just another pot of data to measure performance against.

Some practitioners would advocate there should be no connection between the two at all, but I feel this ignores some important insights. The UK’s National Association of Head Teachers’ position is “we call for the primacy of teacher assessment but agree that it should be informed by testing.”

Both formative and summative assessment benefit through viewing and analysing them side by side, as broad alignment between formative and summative assessments (internal and external) can assure validity.

Whilst I believe that formative assessment is critical to the teaching and learning process and how you can enhance it, some form of additional ‘measurement’ is often seen as useful alongside it, but one can’t wholly replace the other. Summative data is often more closely aligned with accountability measures, so comparisons can be more straightforward, making it easier to identify pupils who aren’t where they should be. While summative data can provide an additional understanding of how secure learning is, and a further opportunity to highlight or verify gaps in teaching or learning that justify additional attention, formative information will always be most closely aligned to the business of the classroom. Read how Al Salam Private School, Dubai have balanced the challenges of formative, summative, inspections and managing their varied curriculum needs here.

The next development of Classroom Monitor is driven by the culmination of this understanding – we believe every school should ensure that assessment of both types can be used to inform teaching and learning. While formative and summative assessment are treated as independent, we have made it simple to benchmark and compare them to highlight issues to be addressed. For example, highlighting a requirement to tighten formative processes through internal moderation or explore whether the way that tests are administered result in an accurate reflection of pupil attainment.

If you would like to learn more about Classroom Monitor’s assessment platform visit their website at www.classroommonitor.co.uk