I thought that I would write about these two types of assessments, not necessarily about what each entails, but rather, to address a misconception, what I’d like to call the ‘myth’ around formatives.
Teachers are well aware of the two assessments, the differences between them and the need to use both in the classroom. However, what I recently heard during a casual conversation with a couple of colleagues on this topic, blew me away! Essentially, I was told that formative assessments should NOT be graded! I was adamantly told that formatives should be used to inform the teacher about students’ understanding, and academic progress, but marks and information gained from these assessments shouldn’t be included when working out grades. Seriously? The very word ‘assessment’ contradicts this misleading assumption. If a student demonstrates understanding, why then, are we not acknowledging this?
From an educator’s point of view, the information gained from Formative Assessments better informs their lesson planning and review of concepts covered . In this way, educators can check on student’s understanding, reflect back on their teaching, refine their program and cater for their student needs. I agree that this is ONE important factor for conducting Formative Assessments. Therefore, if a student can show that they have mastered a concept, why is that mark not counted towards their grades?
If teachers are using Formative Assessments solely for the purpose of gathering data around their own teaching and planning, then the focus needs to be on the teacher’s own programming and delivery of concepts being taught rather than assessing students.
This short conversation got me wondering how many other educators are also dismissing the valuable information and marks obtained from formatively assessing their students. Since teachers have this up-to-date student data, why not then use it to actually inform the progress of each student? This would lead to more accurate, progressive assessment. At some secondary schools in Australia, assessments are uploaded to a ‘live marks’ page. In this way, students are able to check on their current status to work out which subject areas they are doing well in and those they need to improve on, rather than having to wait for their end of term report, when it’ll be too late to do anything about their grades.
I’ll give you an example of student conduct witnessed in a classroom I was covering recently. In this year 9 and 10 (secondary composite class), the English teacher conducted weekly Spelling tests (I won’t discuss the effectiveness of Spelling tests in this instance). As I was placed in this class once a week, on the day that Spelling tests were set, I proceeded to work with students on reviewing these words and spending time assisting students with ‘tips’ on how to remember the spelling of these words, prior to the test. What I found each week was the same. Students had not studied their spelling words over the week, nor were they interested in receiving any assistance, let alone willing to revise. As a result, the majority of these 9th and 10th graders were failing the Spelling tests each week. By the end of the third week, I decided to ask the class why they weren’t interested in their learning. Their answer made total sense to me….the marks were not going towards their grades! As anything else in life, if our efforts are not acknowledged or valued, we, yes the adults too, will generally make no attempt to carry out the work asked of us. Nothing would be gained. I don’t just mean monetary attainment. As adults, we will not put effort into our relationship if our partner is going to disrespect us, or our friends betray us regardless of all that we do for them. Think about it, employees would not complete ALL the work their employer expects of them if he or she is only going to get paid for only ONE or TWO selected tasks per pay period. So why are we expecting so much from our students, only to acknowledge a selective few assessments and ignore their ongoing efforts and achievements? It would be both unfair and inaccurate!
This is why I get frustrated when I read Blogs and some sites that cast themselves as being educational, only to claim:
“Formative Assessment Is Not for Grading”
“…the summative assessment primarily represents achievement. Formative assessment is practice. It is part of the journey” (from Andrew Miller’s blog at Edutopia).
The need for CONSISTENCY
The Australian Curriculum, makes no assertion on whether or not Formative Assessments should be included, in conjunction with Summative Assessments, when working out student grades. As such, we find individual teachers left to their own devices when it comes to Formatives assessments. In Australia, there are clear inconsistencies among teachers on this topic with some educators choosing to include Formatives in their grading of students, and others not.
As for the International Baccalaureate (IB) Curriculum, there’s much clearer information. Here, teachers incorporate Formative Assessments when working out student grades. Formative assessments do not carry the same weighting as Summative Assessments, but results of Formatives are included when setting grades. Usually, several Formatives are conducted prior to a Summative Assessment. This allows teachers to vary the type of each Formative; for example, an observation, questioning for understanding and short quiz. In this way, students are provided with ample opportunities to demonstrate their level of learning and the overall grade is a more accurate representation of student level.