essay about formative and summative assessment

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Teaching excellence & educational innovation, what is the difference between formative and summative assessment, 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

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 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.

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Home » Blog » Formative and Summative Assessments: Examples and Differences

Formative and Summative Assessments: Examples and Differences

One of the primary benefits of using formative and summative assessments is that you aren’t forced to choose between them. They work exceptionally well when used in combination.

In this article, we’ll be breaking down precisely what formative and summative assessments are, the key differences between them, the benefits of their use, and providing a range of examples to help illustrate how they can be implemented in the classroom.

If you’re looking for an effective way to assess student learning and measure progress, read on to find out how formative and summative assessments can help.

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Formative assessments: definition and purpose.

Before we get into examples of their use, it’s essential that we first define precisely what both formative and summative assessments are and how they differ.

Formative assessments are employed regularly throughout a set learning period, be that a chapter, unit, or term, and help track progress and identify areas where students may struggle or need more support.

They also give the teacher and course designer the data they need to improve the learning experience and make any necessary changes that may be required throughout a system.

Rather than strict exams, formative assessments are usually relatively low-stakes, meaning they do not always need to be graded or even marked. This helps to create a non-threatening atmosphere and encourages students to take risks in their learning without fear of failure.

Formative assessment tasks usually rely on feedback from both students and the teacher, with learners receiving feedback on performance as soon as possible.

Uses of Formative Assessments

As mentioned, one of the primary uses of a formative assessment is to gauge student understanding and identify knowledge gaps that may need extra work.

Formative assessments can also be used to help inform curricular decisions, provide valuable data on the effectiveness of a course or lesson, and allow students to monitor their progress over time.

In addition, formative assessments are valuable in helping teachers gain real-time insight into a group’s collective understanding, allowing them to rapidly adapt their training or lessons accordingly.

Benefits of Using Formative Assessments

There are a range of benefits to employing formative assessments as part of your teaching strategy, including the following:

• Improved student or employee engagement and motivation – By allowing students to track their learning journey, you can help them take ownership of their learning experience. This can be highly motivating for students, as it encourages a sense of progress and accomplishment.
• Better assessment of real-world understanding – By using formative assessments that involve practical skills or application, you can better understand how well your students understand the real-world implications of the content they are studying.
• Enables rapid identification of areas of difficulty for learners – Through formative assessments, you can quickly identify areas that students may be struggling with. This helps to ensure that these areas are addressed rapidly and effectively.
• Allows teachers to tailor their lessons to the needs of the group – Teachers and course designers can use the data from formative assessments to tailor their studies according to the group’s needs and ensure that they meet all learning objectives.

Examples of Formative Assessments

To clarify how formative assessments can be used, below are a few examples of tasks that could be used both in the classroom and in a digital learning environment.

Classroom-Based Examples

The following examples can be valuable to employ in a classroom setting:

1. Quizzes and polls

Simple and easy to execute, quizzes and polls are a low-effort way of gauging student understanding at regular intervals throughout a lesson.

2. Peer feedback and self-assessment

Peer-based feedback sessions and self-assessment questionnaires can help identify areas where students may need extra support or guidance while giving vital insight into how students perceive their progress.

3. Class discussions and debates

Encouraging students to discuss their different perspectives on a given topic or concept allows teachers to better understand how well they comprehend the material. It also gives students the opportunity to have their ideas heard and helps create a sense of solidarity within the classroom.

Online and Digital Examples

With the rise in the use of digital learning tools and technologies , there is also a range of online-based practices that can be used as formative assessments, including:

1. Interactive quizzes and games

The gamification of quizzes or other learning activities can provide an engaging way to assess student understanding and offer real-time feedback.

2. Virtual simulations and case studies

Where more vocational skills are being taught, virtual simulations and case studies can test students’ problem-solving capabilities in a low-stakes environment.

3. Online discussion forums and feedback platforms

One of the benefits of using an online learning platform is the wide range of features available to assess student understanding. Discussion forums, peer feedback platforms, and automated feedback systems can all be used as formative assessment tools.

Summative Assessments: Definition and Purpose

Compared to formative assessments, summative assessments are conducted at the end of a defined learning period and often represent the final grade for the course.

To provide a comprehensive assessment grade, summative assessments evaluate a student’s overall understanding and performance of the skill or concept studied.

They can also be used to track educational progress over time, such as in standardised testing, as well as help to inform curricular decisions and the effectiveness of teaching methods.

Uses of Summative Assessments

Summative assessments test student mastery of content, assess their overall understanding of a subject or topic area and generally give them a final mark.

For teachers and course designers, a summative assessment allows them to measure the effectiveness of their teaching and make any necessary changes or improvements.

Summative assessments can also be used to compare student performance across different classes, courses, and programs.

Benefits of Summative Assessments

As with formative assessments, there is a range of benefits associated with the use of summative assessments, including:

• Provides an overall assessment score – Summative assessments can provide a more accurate assessment of student understanding and performance, offering an overall grade or score.
• Helps track educational progress over time – Educators can track student progress to identify improvement areas through standardised testing or other summative assessments.
• Helps inform curricular decisions – Summative assessments can assess the effectiveness of a particular course or program and help inform future curricular choices.
• Offers an efficient way to measure learning outcomes – By providing an overall assessment grade, summative assessments offer a convenient way to measure the success of a teaching strategy in one go.

Examples of Summative Assessments

To clarify how summative assessments can be implemented, here are a few examples of traditional assessment methods, such as essays and exams, and performance-based assessments, such as presentations and projects.

Traditional Assessment Methods

Below are some examples of traditional assessment methods:

1. Examinations and final tests

Examinations are widely used to assess student knowledge and understanding at the end of a course or program. They are easy to implement and provide a quick and efficient way to evaluate student performance.

2. Term papers and essays

Essays and term papers are another traditional assessment method used alongside examinations. Essays test students’ ability to analyse a given topic or concept in detail, providing insight into their understanding of the subject matter.

3. Projects and presentations

Where skill-based or vocational courses are being taught, projects and presentations can test a student’s performance in class. These assessments allow students to demonstrate their understanding of the subject matter and show their ability to apply and transfer the knowledge in a practical context.

Performance-Based Assessments

Performance-based assessments are best employed when assessing practical skills or processes. Examples of performance-based summative assessments include:

1. Practical exams and demonstrations

Practical tests and demonstrations are often used to assess students’ physical abilities, such as in sports or vocational courses. These assessments test a student’s understanding of a particular skill or concept by having them demonstrate it in a real-world setting.

2. Portfolios and showcases

Where creative or design-based courses are being taught, portfolios and showcases allow students to demonstrate their understanding of the concepts in a practical way. These assessments require students to use their creative skills to produce a tangible output, such as an artwork or multimedia presentation.

3. Capstone projects and dissertations

Dissertations and capstone projects are often used to assess students’ understanding of complex topics or skills. These assessments require students to demonstrate their knowledge of the subject matter by producing an in-depth research or project that meets specific criteria.

Critical Differences Between Formative and Summative Assessments

Now that you have a fuller understanding of what both formative and summative assessments represent and how they can be employed, here’s a summary outlining the key differences between the two:

Timing and Frequency

One of the most essential distinctions between the two types of assessment is when they are conducted. Formative assessments occur throughout the course and act as checkpoints to monitor student progress.

In contrast, summative assessments are shown at the end of a defined learning period and only count towards an overall grade or score.

Purpose and Focus

Formative assessments are designed to provide feedback on understanding and inform instruction in real-time. In contrast, summative assessments evaluate student performance of a skill or concept and can help inform curriculum decisions.

Feedback and Evaluation Process

The feedback and evaluation process for formative and summative assessments differs significantly. Formative assessments are designed to offer real-time feedback on performance.

In contrast, summative assessments provide an overall assessment score or grade that reflects the student’s understanding of the subject matter at the end of a course or program.

Which is the Right Assessment Approach to Utilise?

Choosing the correct assessment approach for your students ultimately depends on the goals you are trying to achieve, the type of course or program being taught and the knowledge and skills that need to be assessed.

To help you decide, consider the following:

Considerations for Selecting Formative Assessments

Some of the critical considerations for making use of formative assessments include:

• Regular feedback – Formative assessments should be implemented regularly to ensure students receive regular feedback on their understanding and performance.
• Low-stakes testing – As formative tests don’t count towards an overall grade, they should be designed as low-stakes tests to help encourage participation.
• Inform instruction – Formative assessment results can inform instruction in real-time, allowing educators to tailor their teaching approach to student needs.

Considerations for Selecting Summative Assessments

When making use of summative assessments, it’s essential to consider the following points:

• Assessment goals – Before designing a summative assessment, clearly define the purposes of the evaluation and how it will be used to evaluate student performance.
• Assessment criteria – When creating a summative assessment, ensure that you set clear and concise evaluation criteria that allow students to demonstrate their understanding fully.
• Inter-rater reliability – To ensure fairness and accuracy, consider having multiple assessors score each student’s work when creating a summative assessment.

Using Both Formative and Summative Assessments in Learning and Development

As mentioned, one of the primary benefits of using formative and summative assessments in learning and development is that they can provide a more comprehensive evaluation of student performance.

By implementing both assessment forms, educators can better understand their student’s progress and tailor their instruction for maximum impact.

Formative assessments can measure progress and inform instruction in real-time, while summative assessments provide an overall score or grade that indicates learning success.

Final Thoughts

While formative and summative assessments have apparent differences, such as in their purpose, timing and feedback mechanisms, there are significant benefits to using both assessment types in learning and development.

Educators can better assess student performance and tailor instruction by implementing formative and summative assessments. Additionally, the use of both reviews provides a comprehensive view of understanding that can be used to inform curriculum decisions.

If you are looking for more guidance and resources on creating and implementing formative and summative assessments, check out the other articles on the Skillshub blog .

As an eLearning company , we are committed to creating efficient and impactful learning experiences. Our team are experts in developing eLearning content , so skillshub can help create customised learning materials tailored to your organisation’s needs. To learn more about our services, get in touch with us today.

Sean McPheat

Sean is the CEO of Skillshub. He’s a published author and has been featured on CNN, BBC and ITV as a leading authority in the learning and development industry. Sean is responsible for the vision and strategy at Skillshub, helping to ensure innovation within the company.

Updated on: 20 September, 2023

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Formative vs. Summative Assessment: What’s the Difference? [+ Comparison Chart]

In education, assessments are the roadmap guiding teachers and students to successful outcomes — from navigating subject matter to reaching academic milestones. But not all means of measuring success are the same. In this blog post we’ll explore two of these methods: formative vs. summative assessment.

To maximize teaching effectiveness, it’s important to understand the differences between each assessment type. Keep reading to learn the benefits of tailoring instruction to meet the diverse needs of every learner, plus tips on implementing both techniques.

What Is Formative Assessment?

Formative assessment is not actually a singular method, but instead, a variety of ways for teachers to evaluate student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress in real-time throughout a lesson, unit, or course. 

These assessments aid in identifying areas where students are struggling, skills they find challenging, or learning standards they have not yet achieved. This information enables teachers to make necessary adjustments to lessons and instructional techniques to better meet the needs of their students. 

Its primary goal is to measure a student’s understanding during instruction; for example, with quizzes, tests, or exams.

As learning and formative assessment expert Paul Black puts it, “when the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative assessment. When a customer tastes the soup, that’s summative assessment.”

What Is Summative Assessment?

Summative assessment, on the other hand, is any type of evaluation that measures a student’s overall comprehension and achievement at the end of a unit, course, or academic period. It typically takes the form of final exams or projects, and aims to gauge what students have learned. Unlike formative assessment, which provides ongoing feedback, summative assessment focuses on determining the extent to which students have mastered the content overall.

This culmination of the learning process helps teachers determine proficiency levels against predefined standards or benchmarks. These assessments — which often carry higher stakes — are used for accountability, such as grading, ranking, and reporting student achievement to parents and school administrators.

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3 Examples of Formative Assessment

For a clearer idea of formative assessment , explore these three examples:

• Exit tickets are brief assessments given to students at the end of a lesson or class period featuring questions that relate to that day’s work. Teachers use exit tickets to gauge student understanding before they leave the class, allowing them to adjust future instruction based on the feedback received. 
• Think-Pair-Share involves three stages: First, prompting students to independently think about a question related to a lesson, then having them pair up with a classmate to discuss their thoughts, before finally asking them to share their discussion with the class. The process encourages active engagement, collaboration, and comprehension.
• One-minute paper is aptly named, allowing students 60 seconds at the end of a lesson or class period to write down the most important concepts from the presented material. Teachers can review these papers to assess how well students understand the material at hand and address any misconceptions.

3 Examples of Summative Assessment

Likewise, here a few examples of summative assessments:

• Final exams are comprehensive assessments that are typically given at the end of a course or academic year and cover a broad range of topics that were covered over a longer period of time. 
• Standardized tests , such as the SAT and ACT, are administered and scored consistently across a large number of students for comparison purposes. They are also useful for identifying areas for improvement in educational systems and making decisions about student placement or advancement, such as admission into higher education institutions.  
• End-of-unit projects are typically more extensive than regular class assignments and require students to demonstrate their understanding of multiple concepts or skills covered in the unit. Research, originality, collaboration, and presentation are often involved.

How to Grade Formative Assessments

Because of the unique nature of each type of student evaluation, there is also variety in grading summative vs. formative assessments. The following are considerations when grading formative assessments:

• Focus on feedback by prioritizing constructive notes that guide students’ learning and improvement.
• Use rubrics to establish clear criteria for assessment and ensure consistency in grading. 
• Provide descriptive feedback that highlights strengths and areas for improvement.
• Encourage self assessment to promote accountability and reflection as students examine their own work.
• Focus on growth and development over time instead of final outcomes and grades exclusively.
• Track progress to call out student achievement trends over time.
• Use peer assessment to cultivate collaboration and diverse perspectives in evaluation.
• Consider participation and effort in addition to academic achievement in order to take a big-picture look at education and achievement.
• Communicate clearly to facilitate understanding and successful outcomes.

How to Grade Summative Assessments

Consider these methods as you grade summative assessments, keeping in mind a fair and accurate representation of students’ learning outcomes and progress.

• Establish clear criteria to guide students on what is expected and to ensure transparency in assessment standards.
• Use rubrics to keep evaluation criteria structured and promote consistency.
• Assign numerical or letter grades to quantify performance and clearly articulate overall performance.
• Consider weighting grades to reflect the relative importance of different aspects of student performance.
• Provide feedback that is specific and actionable. 
• Ensure fairness and consistency to uphold equitable grading for all students.
• Communicate results clearly so that parents, students, and administrators understand learning outcomes.
• Offer opportunities for review and reflection to encourage students to engage with their assessment and improve moving forward.
• Use assessment data for instructional planning to tailor teaching strategies to student needs.
• Adhere to school or district policies to maintain compliance and consistency.

Formative vs. Summative Assessment Comparison Chart

Understanding these differences is crucial for educators to help students succeed in meaningful and effective ways. When teachers try out different assessment methods and grading styles, they get a better handle on student needs and can create an environment for widespread growth and improvement. 

The best way for teachers to advance their knowledge and understanding of the latest assessment methods is to keep up with professional development opportunities, such as with the University of San Diego’s Professional and Continuing Education (PCE) certificate program. Explore the website to learn more about hundreds of online and independent courses for teachers covering a wide range of subjects.

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Formative And Summative Assessment: The Differences Explained For Teachers

Tim Handley

In this article we un-pick the differences between formative and summative assessment, when and why you should use each type of assessment, and how to get the best out of each to keep driving forward students’ learning.

Formative vs summative assessments – what is the difference?

What is formative assessment, what is summative assessment, a breakdown of the differences between formative and summative assessments, formative vs summative assessment comparison chart, how to use formative assessments in your lessons, formative assessment examples and ideas, practical tips for implementing formative assessment, summative assessment examples and ideas, practical tips for implementing summative assessment, formative vs summative assessments – the pros and cons.

Let’s start with a brief overview and then drill down for greater nuance

Formative assessments are low stakes tests designed to identify where students are in their current understanding and inform teachers about what the next teaching steps should be. Summative assessments tend to be higher stakes and used at the end of a unit to evaluate student learning against a standard or benchmark.

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Formative assessment is the use of day-to-day assessments to gauge and explore pupils’ understanding of a topic. They determine student needs, which teachers use to form learning outcomes in order to prioritise student achievement and success.

It is best thought of as an assessment for   learning . 

Formative assessments are one of the teaching strategies used to help inform the learning ‘in the moment’. Formative assessment is continuous, informal and should have a central and pivotal role in every maths classroom.

If used correctly, it will have a high impact on current learning and help you guide your instruction and teaching by giving ongoing feedback on students’ progress.

Having an assessment with low stakes allows pupils to develop their skills, confidence and user experience before attempting a summative assessment with high stakes. It also makes room for self-assessment.

Summative assessment takes place after pupils’ have completed a block of work, whether that be on a term or modular basis. They are a more formal way to sum up pupil progress and are often compared against a standard benchmark.

They are best thought of as assessments  of  learning.

There are different types of summative evaluations that we carry out ‘after the event’, often periodic (rather than continuous), and they are often measured against a set standard.

Summative assessment can be thought of as helping to validate and ‘check’ formative assessment – it is a periodic measure of how children are, overall, progressing in their mathematics learning.

Formative and summative assessments differ in the following ways:

• Difference 1: Purpose : the purpose of formative assessments is to improve learning, while the purpose of summative assessments is to gain a measure of attainment (e.g. a final grade).  
• Difference 2: Frequency : formative assessment occurs regularly throughout every lesson.  Summative assessments occur at the end of a teaching-learning cycle or at the end of class.
• Difference 3: Type of Assessment : formative assessments are likely to be low-stakes and summative assessments are likely to be high-stakes.
• Difference 4: Outcome : teachers provide feedback to improve learning following formative assessments.  The outcome of a summative assessment is a final grade or score that is used as a measure of attainment.

Importantly, it is not the ‘form’ that assessment takes that determines whether it is formative or summative, instead it is how it is being used.

For example, ‘test style questions’ can be used both as formative assessment (perhaps as exit tickets – questions given to children at the end of the lesson to check understanding) or summative (perhaps as an end of an instructional unit test or check).

In all subjects, but especially in maths, we use a combination of both assessment strategies, but that formative assessment, due to its constant nature, makes up the bulk of our assessment activities.

This Venn diagram shows the difference and similarities between the two assessment types very clearly.

Formative assessment: what you need to know

Formative assessment is an intrinsic part of both teaching and pupil progression. This form of assessment does not rely upon tests and results, but rather the ability to adapt to classroom blockers as they arise. 

It should indicate what a good piece of work is and why this is the case, but it also gives you as a teacher a chance to see when things are not going so well and act upon it and see improvements. 

Good formative feedback will enable both the teacher and pupil to plan together what the next stage of their progression will be and future learning goals.

During a lesson, all adults in the classroom should be on a ‘constant assessment mission’ through interactions with pupils. 

Teachers should be moving around the room, interacting with each child, and assessing their progress towards the learning objective.

In the moment assessment can take many forms:

• You could use a question from your shared learning to assess where you need to pitch independent work, or which pupils need further support
• Perhaps you are using a hinge question in a class discussion to assess where you need to pitch the independent work or group work, or which children require further support.
• You could be use ‘exit tickets’ to assess children’s understanding at the end of a lesson

Any ‘in the moment’ assessment that is carried out should have a purpose, and then the information obtained from formative assessments can help you understand the children’s learning processes and adapt to this in future lesson plans.

Ask yourself:

• If your assessment shows that children are secure, then how are you going to deepen their learning?
• If your assessment shows that children have some misconceptions, then how are you going to support these?

There are a lot of different assessment routines you can use to keep up with the progression of your maths class.

Common examples of formative assessment include:

• Group activities
• Class projects
• Presentations

Read more: Formative assessment examples

1. Ensure every formative assessment routine has a purpose

Make sure that your assessment ‘routines’ have a purpose and use. 

For example, if you are going to do the ‘maths lesson classic’ and ask children to show you an answer on a mini-whiteboard , make sure you are actually looking at the answers given by all children. 

You should then be using these to inform the next step in your lesson and the learning for each child.

I have observed many lessons where teachers have carried out the mini-whiteboard ‘routine’, not actually looked at the responses given, and carried on with what they had planned regardless. 

Remember – it is not the activity or ‘thing’ that you do that represents effective assessment, but what you do with the information you gather from it. 

It is through effective, in lesson, formative evaluation that you can ensure that each child is supported and challenged, and that every child is  learning  rather than constantly  rehearsing  what they already know.

Read more: Adaptive teaching

2. Address the learning gaps and don’t leave potholes

I often use a ‘pothole’ analogy with the schools I work with. Imagine a local council were filling in potholes but that their road maintenance vehicles were themselves creating new holes in the road.

They wouldn’t be doing a very good job at improving the overall quality of the road surface would they?

Yet, schools often inadvertently do the same with maths. They are often very good at carrying out a plethora of intervention activities to fill gaps (or potholes) that have been ‘left’ from previous years, but, at the same time, often allow new gaps (or potholes) to be created.

Make sure that you use your ‘in the moment’ and ‘end of lesson’ assessment to help fill any new gaps that are starting to emerge. Then, at the end of the maths lesson, you formatively check that all children are secure with the objective for that lesson, and if not, you carry out some form of intervention to help address these gaps.

If you are not going to address the gaps now, then who is and when?

Read more: Same day interventions

3. Understand diagnostic assessment and how it works

Probably the most effective type of formative assessment is a multiple choice diagnostic assessment . This is when you set up your formative assessment in a deliberate way to diagnose the precise learning gaps and misconceptions that each of your students may have.

Each carefully selected incorrect option for your multiple choice answers can highlight a particular maths misconception . This design ensures that students can answer correctly only if they have a clear understanding of the topic, free from any misconceptions.

This format is not only beneficial for student understanding but also efficient for teachers. The distinct set of answers allows for quick marking, enabling students to receive immediate feedback.

The questions can be answered swiftly, typically within ten seconds, allowing their frequent use in lessons without impinging on valuable learning time. Regular use of diagnostic assessments fosters reflective learning among students, encouraging them to identify areas needing further study and revision.

Download a free diagnostic maths test (available for primary and secondary) to get you started.

Summative assessment: what you need to know

Summative assessment helps to demonstrate the extent of pupils success in meeting specific goals. It is a method than can be used to quantify student performance and achievement, and due to its data driven nature, it is a great way to provide a numerical basis for the student’s next step.

Some common examples of summative assessment include:

• End of term projects

However, whilst the principles of summative assessment are simple, there are 4 key points you need to consider before implementing it.

1. Understand the difference between your assessment framework and your assessment system

Despite the power of ‘in the moment’ formative assessment, schools do need a way to track the attainment and progress of children throughout the school. 

This means schools also need to consider the assessment framework or rubric being used i.e. what you are assessing against. This decision is often one that is taken at school (or trust) level.    

At this point you need to be clear about the different between your assessment system and the framework you are using. 

Often in working with schools we hear that they are usingClassroom Monitor, Target Tracker or School Insights for their assessment. In fact, these are all just assessment systems – a bit of software that allow you to record and track children’s progress against the assessment framework that has been chosen by your school. 

They are not what you are using to ‘assess’ but merely what you are using to record your assessment.   

These assessment systems all allow you to select (and often create your own) framework upon which to assess your children – and it is these frameworks that are vitally important.

2. Consider the balance of objectives and targets in your assessment framework

When choosing, or indeed creating, the assessment framework that you are using, look closely at how you’re balancing the objectives and target areas of mathematics within the framework.

For example, a common occurrence is that schools assess against each objective of the national curriculum. This, however, is problematic and often creates unwelcome ‘surprises’ when it comes to comparing teacher assessment against standardised summative assessment. 

An example of this is SATs tests – I have been asked to work with many schools where their assessment against the whole national curriculum does not match the performance of children on previous SATs papers.

The reason for this disparity between teacher assessment against the whole national curriculum ie. assessing against every statement of the Year 4 Maths national curriculum and performance on standardised test, is that the whole national curriculum is not weighted in the same way as the KS1 and KS2 end of key stage assessment (SATs) are.

Read more: Why your SATs interventions should not start in Year 6

At primary The KS1 and KS2 test frameworks show a clear weighting towards number based objectives.

Number, calculations and proportionality making up between 75-85% of a child’s final result (this is for a good reason – but that’s the subject of another blog post!)

Yet, most year groups have around a 50/50 split between ‘number’ objectives – i.e. number, calculations and proportionality  and ‘non-number’ objectives- i.e.- shape, space, measures and statistics.

This essentially means that a child could be legitimately marked as ‘secure’ or ‘working at aged related expectations’ against the whole national curriculum, on the basis of their strength in shape, space, measures and statistics,  whereas they wouldn’t be classed as ‘secure’ or ‘working at aged related expectations’ in a standardised test.

It is therefore important that whatever framework you use is balanced, and represents the weighting of objectives in the Test Frameworks.

There are many ways in which you can do this, including: 

• Use in-built ‘weighting’ functions of some assessment systems that allow you to weight each objective. 
• Assess against key objectives only, which overall, have the balance of number vs non-number objectives.
• Group objectives together, creating the overall numbers vs non-number balance. 
• Use a commercially available assessment framework which has the weighting work done for you.

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We recommend you use it to create your own year 6 maths revision programme too.

Focused maths revision for GCSE

At secondary school the GCSE exam board frameworks mirror the weighting at primary school towards number . However with many more strands to test the marks in final exams are more fairly divided across algebra, geometry and ratio and proportion. Only probability and statistics tend to be regularly responsible for fewer marks across the 3 GCSE maths papers .

If you’re interested in digging into the detail on the maths topics assessed at GCSE, these articles provide excellent expert analysis:

• Summary Of ALL GCSE Maths Papers 2023: Question Analysis, Highlights & Next Steps
• Question And Topic Level Analysis of All Edexcel GCSE Maths Papers 2017-2023

3. Train your teachers how to use the assessment framework

Once your school has decided on a framework to use for assessment, next comes the question of how it is actually used. 

These frameworks can be used both in a purely ‘summative’ way, or in a formative way that leads to, over time, an accurate summative assessment. 

The traditional use of these frameworks is for schools to ask for each child to be assessed against the framework at set points – for example through termly or midterm exams. 

This often leads to ‘assessment panic’ with teachers feeling overwhelmed having to create the assessment against many objectives for all children in their task in a short period of time.

If this is the only way in which these frameworks are used, then these are being used purely summatively – it is the teacher’s judgement at the end of a term/half term. 

Due to the stress of having to meet a deadline and make a judgment against each objective for all children in your class, this can often mean that these summative only teacher assessments are not as accurate as many would like.

Luckily, you can adapt these assessments very easily

How to use the frameworks formatively as well as summatively.

These frameworks can also be used in a more formative way- with teachers being encouraged to record the progress towards objectives on the framework as they are being taught .

An example of this is recording and amending judgements each week as a result of the ‘ongoing’ assessment. This leads to an ever changing snapshot of each child’s performance, which can be really powerful.

This can be used to inform interventions and subsequent teaching, and help to identify common misconceptions, giving the assessment framework used by your school both a summative and formative use. 

These assessments can then just be finalised in time for whatever deadline of ‘snapshot’ date your school set.

It is fantastic that many schools are favouring teacher assessment to provide this ‘data’. 

Teacher assessment is incredibly powerful, and gives teachers the professional autonomy that they deserve. 

4. Regular standardised tests can be used with your assessment framework

Many schools will also choose to use some form of testing alongside their assessment frameworks.

This can be seen as helping to validate teacher assessment judgements, and can also help to ensure there are no ‘nasty’ surprises when it comes to Year 6.

However, testing is only as good as the quality of the tests that you use. As we know, the development of SATs tests takes 3 years . They are also, as we all know, standardised – leading to the infamous ‘scaled score’.

Make sure that the tests your schools rely on also have the same degree of work that has gone into their development.

They should be standardised – so you know how children across the country perform, and be based on a clear test development framework, and have been trialled and refined in schools. 

Some popular tests that have been developed in this way include PUMA (by Hodder/Rising Stars Assessment), NfER tests and GL Assessments.

In a test by Rising Stars using PUMA assessment data, pupils who received one to one maths tuition from Third Space Learning made double the expect progress over 14 weeks.

Regardless of what tests are used, schools and teachers will understand that they provide a snapshot of the performance on the day the test was taken. Children, just like adults, all have ‘good’ and ‘bad’ days, and these tests should be seen as a supplement to good quality teacher assessment, not a replacement for it.

Both formative and summative assessment have a very important role to play in the classroom and in schools. However, it is very important to ensure that you find the right balance between the two approaches for your own class’s learning needs.

Constant formative assessment can prove difficult if not implemented properly, but consistent assessment of pupils strengths and weaknesses can prove invaluable in helping them to progress.

Summative assessment can often not show the whole picture of a pupils progression, but it is a fantastic way of getting a data driven overview of how a pupil has progressed and grown over a period of time.  

The goal of this article was to summarise the difference between formative and summative assessment, and the conclusion is that both approaches have their flaws, but they can also both provide a valuable insight into how a class is getting on throughout the school year. All that is left is to use assessments of both kinds to inform your teaching!

• The Myth of Expected Progress in Primary Schools
• Primary School Grades Explained
• Pupil Progress: Measuring The Impact Of The Affective Domain Across 1,750 Schools
• KS1 Assessment Frameworks Maths

DO YOU HAVE STUDENTS WHO NEED MORE SUPPORT IN MATHS?

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Learn about the diagnostic assessment or request a personalised quote for your school to speak to us about your school’s needs and how we can help.

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• Formative Vs Summative Assessment: 15 Key Differences & Similarities

Today, we will look at 2 of the most common methods of course evaluation—summative assessment and formative assessment. While the primary goal of both methods of evaluation is to assess students undergoing a particular course, they have different objectives and use data differently. 

Sometimes, the lines between summative and formative evaluation can be blurry. But how do these 2 methods of assessment compare against each other and more importantly, when should you opt for one option over the other? In this article, we will discuss 15 key differences and similarities between formative and summative assessment. 

What is Formative Assessment?

Formative assessment is an on-going method of evaluation that helps teachers to monitor learners’ progress and identify any challenges that students are facing as they learn. It includes a series of quick-fire tests that provide on-time feedback on students’ performance. 

The objective of formative assessment is to find out how much students know as they move from one learning phase to another. There are no high stakes attached to formative evaluation and the students’ performances are not measured against a rubric or standardized benchmark. 

Quizzes, polls, and dipsticks are common examples of formative assessment . Discussion-based assessments like 5-minute unstructured interviews work well for this too. Interviews take you right into the minds of the students and provide relevant contexts for understanding how much they know. 

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What is Summative Assessment?

Summative assessment is a traditional method of evaluation where the teacher measures the student’s performance using a standardized benchmark. It is done at the end of the course or instructional unit and it focuses on the program’s outcomes. 

Unlike formative evaluation, summative assessment has a high point value which is why it is used to determine whether the student gets a promotion, passes a course, or moves to the next level in her learning. A teacher can solely rely on the results of an end-of-term examination to grade the students and promote them. 

Summative assessment methods are not spontaneous; they follow defined processes with controlled conditions that limit inconsistencies. One of the strong points of summative assessment is it produces similar results when it is done in a controlled context. Other examples of summative assessment include chapter tests, portfolios, and final essays. 

Differences Between Formative and Summative Assessment  

Summative assessment is a type of course evaluation that happens at the end of a program while formative assessment is a method of collecting real-time feedback from learners during the course. Summative assessment is all about measuring the student’s performance at the end of the class using some defined criteria. 

On the other hand, formative assessment methods focus on how much the students know. Formative evaluations use different approaches to monitor the students’ progress, gather feedback from them and identify any learning gaps that need to be filled. 

Characteristics  

The characteristics of summative assessment include validity, reliability, variety, and practicality. Summative assessment is a standardized method of knowledge-based assessment that is easily-reported. This means it always ends up with a concise summary of the outcomes of the evaluation.  

Unlike summative assessment, the formative evaluation does not measure the student’s progress against a benchmark or rubric, and this means its findings are non-graded. Instead, formative assessments focus on gathering actionable feedback that can improve the learning experience for the students. 

End-of-term examinations, in-class chapter tests, hands-on performance tasks, and oral tests are common summative assessment types. On the other hand, impromptu quizzes, silent polls, and dipsticks are some of the most common methods of formative evaluation. 

Summative assessment methods help the instructor to measure the student’s performance against a standard or rubric. On the flip side, methods of formative evaluation are used to monitor the student’s knowledge as they move from one level to the other in the learning process. 

Examples of summative assessment include organizing an end-of-term recital or presentation for a course, and standardized admission examinations like SAT, IELTS, and A-levels. For formative assessment, the instructor can ask students to create visual sketches or write a summary of a lecture topic or theme. 

Advantages of Formative Assessment

Unlike summative assessment that waits till the end to assess students, formative assessment provides instant feedback on students’ progress by evaluating them as they learn. Another advantage of formative assessment is it allows for changes and modifications to the teaching method as learning progresses. 

Formative assessment supports personalized learning; teachers can use the feedback they get to create unique learning experiences for every student. It also boosts the students’ participation in the training program and makes them actively involved in monitoring their own progress. 

Advantages of Summative Assessment  

One major strong point of summative assessment is that it motivates the students to learn and pay attention in class. Unlike what you get with formative assessment, students know that their grades depend on how well they perform in summative evaluations and this boosts their commitment to the training.  

Summative assessments produce consistent results and this is why it works best for grading. Unlike formative assessment methods that are uniquely tailored to the needs of the students, summative evaluation methods are designed to produce similar results when applied in similar contexts. 

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One of the most important tools used for summative assessment is a rubric or scoring guide which is used to assess the quality of responses given by the students. During formative assessments, the instructor does not need to use a rubric because it is a non-graded evaluation method.

Quizzes, examination software, and online test platforms are other common tools used for summative assessment. Formative evaluation, on the other hand, uses surveys, polls, focus groups, and different types of interviews to monitor students’ experiences and knowledge as they learn. 

The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate the student’s understanding of the course and the course materials within a specific period. On the other hand, the primary purpose of formative assessment is to observe students as they learn and get real-time feedback on their knowledge and experiences. 

Formative assessments use different tools and methods to monitor knowledge and skill-acquisition at different points in the learning curve. Summative assessment, on the flip side, is all about grading the quality of a student’s knowledge based on his or her performance. 

The goal of formative evaluation is improving the teaching and learning process based on the feedback from students while the goal of summative evaluation is to grade a student’s performance with a performance marker like a rubric or other defined benchmarks. 

This means that while formative assessment evaluates learning and knowledge-progression, summative assessment collects evidence as proof of a student’s proficiency in the course. 

Summative assessment pays attention to the outcome as measured by a performance marker while formative assessment focuses on the on-going learning process. Due to its focus on the on-going learning experience, formative assessment encourages changes and modifications to the learning process based on the feedback from the program participants. 

Summative assessments produce quantitative data as results while formative assessment results in qualitative data. Quantitative data has statistical value because it is measured in the form of numbers while qualitative data is the type of data that describes information using groups and categories. 

Summative data produces quantitative results because it grades the students’ performance using a standard benchmark. Summative results are non-graded and are typically presented as descriptions with feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the students. The instructor uses this feedback to improve the teaching method. 

Frame of Reference

Formative assessments use a normative frame of reference during evaluation. A frame of reference is a complex set of assumptions that defines our perceptions and creates meaning. 

A normative frame of reference entails comparing a student’s performance to the performance of other students. For instance, after a reading exercise, a student can rank 12th in a group of 43 other learners. 

Summative assessment, on the other hand, has a criterion frame of reference. A criterion frame of reference means that the students are evaluated using standard criteria. Criterion-referenced interpretations allow us to compare a student’s performance to a well-defined content domain, to show their level of knowledge of a subject matter. 

Formative assessment gives feedback on the students’ progress as they learn and teachers act on this feedback to improve the course, learning materials, and the teaching method. After a formative assessment, the students continue to learn while the teacher makes any changes to improve their learning experience. 

On the other hand, feedback is not an important part of summative evaluation. Although students may receive feedback on their performance, this may not change their grades or trigger a re-evaluation of their performance. Summative assessment is the final evaluation of a student’s performance. 

Summative assessments have a rigid benchmark known as the benchmark of learning while formative assessment uses the benchmark of progress to evaluate students as they learn. The benchmark of progress monitors student progress and provides feedback that improves the teaching method. 

On the other hand, a benchmark of learning measures the students’ performance against institution standards that serve as the standard of evaluation. 

Time-Frame  

Summative assessment happens at the end of a course, training, or program while formative assessment happens as learning takes place. This means that while there may only be 1 summative assessment for an instructional unit, formative evaluation happens many times within the learning process. 

Read More: Formative Assessment: Meaning, Types & Examples

Similarities Between Summative and Formative Assessment?  

Course evaluation methods.

Summative assessment and formative assessment are methods of course evaluation. Course evaluation happens when an instructor assesses students based on their performance or participation in training. It helps the teacher to evaluate the effectiveness of the course; whether during the course or at the end. 

Summative and formative assessments are used to gather students’ feedback. However, while feedback is an important part of formative assessment as teachers need to act on it, summative assessment feedback is routine and does not have any immediate influence on the results of the evaluation or how the students are graded. 

Summative and formative assessments can be done using surveys, questionnaires, and quizzes. However, these tools will be used distinctly, and the data will be interpreted differently, depending on the type of assessment. 

When to Use Formative Assessment

You should use formative assessment when you need to monitor students’ knowledge and progress on the learning curve. Formative assessment helps you to discover concepts that students are struggling to understand, skills that are difficult for them to acquire, or learning standards they have not yet achieved. 

When to Use Summative Assessment

You should use summative assessment when it is time to evaluate learning. It works best in cases where you need to evaluate how well the information has been absorbed and retained by the students. Summative assessments help you discover student mastery of the course content. 

Conclusion  

Having a clear understanding of summative and formative assessments helps you to monitor the progress towards the learning objectives and to also improve the teaching and learning process. Summative and formative assessments work simultaneously to define the learning and teaching experience. 

A strong classroom assessment program combines formative and summative assessment methods to give a balanced evaluation of the students’ knowledge and skills. With careful thought and planning processes, the instructor will collect useful and important information that speaks to specific learning purposes. 

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Explainer: what’s the difference between formative and summative assessment in schools?

Senior Lecturer in Educational Assessment, Macquarie University

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Rod Lane does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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The recent Gonski report argues Australia needs assessment and reporting models that capture both achievement progress and long-term learning progress. This, according to the review panel, involves low-stakes, low-key, and regular formative assessments to support learning progressions. The report used international evidence on individualised teaching to demonstrate ongoing formative assessment and feedback is fundamental to supporting students to do better in school.

The NSW Education Minister, Rob Stokes, has called for NAPLAN to be replaced in “haste” with less high stakes tests. Mark Scott, the secretary of the NSW Department of Education, echoed Stokes’ remarks. He stated :

I think [NAPLAN] will become obsolete because the kinds of information that the new assessment schemes will give us will be richer and deeper and more meaningful for teachers, for parents and for education systems.

So, what’s the difference between formative and summative assessment? And when should each be used? Formative and summative assessment have different purposes and both have an important role to play in a balanced assessment program.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment includes a range of strategies such as classroom discussions and quizzes designed to generate feedback on student performance. This is done so teachers can make changes in teaching and learning based on what students need.

It involves finding out what students know and do not know, and continually monitoring student progress during learning. Both teachers and students are involved in decisions about the next steps in learning.

Read more: Marking answers with a tick or cross won't enhance learning

Teachers use the feedback from formative tasks to identify what students are struggling with and adjust instruction appropriately. This could involve re-teaching key concepts, changing how they teach or modifying teaching resources to provide students with additional support. Students also use feedback from formative tasks to reflect on and improve their own work.

Regular classroom tasks, whether formal (for example, traditional pen and paper tests) or informal (such as classroom discussions), can be adapted into effective formative tasks by:

making students aware of the learning goals/success criteria using rubrics and carefully tracking student progress against them

including clear instructions to guide students through a series of activities to demonstrate the success criteria. A teacher might, for example, design a series of activities to guide students through an inquiry or research process in science

providing regular opportunities for feedback from the teacher, other students or parents (this feedback may be face-to face, written, or online)

making sure students have opportunities to reflect on and make use of feedback to improve their work. This may involve asking students to write a short reflection about the feedback on their draft essay and using this to improve their final version.

There are many advantages of formative assessment:

feedback from formative assessment helps students become aware of any gaps between their goal and their current knowledge, understanding, or skill

tasks guide students through the actions necessary to hit learning goals

tasks encourage students to focus their attention on the task (such as undertaking an inquiry or research process) rather than on simply getting the right answer

students and teachers receive ongoing feedback about student progress towards learning goals, which enables teachers to adjust their instructional approach in response to what students need

students build their self-regulation skills by setting learning goals and monitoring their progress towards them

results of formative assessments can also be used for grading and reporting.

Summative assessment

This includes end of unit examinations and the NSW Higher School Certificate (HSC) examination.

Summative assessment provides students, teachers and parents with an understanding of the pupil’s overall learning. Most commonly thought of as formal, time-specific exams, these assessments may include major essays, projects, presentations, art works, creative portfolios, reports or research experiments. These assessments are designed to measure the student’s achievement relative to the subject’s overall learning goals as set out in the relevant curriculum standards.

The design and goals of summative assessments are generally standardised so they can be applied to large numbers of students, multiple cohorts and time periods. Data collected on individual student, cohort, school or system performance provides schools and principals with a tool to evaluate student knowledge relative to the learning objectives. They can also compare them with previous cohorts and other schools.

Read more: Evidence-based education needs standardised assessment

The measurement and evaluation of student achievement this way gives us necessary information about how we can continuously improve learning and teaching.

There are a number of limitations of summative assessment. While formative assessments usually provide feedback for the student to review and develop their learning, summative assessments are rarely returned to students. When assessments provide only a numerical grade and little or no feedback, as the NSW HSC does, it’s hard for students and teachers to pinpoint learning needs and determine the way forward.

Additionally, being a form of “high stakes” assessment, results may be perceived as a way of ranking students. For high achieving students there is recognition and reward, while for the lower performing students there is potential embarrassment and shame. Neither of these things should be associated with an equal opportunity education system.

The author would like to acknowledge the work of David McDonald, a PhD student at Macquarie University in assessment, in writing this article.

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Formative and Summative Assessment

Assessment helps instructors and students monitor progress towards achieving learning objectives. Formative assessment is used throughout an instructional period to treat misconceptions, struggles, and learning gaps. Summative assessments evaluate learning, knowledge, proficiency, or success at the conclusion of an instructional period.

Below you will find formative and summative descriptions along with a diagram, examples, recommendations, and strategies/tools for the next steps.

Descriptions

Formative assessment  (Image 1, left) refers to tools that identify misconceptions, struggles, and learning gaps along the way and assess how to close those gaps. It includes practical tools for helping to shape learning. It can even bolster students’ ability to take ownership of their education when they understand that the goal is to improve learning and not apply final marks (Trumbull and Lash, 2013). It can include students assessing themselves, peers, or even the instructor, through writing, quizzes, conversation, and more. Formative assessment occurs throughout a class or course and seeks to improve student achievement of learning objectives through approaches that can support specific student needs (Theal and Franklin, 2010, p. 151). In the classroom, formative assessment centers on practice and is often low-stakes. Students may or may not receive a grade.

In contrast,  summative assessments (Image 1, right) evaluate student learning, knowledge, proficiency, or success after an instructional period, as a unit, course, or program. Summative assessments are almost always formally graded and often heavily weighted (though they do not need to be). Summative assessment can be used to significant effect in conjunction and in alignment with formative assessment, and instructors can consider a variety of ways to combine these approaches. 

Examples of Formative and Summative Assessments

Formative: l earn and practice.

• In-class discussions
• Clicker questions (e.g., Top Hat)
• 1-minute reflection writing assignments
• Peer review
• Homework assignments

Summative: Assess performance

• Instructor-created exams
• Standardized tests
• Final projects
• Final essays
• Final presentations
• Final reports
• Final grades

Formative Assessment Recommendations

Ideally, formative assessment strategies improve teaching and learning simultaneously. Instructors can help students grow as learners by actively encouraging them to self-assess their skills and knowledge retention, and by giving clear instructions and feedback. Seven principles (adapted from Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2007 with additions) can guide instructor strategies:

1. Keep clear criteria for what defines good performance

Instructors can explain criteria for A-F graded papers and encourage student discussion and reflection about these criteria (accomplish this through office hours, rubrics, post-grade peer review, or  exam/assignment wrappers . Instructors may also hold class-wide conversations on performance criteria at strategic moments throughout the term.

2. Encourage students' self-reflection.

Instructors can ask students to utilize course criteria to evaluate their own or peers’ work and share what kinds of feedback they find most valuable. Also, instructors can ask students to describe their best work qualities, either through writing or group discussion.

3. Give students detailed, actionable feedback

Instructors can consistently provide specific feedback tied to predefined criteria, with opportunities to revise or apply feedback before final submission. Feedback may be corrective and forward-looking, rather than just evaluative. Examples include comments on multiple paper drafts, criterion discussions during 1-on-1 conferences, and regular online quizzes.

4. Encourage teacher and peer dialogue around learning

5. promote positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem.

Students will be more motivated and engaged when assured that an instructor cares for their development. Instructors can design assignments to allow for rewrites/resubmissions in assignments to promote learning development. These rewrites might utilize low-stakes assessments, or even automated online testing that is anonymous, and (if appropriate) allows for unlimited resubmissions.

6. Provide opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance

Related to the above; instructors can improve student motivation and engagement by making visible any opportunities to close gaps between current and desired performance. Examples include opportunities for resubmission, specific action points for writing or task-based assignments, and sharing study or process strategies that an instructor would use to succeed.

7. Collect information to help shape teaching

Instructors can feel free to collect useful information from students to provide targeted feedback and instruction. Students can identify where they are having difficulties, either on an assignment or test or in written submissions. This approach also promotes metacognition, as students reflect upon their learning. 

Instructors may find various other formative assessment techniques through  CELT’s Classroom Assessment Techniques .

Summative Assessment Recommendations

Because summative assessments are usually higher-stakes than formative assessments, it is especially important to ensure that the assessment aligns with the instruction’s goals and expected outcomes. 

1. Use a Rubric or Table of Specifications

Instructors can use a rubric to provide expected performance criteria for a range of grades. Rubrics will describe what an ideal assignment looks like, and “summarize” expected performance at the beginning of the term, providing students with a trajectory and sense of completion. 

2. Design Clear, Effective Questions

If designing essay questions, instructors can ensure that questions meet criteria while allowing students the freedom to express their knowledge creatively and in ways that honor how they digested, constructed, or mastered meaning.

3. Assess Comprehensiveness. 

Effective summative assessments allow students to consider the totality of a course’s content, make deep connections, demonstrate synthesized skills, and explore more profound concepts that drive or find a course’s ideas and content. 

4. Make Parameters Clear

When approaching a final assessment, instructors can ensure that parameters are well defined (length of assessment, depth of response, time and date, grading standards). Also, knowledge assessed relates clearly to the content covered in course; and provides students with disabilities required space and support.

5. Consider Anonymous Grading. 

Instructors may wish to know whose work they grade, to provide feedback that speaks to a student’s term-long trajectory. If instructors want to give a genuinely unbiased summative assessment, they can also consider a variety of anonymous grading techniques (see hide student names in SpeedGrader Canvas guide ).

Explore Assessment Strategies and Tools

Instructional strategies.

CELT’s online resources are organized to help an instructor sequentially work through the teaching process.

Learning Technology

A listing with applications that have been proven to meet the ISU’s security, accessibility, and purchasing standards.

Academic Integrity

Explore the following approaches and methods which emphasize prevention and education.

• Nicol, D.J. and Macfarlane-Dick, D. (2006) Formative assessment and self‐regulated learning: a model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Studies in Higher Education 31 (2): 2-19.
• Theall, M. and Franklin J.L. (2010). Assessing Teaching Practices and Effectiveness for Formative Purposes. In: A Guide to Faculty Development . KJ Gillespie and DL Robertson (Eds). Jossey Bass: San Francisco, CA.
• Trumbull, E., & Lash, A. (2013). Understanding formative assessment: Insights from learning theory and measurement theory . San Francisco: WestEd.

Formative and Summative Assessment, by the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at Iowa State University is licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 . This work, Formative and Summative Assessment, is a derivative of Formative and Summative Assessment developed by the Yale University Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning(retrieved on June 23, 2020) from https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/Formative-Summative-Assessments.

Education Theories: Formative and Summative Evaluations Essay

Assessments are necessary for teachers to observe the progress of students in achieving the set objectives, and they are important for students to reflect on the learning experience. Such different types of assessments as diagnostic assessment, formative assessment, and summative assessment provide different types of information on the students’ progress and achievements.

As a result, a teacher receives the opportunity to adapt the instructions and evaluations to the students’ needs and address the school, district, and state standards (Epstein, Schweinhart, DeBruin-Parecki, & Robin, 2004, p. 2).

Thus, it is necessary to focus on the discussion of using different formative and summative evaluations in K-3 and Birth-Pre-K learning environments; on the importance of informal evaluation; on the role of diagnostic evaluation; and on the strategies and specific tests used by teachers in classrooms because diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments provide the major information on the students’ successes, achievements, strengths, and weaknesses which should be addressed by the teacher in the future.

Formative and summative evaluations are used in the classroom for different purposes because they intend to assess the students’ knowledge and progress in relation to different criteria. Therefore, formative evaluations are used as the ongoing assessment in order to help teachers decide about the readiness of students to the other types of assessment.

Formative evaluations are used during the learning sessions and instruction periods to demonstrate the students’ progress and to state the area for the improvement. Thus, teachers can use tests, quizzes, and interviews for formative assessment (Paris & Hoffman, 2004, p. 199).

If the formative assessment supports the teaching-learning process, summative evaluations are used in the classroom at the end of the course or unit in order to state the students’ competence according to the local, district, and state standards (Epstein et al., 2004, p. 4).

This evaluation is the final assessment which helps decide about the student’s grade. Summative assessments are used when teachers decide on the students’ competence and achievement of the learning goals.

While discussing K-3 and Birth-Pre-K learning environments, it is important to note that different variants of formative and summative evaluations are used in the classroom to respond to the students’ age and needs. In Birth-Pre-K learning environments, the focus is on such formative evaluations as observations, oral demonstrations, and discussions because of the necessity to address a student’s developmental needs.

In K-3 learning environments, students can be assessed with the help of standardized tests and interviews. Summative evaluations are performed in Birth-Pre-K learning environments with the help of performance tasks and rubrics, when students in K-3 learning environments are assessed with the help of portfolios, unit tests, and state-mandated tests (Frager & Frye, 2010, p. 57).

Teachers usually use informal evaluation methods in order to assess the progress of preschool and primary children because these assessments are connected with the real-life contexts, they do not provoke the children’s anxiety, help assess not only competence and skills but also students’ motivation and attitudes. Informal evaluation is often interactive in its nature and stimulates students’ engagement into activities (Epstein et al., 2004, p. 4).

As a result, students become more interested in assessments, their concentration increases, and teachers receive the opportunity to observe and assess different aspects of the students’ academic performance and personal development.

In its turn, a diagnostic evaluation is necessary for instructional planning because it provides information about the students’ existing competence and a current level of the skills’ development.

To develop a learning plan for students and to prepare adequate instructions, it is necessary to conduct the diagnostic evaluation based on the standardized tests (Wolfe Korngold & Korngold, 2014, p. 32). As a result, there is the opportunity to classify students according to their prerequisite skills and to focus on the appropriate instructional planning.

Early childhood teachers use different strategies to assess students in relation to formative and summative evaluations. These strategies are divided into formal and informal ones. Thus, working with young students, it is possible to use informal assessments based on naturalistic observation and everyday discussions for formative evaluation.

In spite of the fact that this approach can be time-consuming, teachers receive the great opportunity to assess the students’ everyday progress. Standardized testing is effective to screen all the students, and it is a kind of the formal strategy which is often used by teachers in order to conduct the summative assessment at the end of the unit or course (Epstein et al., 2004, p. 5).

From this point, early childhood teachers can choose between formal and informal strategies, time-consuming, standardized, group, and individual assessments which can be used to promote learning and affect instruction or conclude about the young students’ competence.

While discussing types of formative and summative evaluation, it is possible to name certain assessments used by teachers in K-3 and Birth-Pre-K learning environments. There is a variety of standardized tests which are used to assess the students’ achievements in relation to different fields of knowledge. Thus, the Kaufmann Educational Achievement Tests (KTEA) is used to assess the students’ abilities and skills in relation to a list of areas.

This test can be used for students of different ages. In order to assess the students’ competence in relation to the basic subjects and fields of knowledge, teachers also use the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT). Moreover, early childhood teachers pay much attention to using such tests as the Test of Phonological Awareness (TOPA) in order to assess the development of young students’ phonological awareness.

Standardized tests are also effective to assess competence in reading and language development. For instance, the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised (WRMT-R) assesses the young students’ reading capacity (Types of educational tests page, 2014).

The main advantage of standardized specific tests which can be used for formative and summative assessment is the focus on certain criteria according to which students’ skills and abilities are evaluated. These tests can serve to save time and efforts and provide the concrete data on the students’ progress in the definite field.

Formative, summative, and diagnostic assessments are actively used in K-3 and a Birth-Pre-K learning environments in order to evaluate the students’ progress and their results in developing certain skills. Early childhood teachers should pay more attention to using different strategies while assessing young students because of the necessity to find the balance in using formal and informal strategies and methods.

Early children can be effectively evaluated with the help of informal methods because of the opportunity to focus on the naturalistic setting and interactive nature of assessments. Formal assessments are more effective for summative evaluations. Specific standardized tests can be used to for formative and diagnostic assessment necessary to revise and improve instructional planning.

Epstein, A., Schweinhart, L., DeBruin-Parecki, A., & Robin, K. (2004). Preschool assessment: A guide to developing a balanced approach . Web.

Frager, A., & Frye, E. (2010). Focus on the essentials of reading instruction. Phi Delta Kappan, 92 (2), 56-58.

Paris, S., & Hoffman, J. (2004). Reading assessments in kindergarten through third grade: Findings from the Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement. The Elementary School journal, 105 (2), 199-217.

Types of educational tests page . (2014).

Wolfe Korngold, C., & Korngold, K. T. (2014). The toddler years : A time of exuberance and joy. Montessori Life, 5 (1), 32-35.

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Formative, Summative, and More Types of Assessments in Education

All the best ways to evaluate learning before, during, and after it happens.

When you hear the word assessment, do you automatically think “tests”? While it’s true that tests are one kind of assessment, they’re not the only way teachers evaluate student progress. Learn more about the types of assessments used in education, and find out how and when to use them.

Diagnostic Assessments

Formative assessments, summative assessments.

• Criterion-Referenced, Ipsative, and Normative Assessments

What is assessment?

In simplest terms, assessment means gathering data to help understand progress and effectiveness. In education, we gather data about student learning in variety of ways, then use it to assess both their progress and the effectiveness of our teaching programs. This helps educators know what’s working well and where they need to make changes.

There are three broad types of assessments: diagnostic, formative, and summative. These take place throughout the learning process, helping students and teachers gauge learning. Within those three broad categories, you’ll find other types of assessment, such as ipsative, norm-referenced, and criterion-referenced.

What’s the purpose of assessment in education?

In education, we can group assessments under three main purposes:

• Of learning
• For learning
• As learning

Assessment of learning is student-based and one of the most familiar, encompassing tests, reports, essays, and other ways of determining what students have learned. These are usually summative assessments, and they are used to gauge progress for individuals and groups so educators can determine who has mastered the material and who needs more assistance.

When we talk about assessment for learning, we’re referring to the constant evaluations teachers perform as they teach. These quick assessments—such as in-class discussions or quick pop quizzes—give educators the chance to see if their teaching strategies are working. This allows them to make adjustments in action, tailoring their lessons and activities to student needs. Assessment for learning usually includes the formative and diagnostic types.

Assessment can also be a part of the learning process itself. When students use self-evaluations, flash cards, or rubrics, they’re using assessments to help them learn.

Let’s take a closer look at the various types of assessments used in education.

Diagnostic assessments are used before learning to determine what students already do and do not know. This often refers to pre-tests and other activities students attempt at the beginning of a unit.

How To Use Diagnostic Assessments

When giving diagnostic assessments, it’s important to remind students these won’t affect their overall grade. Instead, it’s a way for them to find out what they’ll be learning in an upcoming lesson or unit. It can also help them understand their own strengths and weaknesses, so they can ask for help when they need it.

Teachers can use results to understand what students already know and adapt their lesson plans accordingly. There’s no point in over-teaching a concept students have already mastered. On the other hand, a diagnostic assessment can also help highlight expected pre-knowledge that may be missing.

For instance, a teacher might assume students already know certain vocabulary words that are important for an upcoming lesson. If the diagnostic assessment indicates differently, the teacher knows they’ll need to take a step back and do a little pre-teaching before getting to their actual lesson plans.

Examples of Diagnostic Assessments

• Pre-test: This includes the same questions (or types of questions) that will appear on a final test, and it’s an excellent way to compare results.
• Blind Kahoot: Teachers and kids already love using Kahoot for test review, but it’s also the perfect way to introduce a new topic. Learn how Blind Kahoots work here.
• Survey or questionnaire: Ask students to rate their knowledge on a topic with a series of low-stakes questions.
• Checklist: Create a list of skills and knowledge students will build throughout a unit, and have them start by checking off any they already feel they’ve mastered. Revisit the list frequently as part of formative assessment.

Formative assessments take place during instruction. They’re used throughout the learning process and help teachers make on-the-go adjustments to instruction and activities as needed. These assessments aren’t used in calculating student grades, but they are planned as part of a lesson or activity. Learn much more about formative assessments here.

How To Use Formative Assessments

As you’re building a lesson plan, be sure to include formative assessments at logical points. These types of assessments might be used at the end of a class period, after finishing a hands-on activity, or once you’re through with a unit section or learning objective.

Once you have the results, use that feedback to determine student progress, both overall and as individuals. If the majority of a class is struggling with a specific concept, you might need to find different ways to teach it. Or you might discover that one student is especially falling behind and arrange to offer extra assistance to help them out.

While kids may grumble, standard homework review assignments can actually be a pretty valuable type of formative assessment . They give kids a chance to practice, while teachers can evaluate their progress by checking the answers. Just remember that homework review assignments are only one type of formative assessment, and not all kids have access to a safe and dedicated learning space outside of school.

Examples of Formative Assessments

• Exit tickets : At the end of a lesson or class, pose a question for students to answer before they leave. They can answer using a sticky note, online form, or digital tool.
• Kahoot quizzes : Kids enjoy the gamified fun, while teachers appreciate the ability to analyze the data later to see which topics students understand well and which need more time.
• Flip (formerly Flipgrid): We love Flip for helping teachers connect with students who hate speaking up in class. This innovative (and free!) tech tool lets students post selfie videos in response to teacher prompts. Kids can view each other’s videos, commenting and continuing the conversation in a low-key way.
• Self-evaluation: Encourage students to use formative assessments to gauge their own progress too. If they struggle with review questions or example problems, they know they’ll need to spend more time studying. This way, they’re not surprised when they don’t do well on a more formal test.

Find a big list of 25 creative and effective formative assessment options here.

Summative assessments are used at the end of a unit or lesson to determine what students have learned. By comparing diagnostic and summative assessments, teachers and learners can get a clearer picture of how much progress they’ve made. Summative assessments are often tests or exams but also include options like essays, projects, and presentations.

How To Use Summative Assessments

The goal of a summative assessment is to find out what students have learned and if their learning matches the goals for a unit or activity. Ensure you match your test questions or assessment activities with specific learning objectives to make the best use of summative assessments.

When possible, use an array of summative assessment options to give all types of learners a chance to demonstrate their knowledge. For instance, some students suffer from severe test anxiety but may still have mastered the skills and concepts and just need another way to show their achievement. Consider ditching the test paper and having a conversation with the student about the topic instead, covering the same basic objectives but without the high-pressure test environment.

Summative assessments are often used for grades, but they’re really about so much more. Encourage students to revisit their tests and exams, finding the right answers to any they originally missed. Think about allowing retakes for those who show dedication to improving on their learning. Drive home the idea that learning is about more than just a grade on a report card.

Examples of Summative Assessments

• Traditional tests: These might include multiple-choice, matching, and short-answer questions.
• Essays and research papers: This is another traditional form of summative assessment, typically involving drafts (which are really formative assessments in disguise) and edits before a final copy.
• Presentations: From oral book reports to persuasive speeches and beyond, presentations are another time-honored form of summative assessment.

Find 25 of our favorite alternative assessments here.

More Types of Assessments

Now that you know the three basic types of assessments, let’s take a look at some of the more specific and advanced terms you’re likely to hear in professional development books and sessions. These assessments may fit into some or all of the broader categories, depending on how they’re used. Here’s what teachers need to know.

Criterion-Referenced Assessments

In this common type of assessment, a student’s knowledge is compared to a standard learning objective. Most summative assessments are designed to measure student mastery of specific learning objectives. The important thing to remember about this type of assessment is that it only compares a student to the expected learning objectives themselves, not to other students.

Many standardized tests are criterion-referenced assessments. A governing board determines the learning objectives for a specific group of students. Then, all students take a standardized test to see if they’ve achieved those objectives.

Find out more about criterion-referenced assessments here.

Norm-Referenced Assessments

These types of assessments do compare student achievement with that of their peers. Students receive a ranking based on their score and potentially on other factors as well. Norm-referenced assessments usually rank on a bell curve, establishing an “average” as well as high performers and low performers.

These assessments can be used as screening for those at risk for poor performance (such as those with learning disabilities) or to identify high-level learners who would thrive on additional challenges. They may also help rank students for college entrance or scholarships, or determine whether a student is ready for a new experience like preschool.

Learn more about norm-referenced assessments here.

Ipsative Assessments

In education, ipsative assessments compare a learner’s present performance to their own past performance, to chart achievement over time. Many educators consider ipsative assessment to be the most important of all , since it helps students and parents truly understand what they’ve accomplished—and sometimes, what they haven’t. It’s all about measuring personal growth.

Comparing the results of pre-tests with final exams is one type of ipsative assessment. Some schools use curriculum-based measurement to track ipsative performance. Kids take regular quick assessments (often weekly) to show their current skill/knowledge level in reading, writing, math, and other basics. Their results are charted, showing their progress over time.

Learn more about ipsative assessment in education here.

Have more questions about the best types of assessments to use with your students? Come ask for advice in the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.

Plus, check out creative ways to check for understanding ..

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A Quick Guide to Formative and Summative Assessment

Get an overview of the key differences between formative and summative assessments, as well as examples of when each type of assessment is most appropriate.

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Reliable, accurate, and student-centered assessments form the basis of effective instruction. While it’s easy to fall into a pattern of thinking of assessments as exclusively cumulative and formal, there are many ways to assess students throughout a course. Instructors can use a strategic combination of formative and summative assessments to measure learning outcomes, prepare students for success, and inform their own instruction.

In this quick guide, we delve into the nuances of formative and summative assessment — two evaluation approaches that hold significant implications for college professors aiming to optimize teaching and learning experiences. As you work to gauge student progress and adapt your teaching to an ever-changing educational landscape, knowing the differences between and use cases for these two approaches can be useful.

What do we mean by summative assessment?

Summative assessments are implemented at the conclusion of a learning cycle and are meant to evaluate the final product of teaching and learning.

Examples of Summative Assessments Include:

• Final exams
• Midterm exams
• Term papers
• Cumulative portfolios*
• Standardised tests
• Final Presentations*

*Can be assessed as formative at various points in the learning process

When Summative Assessments Are Appropriate: Use summative assessments to evaluate students’ final understanding and abilities at the conclusion of a learning cycle.

What are the key differences between formative and summative assessments?

To summarise, formative assessment and summative assessments differ in their primary objectives, timing, and the role they play in the learning process. Formative assessment aims to provide ongoing feedback to students during their learning journey, enabling them to identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. It occurs throughout the learning process and is often informal, focusing on development and growth. In contrast, summative assessment usually occurs at the end of a learning period, such as a unit, course, or semester. Summative assessment can be more formal in nature and serves as a culmination of the learning experience, providing a snapshot of overall student understanding and performance.

Deciding How to Assess Your Students

If you’re unsure which assessment approach is appropriate, it might be helpful to start by thinking about where you are in the scope and sequence of your unit/course. Here are a few ways that you can assess students whether you’re at the beginning, middle, or end of your course. Always keep in mind the intent of your assessment.

• Use formative assessment to identify pre-existing knowledge, opinions, and interests
• To fully assess student understanding prior to the start of a new unit, a diagnostic assessment might be fitting
• To determine whether students grasp a concept thoroughly enough to move on, or consider a reteach lesson → Formative
• To gather information on student understanding, student interests, and student opinions to inform upcoming lessons → Formative
• To mark the conclusion of a significant portion of the course of study and assess final understanding (midterms, unit exams) → Summative
• To provide final guidance and support as students prepare for a conclusive project/exam/paper/etc. → Formative
• To mark the conclusion of a unit and assess final understanding → Summative

It is important to note that formative and summative assessments work in tandem with one another to create a powerful feedback loop for educators and students. The intent of formative assessments is to prepare students for success — often on summative assessments. It can be valuable to design formative assessments with the summative in mind and vice versa.

Tools like Achieve and iClicker are valuable resources to personalize assessment and interpret the results. These research-backed systems provide synchronous and asynchronous options to receive student feedback, whether through surveys, polls, videos, animations, and more. With personalised, honest formative assessments, instructors can then set their students up for success on a summative assessment.

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Designed to foster engaged active learning in the classroom, Achieve complements your unique teaching style and course needs. Empower your students through enriching content, immersive assessment, and meaningful active learning experiences. Learn more about assessment in Achieve .

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Formative vs. Summative Assessments: What's the Difference?

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March 19th, 2024 | 8 min. read

Brad Hummel

Coming from a family of educators, Brad knows both the joys and challenges of teaching well. Through his own teaching background, he’s experienced both firsthand. As a writer for iCEV, Brad’s goal is to help teachers empower their students by listening to educators’ concerns and creating content that answers their most pressing questions about career and technical education.

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Whether you’re an administrator, supervisor, or teacher, you’ve heard of formative assessments and summative assessments . They're both essential parts of any curriculum map . But what do these terms actually mean?

In a nutshell, formative assessments are quizzes and tests that evaluate how someone is learning material throughout a course .

Summative assessments are quizzes and tests that evaluate how much someone has learned throughout a course .

In the classroom, that means formative assessments take place during a course, while summative assessments are the final evaluations at the course’s end. 

That's the simple answer, but there's actually a lot more that makes formative and summative assessments different. To fully understand formative vs. summative assessments, you'll need to understand the details of these two important forms of assessment.

In this article, we'll take a closer look at formative and summative quizzing and assessing. When you've finished reading, you'll understand how to better test student knowledge in your classroom.

What Are Formative Assessments?

Formative assessments are evaluations of someone’s learning progress in a classroom.

Common formative assessments include:

• Presentations
• Group activities

Formative assessments work great when they’re used on a regular basis. That regularity could be based on a calendar (every Monday, every Thursday, etc.) or your lesson plans (every unit).

They’re also more flexible than summative assessments. You don’t always have to use pencil and paper to get a feel for your students’ progress. Instead, you can use in-class games, group presentations, and hands-on activities to evaluate student progress.

Ultimately, the formative assessments you use are up to you. After all, no one knows your classes better than you. So if you’d prefer to get an overview of how well your students are learning, you can use a group-style assessment like a game. If you want to know where each student struggles, you can use an individual assessment like a quiz.

This flexibility is perfect for keeping students engaged in your class. It lets you stick to a syllabus while mixing up the exact task each student has to perform. That way, you don’t fall into a predictable routine of teach-test-teach-test. Instead, you have a varied routine of teach-game-quiz-teach-presentation-project or another interesting format.

By the time your course ends, you’ll have a full understanding of how students are learning as you teach a subject. Then, you can keep all of your grades to look for patterns among different class sections.

Is there an area where students seem to do worse than others? Could you adjust a lesson and shoot for better results?

Naturally, you’ll never get a class that’s straight A’s from top to bottom. But you can still design your classroom assessments to work for as many students as possible!

Top 3 Formative Assessment Examples

Formative assessments are excellent opportunities to let your students flex their creative muscles.

Even if a student isn’t much of a writer or artist, they can still have a little fun with these assessments.

1. Make an Advertisement

Have your students create an advertisement for a concept they just learned. Use visuals and text to really sell an idea.

This makes students apply what they’ve learned into a creative exercise, which helps with long-term retention.

2. Idea Comparisons

Instruct students to lay out the main ideas of a new concept they learned. Then, have them compare that concept to another to see where they agree and disagree.

In addition to helping students remember these concepts, this exercise makes them apply previous knowledge to a new format so they can remember it better in the future.

3. Misconceptions

After you introduce a concept to students, introduce a popular misconception about it. Have students discuss why the misconception is false and where it may have started.

This exercise makes students think critically about what they’ve just learned while showing them how to debunk misinformation.  

How Do You Track Formative Assessments?

You can track formative assessments in one of three ways: by grade, by feel, and with student data .

Let's take a closer look at using each of these methods to monitor student progress.

Track by Grade

First, you can track them by grade . This gives you a specific, concentrated view of how a student (or group of students) learns. However, graded assessments are sources of stress for many students. So if you want to make a unit fun or loose, graded assessments may not work well for you. 

Track by Feel

Second, you can track them by feel . This is more based on your teacher instinct, allowing you to pick which students need additional support based on your observation. On the downside, you can’t “show” this information to your administrators. If you have certain standards to meet throughout a marking period, you won’t be able to prove you’ve fulfilled those standards without grades.

Track with Student Data

Finally, you can track formative assessments with  student data . This is non-graded information that may reflect how your students are learning, such as questions they've frequently answered incorrectly or subject areas where they've had trouble. After all, not everything has to be a grade!

When you have a comprehensive data management system in place, tracking with student data can be the most effective way to measure student progress.

With all of that said and done, let’s next consider summative assessments.

What Are Summative Assessments?

Summative assessments are evaluations of what someone has learned throughout a course. 

Common summative assessments include:

• Final exams
• End-of-class projects

Summative assessments almost always take place at the end of a course unless a teacher decides to break a course into more manageable chunks. They’re often cumulative, and they’re used to evaluate a student’s long-term information retention.

In summative assessments like final exams , you can include questions from the first week or two of a course to ensure students retained introductory information. In other assessments like papers, your students can pull from a full marking period of learning to apply to a topic.

Either way, your students have to do some serious reflecting and critical thinking to bring together the information from an entire course.

This is a great way to ensure students retain essential information from one course to another. So if you teach introductory courses, summative assessments are perfect to set students up for success in their next classes.

That’s important because a student’s success in your classroom is just one step for them. When you prepare them for the next step, you make it easier for them to succeed in the future as well.

In that way, summative assessments serve two purposes:

First , they evaluate what someone learned while they’ve been in your class.

Second , they evaluate how prepared someone is to go to the next academic level.

Combined with the rest of a student’s performance in class, summative quizzing and assessments are excellent ways to gauge progress while ensuring long-term information retention.

Top 3 Summative Assessment Examples

Summative assessments are traditionally more structured and standardized than formative assessments.

Still, you have a few options to shake things up that go beyond a pen-and-paper test.

1. In-depth reports

Instruct students to choose a topic that resonated with them in class and report in-depth on it. This is a great opportunity for students to take an idea and run with it under your supervision.

These reports often showcase a student’s interest, and you’ll be able to evaluate a student’s engagement level in the class by how they approach the report.

The goal is a passionate, intelligent, and comprehensive examination of a concept that matters to a student. 

2. Cumulative, individual projects

Have your students pick a project to complete. This project should somehow reflect what they’ve learned throughout the course.

Projects are great for any practical application class from health science to physics. Creating a cross-section of the human heart, designing a diet, or creating a protective egg-drop vessel are all fun ways students can show off their knowledge of a topic.

3. Personal evaluation papers

Require students to apply principles from your class to their personal lives. These papers are excellent fits for psychology, nutrition, finance, business, and other theory-based classes.

In a nutshell, personal evaluations let students look at themselves through a different lens while exploring the nuances of the principles they learned in class.  Plus, it lets students do something everyone loves — talk about themselves!

Now that you have a few ideas on summative assessments, how can you track their success?

How Do You Track Summative Assessments?

While everyone has their own ideas on this topic, grades are the best way to evaluate someone’s success with a summative assessment.

How you grade is ultimately up to you. Presentations are great ways to grade someone based on a number of factors, including soft skills like public speaking. Written exams or project-based assessments are ideal to see a student’s full-scope understand of your class after a marking period.

Whatever you choose, stick to a consistent grading scale so you can identify your own strengths and weaknesses in the classroom as students complete your course. 

What’s More Important: Formative or Summative Assessments?

Many new teachers have this question — are formative or summative assessments more important?

In a perfect world, they’re equally important. Formative assessments let students show that they’re learning, and summative assessments let them show what they’ve learned.

But American public education values summative assessments over formative assessments. Standardized tests — like the SATs — are great examples of high-value summative assessments.

It’s rare to find the same emphasis on formative quizzing and assessments. That’s because formative assessments act like milestones while summative assessments show the bottom line.

We encourage teachers to look at these assessments as two sides of the same coin. Formative and summative assessments work together flawlessly when implemented properly.

With all of that in mind, you only have one question left to answer. How are you going to add these assessments to your curriculum ?

Use Formative and Summative Assessments and Meet Your Challenges

As a teacher, you’ll likely need to employ both summative and formative assessments in your curriculum. An effective balance of these assessments will help you understand your students’ needs while meeting your standards.

However, CTE teachers face challenges in the classroom each day that sometimes get in the way of connecting with students and preparing them for these assessments.

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Formative vs. summative assessment: impacts on academic motivation, attitude toward learning, test anxiety, and self-regulation skill

Seyed m. ismail.

1 College of Humanities and Sciences, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia

D. R. Rahul

2 School of Science and Humanities, Shiv Nadar University Chennai, Chennai, India

Indrajit Patra

3 NIT Durgapur, Durgapur, West Bengal India

Ehsan Rezvani

4 English Department, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

Associated Data

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

As assessment plays an important role in the process of teaching and learning, this research explored the impacts of formative and summative assessments on academic motivation, attitude toward learning, test anxiety, and self-regulation skill of EFL students in Iran. To fulfill the objectives of this research, 72 Iranian EFL learners were chosen based on the convenience sampling method assigned to two experimental groups (summative group and formative group) and a control group. Then, the groups took the pre-tests of test anxiety, motivation, and self-regulation skill. Then, one experimental group was trained by following the rules of the formative assessment and the other experimental group was taught according to the summative assessment. The control group was instructed without using any preplanned assessment. After a 15-session treatment, the post-tests of the test anxiety, motivation, and self-regulation skill were administered to all groups to assess the impacts of the instruction on their language achievement. Lastly, a questionnaire of attitude was administered to both experimental groups to examine their attitudes towards the impacts of formative and summative assessment on their English learning improvement. The outcomes of one-way ANOVA and Bonferroni tests revealed that both summative and formative assessments were effective but the formative one was more effective on academic motivation, test anxiety, and self-regulation skill. The findings of one sample t -test indicated that the participants had positive attitudes towards summative and formative assessments. Based on the results, it can be concluded that formative assessment is an essential part of teaching that should be used in EFL instructional contexts. The implications of this study can help students to detect their own weaknesses and target areas that need more effort and work.

Introduction

In teaching and learning, assessment is defined as a procedure applied by instructors and students during instruction through which teachers provide necessary feedbacks to modify ongoing learning and teaching to develop learners’ attainment of planned instructional aims (Robinowitz, 2010 ). According to Popham ( 2008 ), assessment is an intended procedure in which evidence of learners’ status is utilized by educators to adjust their ongoing instructional processes or applied by learners to change their present instructional strategies. Assessment intends to improve learning and it is used to reduce the gap between students’ present instructional situation and their target learning objectives (Heritage, 2012 ).

Two types of assessment are formative and summative. According to Glazer ( 2014 ), summative assessment is generally applied to give learners a numerical score with limited feedback. Therefore, summative assessment is commonly used to measure learning and is rarely used for learning. Educators can make the summative assessment more formative by giving learners the opportunity to learn from exams. This would mean supplying pupils with feedback on exams and making use of the teaching potentiality of exams. Wininger ( 2005 ) proposed an amalgamation of assessment techniques between summative assessment and formative assessment. This marriage between summative assessment and formative assessment is referred to as summative-formative assessment. Based on Wininger, summative-formative assessment is used to review the exam with examinees so they can get feedback on comprehension. Formative-summative assessment occurs in two primary forms: using a mock exam before the final or using the final exam before the retake.

Formative assessment allows for feedback which improves learning while summative assessment measures learning. Formative assessment refers to frequent, interactive assessments of students’ development and understanding to recognize their needs and adjust teaching appropriately (Alahmadi et al., 2019 ). According to Glazer ( 2014 ), formative assessment is generally defined as tasks that allow pupils to receive feedback on their performance during the course. In the classroom, teachers use assessments as a diagnostic tool at the termination of lessons or the termination of units. In addition, teachers can use assessments for teaching, by identifying student misconceptions and bridging gaps in learning through meaningful feedback (Dixson & Worrell, 2016 ). Unfortunately, numerous instructors consider formative assessments as a tool to measure students’ learning, while missing out on its teaching potential. Testing and teaching can be one or the same which will be discussed further in this research (Remmi & Hashim, 2021 ).

According to Black et al. ( 2004 ), using formative tests for formative purposes improves classroom practice whereby students can be encouraged in both reflective and active review of course content. In general terms, formative assessment is concerned with helping students to develop their learning (Buyukkarci & Sahinkarakas, 2021 ). Formative assessment can be considered as a pivotal and valid part of the blending of assessment and teaching (Ozan & Kıncal, 2018 ). Formative assessment helps students gain an understanding of the assessment process and provides them with feedback on how to refine their efforts for improvement. However, in practice, assessment for learning is still in its infancy, and many instructors still struggle with providing productive and timely feedback (Clark, 2011 ).

Using the mentioned assessments can positively affect the test anxiety of the students. Test anxiety signifies the extent to which the students experience apprehension, fear, uneasiness, panic tension, and restlessness while even thinking of forthcoming tests or exams (Ahmad, 2012 ). Anxiety can also be regarded as a product of hesitation about imminent events or situations (Craig et al., 2000 ). Test anxiety is the emotional reaction or status of stress that happens before exams and remains throughout the period of the exams (Sepehrian, 2013 ). Anxiety can commonly be connected to coercions to self-efficacy and evaluations of circumstances as threatening or reactions to a resource of stress to continue (Pappamihiel, 2002 ).

The other variable which can influence the consequences of tests or testing sessions in EFL settings is the attitudes of students towards English culture, English language, and English people. Kara ( 2009 ) stated that attitude about learning together with beliefs and opinions have a significant impact on learners’ behaviors and consequently on their performances. Those learners who have desirable beliefs about language learning are willing to rise more positive attitudes toward language learning. On the other hand, having undesirable beliefs can result in negative attitudes, class anxiety, and low cognitive achievements (Chalak & Kassaian, 2010 ; Tella et al., 2010 ). There are both negative and positive attitudes towards learning. Positive attitudes can develop learning and negative attitudes can become barriers to learning because students have these attitudes as they have difficulties in learning or they just feel that what is presented to them is boring. While a negative attitude toward learning can lead to poor performances of students, a positive attitude can result in appropriate and good performances of students (Ellis, 1994 ).

Woods ( 2015 ) says that instructors should regularly utilize formative assessment to advance the learners’ self-regulation skills and boost their motivation. Motivation is referred to the reasons why people have different behaviors in different situations. Motivation is considered as the intensity and direction of the students’ attempts. The intensity of attempt is referred to the extent that students try to reach their objectives and the direction of attempt is referred to the objectives that students intend to reach (Ahmadi et al., 2009 ; Paul & Elder, 2013 ). Motivation is an inborn phenomenon that is influenced by four agents such as aim (the aim of behaviors, purposes, and tendencies), instrument (instruments used to reach objectives), situation (environmental and outer stimulants), and temper (inner state of the organism). To reach their goals, people first should acquire the essential incentives. For instance, academic accomplishment motivation is significant to scholars (Firouznia et al., 2009 ).

Wiliam ( 2014 ) also asserts that self-regulation learning can be a crucial part of a productive formative assessment concerning the techniques of explaining, sharing, and understanding the instructional goals and students’ success and responsibility for their own learning. Self-regulation skill requires learners to dynamically utilize their cognitive skills; try to achieve their learning aims; receive support from their classmates, parents, and instructors when needed; and most significantly, be responsible for their own learning (Ozan & Kıncal, 2018 ). This research aimed to explore the impacts of using summative and formative assessments of Iranian EFL learners’ academic motivation, attitude toward learning, test anxiety, and self-regulation skill. This study is significant as it compared the effects of two kinds of assessments namely formative and summative on academic motivation, attitude toward learning, test anxiety, and self-regulation skill. As this research investigated the effects of the mentioned assessments on four emotional variables simultaneously, it can be considered as a novel study.

Review of the literature

In the field of teaching English as a foreign language, several researchers and experts defined the term “assessment” as a pivotal component of the process of teaching. According to Brown ( 2003 ), assessment is a process of collecting data about learners’ capabilities to conduct learning tasks. That is, assessment is the way instructors use to gather data about their methods and their pupils’ improvement. Furthermore, the assessment process has got an inseparable component from teaching, since it is impossible to think of teaching without assessments. Brown ( 2003 ) defined assessment in relation to testing. The differences between them refer to the fact that the latter occurs at an identified point of time while the former is an ongoing process that occurs regularly (Brown, 2003 ).

Other scholars explained the meaning of assessment by distinguishing it from evaluation. Regarding the difference between the two, Nunan ( 1992 ) asserted that assessment is referred to the procedures and processes whereby teachers determine what students can do in the target language and added evaluation is referred to a wider range of processes that may or may not include assessment data. In this way, then, assessment is process-oriented while evaluation is product-oriented. Palomba and Banta ( 1999 ) defined assessment as “the systematic collection, review, and use of information about educational programs undertaken to improve learning and development” (p.4). All in all, assessing students’ performances means recognizing and gathering information, receiving feedback, and analyzing and modifying the learning processes. The main goal, thus, is to overcome barriers to learning. Assessment is then used to interpret the performances of students, develop learning, and modify teaching (Aouine, 2011 ; Ghahderijani et al., 2021 ).

Two types of assessment are formative and summative. Popham ( 2008 ) said that it is not the nature of the tests to be labeled as summative or formative but the use to which that tests’ outcomes will be put. That is to say, the summative-formative manifestation of assessment does not stop at being a typology but it expands to be purposive due to the nature of assessment. Summative assessment, then, has been referred to as some criteria. Cizek ( 2010 ) suggests that two criteria can define the summative assessment: (1) it is conducted at the termination of some units and (2) its goal is mainly to characterize the performances of the students or systems. Its major goal is to gain measurement of attainment to be utilized in making decisions.

Through Cizek’s definition, a summative assessment seeks to judge the learners’ performances in every single course. Thus, providing diagnostic information is not what this type of assessment is concerned with. Significantly, the judgments made about the students, teachers, or curricula are meant to grade, certificate, evaluate, and research on how effective curricula are, and these are the purposes of summative assessment according to Cizek ( 2010 ).

According to Black and Wiliam ( 2006 ), summative assessment is given occasionally to assess what pupils know and do not know. This type of assessment is done after the learning has been finalized and provides feedback and information that summarize the learning and teaching process. Typically, no more formal learning is occurring at this stage, other than incidental learning that may happen via completing the assignments and projects (Wuest & Fisette, 2012 ). Summative assessment measures what students have learned and mostly is conducted at the end of a course of instruction (Abeywickrama & Brown, 2010 ; Liu et al., 2021 ; Rezai et al., 2022 ).

For Woods ( 2015 ), the summative assessment provides information to judge the general values of the instructional programs, while the outcomes of formative assessment are used to facilitate the instructional programs. Based on Shepard ( 2006 ), a summative assessment must accomplish its major purpose of documenting what learners know and can do but, if carefully created, should also efficaciously fulfill a secondary objective of learning support.

Brown ( 2003 ) claimed that summative assessment aims at measuring or summarizing what students have learned. This means looking back and taking stock of how well that students have fulfilled goals but does not essentially pave the way to future improvement. Furthermore, the summative assessment also known as assessment of learning is clarified by Spolsky and Halt ( 2008 ) who state that assessment of learning is less detailed, and intends to find out the educational programs or students’ outcomes. Thus, summative assessment is applied to evaluating different language skills and learners’ achievements. Even though summative assessment has a main role in the learners’ evaluation, it is not sufficient to know their advancement and to detect the major areas of weaknesses, and this is the essence of formative assessment (Pinchok & Brandt, 2009 ; Vadivel et al., 2021 ).

The term ‘formative assessment’ has been proposed for years and defined by many researchers. A clearer definition is provided by Brown ( 2003 ) in which he claims that formative assessment is referred to the evaluation of learners in the process of “forming” their skills and competencies to help them to keep up that growth process. It is also described as comprising all those activities conducted by instructors or by their learners that supply information to be utilized as feedback to adjust the learning and teaching activities in which they are involved (Fox et al., 2016 ).

Formative assessments aim to gain immediate feedback on students learning through which strengths and weaknesses of students can be diagnosed. Comprehensively, Wiliam ( 2011 ) suggests: Practices in the classrooms are formative to the extent that evidence about students’ accomplishments is elicited, interpreted, and utilized by instructors, students, or their classmates, to decide about the subsequent steps in the education that are probably to be better or better founded, than the decisions they would have taken in the absence of the evidence that was elicited.

Through this definition, formative assessment actively involves both students’ and teachers’ participation as a key component to develop students’ performance. The assessment for learning, which is based on the aim behind using it, is assessing learners’ progress (McCallum & Milner, 2021 ). Therefore, it is all about gathering data about learners’ achievement to recognize their progress in skills, requirements, and capabilities as their weaknesses and strengths before, during, and after the educational courses to develop students’ learning and achievement (Douglas & Wren, 2008 ).

Besides, Popham ( 2008 ) considered the formative assessment as a strategic procedure in which educators or pupils utilize assessment-based evidence to modify what they are presently performing. That describes it as the planned process that is not randomly occurring. Therefore, formative assessment is an ongoing procedure that provides learners with constructive timely feedback, helping them achieve their learning goals and enhancing their achievements (Vogt et al., 2020 ). Formative assessment is a helpful technique that can provide students with formative help by evaluating the interactions between assessment and learning (Chan, 2021 ; Masita & Fitri, 2020 ).

Some criteria related to formative assessment have been presented by Cizek ( 2010 ). In his opinion, formative assessment attempts to identify students’ levels whether high or low, to provide more help for educators to plan subsequent instruction, to make it easier for students to continue their own learning, review their work, and be able to evaluate themselves. To make learners responsible for their learning and do their research Formative assessment, to Cizek, is a sufficient tool and area for learners and teachers to make proficiency in the learning-teaching process. All in all, concerning specific objectives, formative assessment is a goal-oriented process.

Tahir et al. ( 2012 ) stated that formative assessment is a diagnostic use of assessment that can provide feedback to instructors and learners throughout the instructional process. Marsh ( 2007 ) claimed that formative tests are a type of strategy which are prepared to recognize students’ learning problems to provide a remedial procedure to develop the performances of the majority of the learners. The information that is provided for the learners should be utilized for the assessment to be explained as a formative one. The Assessment Reform Group (ARG) ( 2007 ) explains formative assessment as the procedure to look for and interpret the evidence for instructors and their students to make decisions about where the students fit in their learning, where they need to go, and how best to get there. Kathy ( 2013 ) also argued that formative tests aim to analyze the students’ learning problems to develop their academic attainment.

The theory that is behind our study is the sociocultural theory stating that knowledge is generated in a cooperative way within social contexts. It views learning as a condition wherein learners generate their meanings from the materials and content delivered to them, rather than trying to memorize the information (Vygotsky, 1978 ). Based on sociocultural theory, learning can occur successfully when teachers and students have more interactions with each other.

Some empirical studies are reported here. Alahmadi et al. ( 2019 ) aimed to examine whether a formative speaking assessment produced any effect on learners’ performances in the summative test. Besides, they aimed to observe students’ learning and to provide useful feedbacks that can be applied by educators to develop learners’ achievement and assist them to detect their weaknesses and strengths in speaking skills. Their results indicated that formative assessment helped Saudi learners to solve the problems they encounter in speaking tests.

Mahshanian et al. ( 2019 ) highlighted the significance of summative assessment in conjunction with teacher-based (formative) assessments on the learners’ performances. To do this study, 170 EFL students at the advanced level were chosen and grouped based on the kind of assessment they had received. The subjects in this research were administered exams for two main reasons. First, a general proficiency test was given to put the students at different levels of proficiency. Second, for comparing students’ development according to different kinds of assessments within a 4-month learning duration, an achievement test of the course was administered both as the pre-test and the post-test. The data gained via the scores of the participants on the achievement test received analyses and then compared by utilizing ANCOVA, ANOVA, and t- tests. Based on the outcomes of this research, we can conclude that an amalgamation of summative and formative assessments can result in better achievements for EFL students than either summative or formative assessments discretely.

Imen ( 2020 ) attempted to determine the effects of formative assessments on EFL learners’ writing skills. Indeed, the goal of this study was to recognize the effects of formative assessments on developing the writing skills of first-year master’s students at Abdel Elhamid Ibn Badis University, in Mostaganem. This research also attempted to reveal an essential issue that is the lack of the execution of formative assessments in the writing classrooms. To verify the hypotheses, two tools were applied in this study to gather the data, the teachers’ questionnaire and the students’ questionnaire. The findings of the study revealed that the formative assessment was not extensively used in teaching and learning writing skills, at the University of Mostaganem. The results of both questionnaires showed that if the students were evaluated formatively, their writing skills could be highly enhanced.

Ashdale ( 2020 ) attempted to examine the influences of a particular formative assessment named as Progress Trackers, by comparing a control group that did not receive the Progress Tracker with an experimental group that received the formative-based assessment. The research findings revealed that there were no substantial differences between the experimental and control groups based on the results of the pre-test and the post-test scores. While not statistically significant, the experimental group showed a larger increase in the learners with at least a 60% development in achievement. The lack of significant differences between the experimental group and the control group could be created by the uselessness of the formative assessments or the inability to exclude other factors in the class contexts. This could comprise the uses of other formative assessments applied in both groups, delivery of content, and execution of the formative assessments.

Persaud Singh and Ewert ( 2021 ) investigated the effects of quizzes and mock exams as a formative assessment on working adult learners’ achievement using a quasi-experimental quantitative design. One experimental group received both quizzes and mock exams, another group received mock exams only, and a control group received neither. The data gathered received analyses by utilizing t -tests and ANOVA. The findings indicated noticeable differences in the levels of achievement for the groups receiving formative assessments in comparison to the control participants. The “mock exam” group outperformed slightly than the “quizzes and mock exam” group.

Al Tayib Umar and Abdulmlik Ameen ( 2021 ) traced the effects of formative assessment on Saudi EFL students’ achievement in medical English. The research also tried to figure out teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward formative assessment. The participants involved in this research were 98 students selected among the Preparatory Year learners at a Saudi university. They were assigned to an experimental group and a control group. The experimental students were given their English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses following the formative assessment techniques whereas the control group was trained in their ESP courses by traditional assessment rules. The experimental group teachers were given intensive training courses in Saudi Arabia and abroad on how to use formative assessment principles in the classrooms. At the end of the experiment that continued for 120 days, the control and experimental groups sat for the end of term examination which was designed for all candidates in the Preparatory College. Grades of all participants in the two groups in the final exam were compared. The performance of the experimental group was found to be meaningfully higher than that of the control group. Instructors’ and students’ attitudes towards formative assessment were positive.

Hamedi et al. ( 2022 ) investigated the effects of using formative assessment by Kahoot application on Iranian EFL students’ vocabulary knowledge as well as their burnout levels. This study was conducted on 60 participants who were in two groups of experimental and control. The results indicated that using formative assessment generated significant effects on of Iranian EFL students’ vocabulary knowledge.

In conclusion, the above studies confirmed the positive effects of summative and formative assessment on language learning. Yet, there are a few kinds of research on comparing the effects of the summative and formative assessments on Iranian EFL learners’ academic motivation, attitude toward learning, test anxiety, and self-regulation skill. Most studies in the domain of assessment examined the effects of the summative and formative assessments on the main skills (reading, speaking, writing, and listening) and they did not pay much attention to the psychosocial variables; therefore, this research posed two questions to cover the existing gap.

• RQ1. Does using formative and summative assessments positively affect Iranian EFL learners’ test anxiety, academic motivation, and self-regulation skill?
• RQ2. Do Iranian EFL learners present positive attitudes toward learning through formative and summative assessments?

Methodology

Design of the study, participants.

The participants of this research were 72 Iranian EFL students who have studied English since 2016. The male EFL learners were selected based on the convenience sampling method by administering the Preliminary English Test (PET). They were selected from the Parsian English language institute, located in Ahvaz city, Iran. The participants’ general English proficiency was intermediate and their age average was 21 years old. The participants were divided into two experimental groups (summative and formative) and a control group.

Instrumentations

For homogenizing the subjects in terms of general English proficiency, we gave a version of the PET test, extracted from the book PET Practice Test (Quintana, 2008 ). Because of some limitations, only the sections of reading, grammar, and vocabulary of the test were used in this study. We piloted the test on another similar group and allotted 60 min for answering all its items. Its validity was accepted by some English experts and its reliability was .91.

Britner and Pajares’ ( 2006 ) Science Anxiety Scale (SAS) was used as the other instrument to assess the participants’ test anxiety. Some wordings of the items were changed to make them suitable for measuring test anxiety. There were 12 items in this test that required the participants to consider the items (e.g., I am worried that I will get weak scores in most of the exams) and answer a 6-point scale ranging from certainly false to certainly true. Based on Cronbach’s alpha formula, the reliability index of the anxiety test was .79.

The other tool used in this study was the Self-Regulatory Strategies Scale (SRSS) which was developed by Kadıoğlu et al. ( 2011 ) to assess the self-regulation skills of the participants. The SRSS was a 6-point Likert instrument including never, seldom, occasionally, often, frequently, and constantly. The SRSS consisted of 29 statements in eight dimensions. The results of Cronbach’s alpha formula showed that the reliability of the SRSS was .82.

We used the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) of Gardner ( 2004 ) to evaluate the respondents’ English learning motivation. This measuring instrument had 26 items each with six responses: Highly Disagree, Moderately Disagree, Somewhat Disagree, Somewhat Agree, Moderately Agree, and Highly Agree. We used the Cronbach alpha to measure the reliability of the motivation questionnaire ( r = .87). It should be noted that the motivation questionnaire, the SAS, and the SRSS were used as the pre-tests and post-tests of the research.

The last tool employed in this research was an attitude questionnaire examining the participants’ attitudes towards the effectiveness of summative and formative assessment on their English learning enhancement. The researchers themselves created 17-point Likert- items for this questionnaire and the reliability of this instrument was .80. Likert scale was utilized in the questionnaire to show the amount of disagreement and agreement from 1 to 5 that were highly disagree, disagree, no idea, agree, and highly agree. The validities of all mentioned tools were substantiated by a group of English specialists.

Collecting the needed data

To start the study, first, the PET was administered to 96 EFL learners and 72 intermediate participants were selected among them. As stated previously, the participants were divided into two experimental groups (summative and formative) and one control group. After that, the pretests of test anxiety, motivation, and self-regulation skill were administered to the participants of all groups. After pretesting process, the treatment was conducted on the groups differently; each group received special instruction.

One experimental group was instructed based on the rules of the formative assessment, in the formative group, the teacher (researcher) assisted the students to participate in evaluating their learning via using self and peer assessment. Besides, the teacher’s comprehensive and descriptive elicitation and feedbacks of information about students’ learning were significant in formative class. In fact, there were no tests at the termination of the term and the teacher was flexible concerning the students’ mistakes and provided them with constructive feedback including metalinguistic clues, elicitation, correction, repletion, clarification request, recast, and repletion.

In the summative class, the teacher assessed the students’ learning by giving mid-term and final exams. The teacher did not provide any elaborative feedback, and his feedback was limited to yes/no and true/ false. The control group neither received a formative-based instruction nor a summative-based instruction. The teacher of the control group instructed them without utilizing any preplanned assessments. They finished the course without any formative and summative assessments. After the treatment, the post-tests of the test anxiety, motivation, and self-regulation skill were given to all groups to assess the influences of the intervention on their language achievement. In the final step, the questionnaire of attitude was distributed among both experimental groups to check their opinions about the impacts of summative and formative assessment on their English learning improvement.

The whole study lasted 23 sessions; each took 50 min. In one session, the PET test was administered and in the next three sessions, three pre-tests were conducted. During 15 sessions, the treatment was carried out; in three sessions, three post-tests were given to the participants, and in the last session the attitudinal questionnaire was administered to examine the participants’ attitudes towards the effectiveness of summative and formative assessment of their English learning achievement.

Data analysis

Having prepared all needed data via the procedures mentioned above, some statistical steps were taken to provide answers to the questions raised in this study. First, the data were analyzed descriptively to compute the means of the groups. Second, some one-way ANOVA and Bonferroni tests were used for analyzing the data inferentially. Third, one sample t- test was utilized to analyze the motivation questionnaire data.

Results and discussion

After checking and getting sure about the normality distribution of the data by using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, we used several one-way ANOVA tests and reported their results in the following tables:

As we see in Table ​ Table1, 1 , the mean scores of all groups are almost similar. They got almost equal scores on their anxiety pre-test and the three groups were at the same level of anxiety before conducting the instruction. This claim is verified in the following table with the help of one-way ANOVA.

Descriptive statistics of all groups on the test anxiety pre-tests

According to the Sig value in Table ​ Table2, 2 , there is not a noticeable difference between the test anxiety of all three groups. They were at the same anxiety level at the outset of the study. The inferential statistics show that all the participants had an equal amount of anxiety before they had received the treatment.

Inferential statistics of all groups on the test anxiety pre-tests

As is seen in Table ​ Table3, 3 , the mean scores of all groups are different on the anxiety post-tests. Based on the descriptive statistics, the groups gained different scores on their anxiety post-test and the experimental groups obtained better scores than the control group. This claim is substantiated in the following table by using a one-way ANOVA test.

Descriptive statistics of all groups on the test anxiety post-tests

Table ​ Table4 4 depicts that the Sig value is less than .00; accordingly, one can conclude that there is a noticeable difference between the test anxiety post-tests of all three groups. They were at different anxiety levels at the end of the research. It seems that the experimental groups outdid the control group on the post-test.

Inferential statistics of all groups on the test anxiety post-tests

In Table ​ Table5, 5 , the test anxiety level of all groups is compared. This table shows that there are remarkable differences between the anxiety post-tests of the control group and both experimental groups. Also, this table shows that the formative group outdid the control and summative groups. The formative group had the best performance among the three groups of this study.

Multiple comparisons by Bonferroni test (test anxiety)

a The mean differences are significant at the 0.05 level

As observed in Table ​ Table6, 6 , all three groups’ performances on the self-regulation pre-tests are almost the same; their mean scores are almost equal. We used a one-way ANOVA to check the groups’ performances on the self-regulation pre-tests.

Descriptive statistics of the three groups on the self-regulation pre-tests

In Table ​ Table7, 7 , the inferential statistics of all groups on the self-regulation pre-tests are shown. As Sig (.96) is higher than (0.05), the differences between the three groups are not meaningfully significant. Based on this table, all three groups had the same level of self-regulation ability at the outset of the study.

Inferential statistics of the three groups on the self-regulation pre-tests

The mean scores of the control group, the summative group, and the formative group are, 80.12, 130.04, and 147.25, respectively (Table ​ (Table8). 8 ). At the first look, we can say that both experimental participants outflank the control participants since their mean scores are very higher than the mean score of the control group.

Descriptive statistics of the three groups on the self-regulation post-tests

The results indicate significant differences between the self-regulation post-tests of the groups in favor of the experimental groups (Table ​ (Table9 9 ) . Based on the inferential statistics, the performances of the three groups on the self-regulation post-test are different and the summative group and the formative group outflank the control group.

Inferential statistics of the three groups on the self-regulation post-tests

The outcomes in Table ​ Table10 10 indicate that both experimental groups have better performances than the control group on the self-regulation post-tests. Also, the findings show that the formative group performed better than the other two groups. The treatment had the most effect on the formative group.

Multiple comparisons by Bonferroni test (self-regulation)

The control group’s mean score is 90.33, the mean score of the summative group is 91.75, and the mean score of the formative group is 92.45 (Table ​ (Table11). 11 ). Accordingly, we can say that the three groups had an equal degree of motivation before conducting the treatment.

Descriptive statistics of the three groups on the motivation pre-tests

Table ​ Table12 12 presents the inferential statistics of all groups on the motivation pre-tests. One can see that Sig (.94) is larger than 0.50; consequently, no difference is observed among the groups in terms of motivation pre-tests. The inferential statistics show that the students of the three groups had the same amount of motivation before they had received the treatment.

Inferential statistics of the three groups on the motivation pre-tests

As shown in the Table ​ Table13, 13 , the mean scores of the summative and formative groups are 115.79 and 127.83, respectively, on the motivation post-tests and the mean of the control group is 92.87. It appears that the experimental participants outperform the control participants on the motivation post-tests as their mean scores are higher than the control group.

Descriptive statistics of the three groups on the motivation post-tests

In Table ​ Table14, 14 , the inferential statistics of all groups on the motivation post-tests are revealed. The Sig value (.00) is less than 0.50; therefore, the differences between the groups are significant. Indeed, the experimental groups outperformed the control group after the instruction and this betterment can be ascribed to the treatment.

Inferential statistics of the three groups on the motivation post-tests

The mean scores of the motivation post-tests are compared in Table ​ Table15. 15 . Accordingly, there are noticeable differences between the post-tests of all groups. The formative participants had better performance than the other two groups. We can say that the formative assessment is more effective than the summative assessment in EFL classes.

Multiple comparisons by Bonferroni test (motivation)

As depicted in Table ​ Table16, 16 , the amount of statistic T -value is 63.72, df =16, and Sig =0.00 which is less than 0.05. This implies that Iranian students held positive attitudes towards the effectiveness of summative and formative assessments on their language learning improvement.

One-sample test of the attitude questionnaire

Briefly, the results indicate that both experimental groups had better performances than the control group in their post-tests. The formative group had the best performance among the three groups of this study. Additionally, the results reveal that the participants of the present research had positive attitudes towards the effectiveness of both formative and summative assessments on their language learning development.

After analyzing the data, it was found that all three groups were at the same levels of test anxiety, motivation, and self-regulation skill at the outset of the research. But, the performances of the three groups were different at the end of the investigation. Both experimental groups outdid the control group on their post-tests and the formative group performed better among the three groups. Although both types of assessments (summative and formative) were effective on test the anxiety, motivation, and self-regulation skill of EFL learners, the formative assessment was the most effective one. The findings of the current research also indicated that both experimental groups presented positive attitudes toward the implementation of the summative and formative assessments in EFL classes.

The findings gained in this study are supported by Persaud Singh and Ewert ( 2021 ) who inspected the impacts of formative assessment on adult students’ language improvement. They indicated that there were meaningful differences between the formative participants and the control participants in terms of language achievement in favor of the formative participants. Additionally, our research findings are advocated by Alahmadi et al. ( 2019 ) who explored the effects of formative speaking assessments on EFL learners’ performances in speaking tests. They showed that the formative assessment assisted Saudi EFL learners to solve the problems they encountered in speaking tests.

In addition, our study findings are in accordance with Mahshanian et al. ( 2019 ) who confirmed that the amalgamation of summative and formative assessment can result in better achievement in English language learning. Also, our investigation lends support to the findings of Buyukkarci and Sahinkarakas ( 2021 ) who verified the positive effects of using formative assessment on learners’ language achievement. Additionally, the results of the current research are in agreement with Ounis ( 2017 ) who stated that formative assessment facilitated and supported students’ learning. Our study findings are supported by the sociocultural theory which focuses on the role of social interactions among the students and their teachers in the classroom. Based on this perspective, the learning process is mainly a social process and students’ cognitive functions are made based on their interactions with those around them.

Furthermore, our research results are in agreement with the results of Imen ( 2020 ) who discovered the impacts of formative assessments on EFL students’ writing abilities. His results indicated that using formative assessment develops the participants’ writing skills. Moreover, our research outcomes are supported by the impacts of formative assessments on learners’ academic attainment, opinions about lessons, and self-regulation skills in Ozan and Kıncal ( 2018 ) who performed an investigation on the influences of formative assessments on students’ attitudes toward lessons, academic achievement, and self-regulation skill. They revealed that the experimental class that received the treatment by formative assessment practices had better academic performances and more positive attitudes towards the classes than the control class.

Regarding the positive attitudes of the participants towards formative and summative assessment, our results are in line with Tekin ( 2010 ) who discovered that formative assessment practices meaningfully developed students’ attitudes about mathematics learning. That research indicated that the participants in the treatment group had positive attitudes about mathematics learning. In addition, King ( 2003 ) asserted that the formative assessments enhanced the learners’ attitudes about science classes. Also, Hwang and Chang ( 2011 ) revealed that the formative assessment highly boosted the attitudes and interest of students toward learning in local culture classes.

One explanation for the outperformance of the formative group over the other two groups can be the fact that they received much more input. They were provided with different kinds of feedback and took more exams during the semester. These exams and feedback can be the reasons for their successes in language achievement. This is in line with Krashen’s ( 1981 ) input theory stating that if students are exposed to more input, they can learn more.

The other possible explanations for our results are that formative assessments are not graded so they take the anxiety away from the assessees. They also detach the thinking that they must get everything right. Instead, they serve as a practice for students to get assistance along the way before the final tests. Teachers usually check for understanding if students are struggling during the lesson. Teachers address these issues early on instead of waiting until the end of the unit to assess. Teachers have to do less reteaching at the end because many of the problems with mastery are addressed before final tests. The mentioned advantages can be the reasons for our obtained findings.

In addition, monitoring the students’ learning via using the formative assessment can be the other justification for our results. In fact, monitoring the learning process can provide an opportunity for the teachers to give constructive feedback to their students to improve their language learning. When teachers continuously monitor students’ growth and modify instruction to ensure constant development, they find it easier and more predictable to progress towards meeting the standards on summative assessments. By comprehending precisely what their students know before and during the instruction, teachers have much more power to improve the students’ mastery of the subject matter than if they find out after a lesson or unit is complete.

It is important to point out that when instructors continually evaluate the development of their students and modify their curriculum to assure constant improvement, they find that it is simpler and more predictable to make progress toward fulfilling the requirements on summative assessments. If teachers wait until the end of a session or unit to find out how well their learners have mastered the material, they will have considerably less influence over how well their learners learn the material than if they find out how well their learners have mastered it earlier and during teaching. The value of formative assessment lies in the critical information about student comprehension that it provides throughout the process of learning, as well as the chance it gives educators to provide participants with quick and efficient, and action-oriented feedback, as well as the chance to alter their own behavior so that every respondent has the chance to learn and re-learn the material. Learners whose academic performance falls on the extreme ends of the normal curve, such as those who are struggling and those who excel academically, benefit the most from formative evaluation. These learners have learning requirements that are often one of a kind and highly specialized, and to meet those needs, the instructor needs updated data. In addition, making use of frequent formative evaluation as a means to remediate learning gaps brought up by COVID-19 guarantees that educators can promptly give remediation.

The other justification for our findings can be ascribed to the strength of formative assessments that lies in the formative information they provide about the students’ comprehension throughout the learning process and the opportunities they give to teachers to provide the pupils with action-oriented and timely feedback and to change their own behaviors so that each learner has an opportunity to learn and re-learn. More particularly, using formative assessment can assist the students to detect their own weaknesses and strengths and target areas that need more effort and work. All the positive points enumerated for the formative assessments can be the reasons and explanations for the results gained in the current research.

Moreover, the better performance of assessment groups may be due to numerous reasons. In the first place, consistently evaluating students’ progress helps maintain learning objectives at the forefront of one’s mind. This ensures that learners have a distinct goal to strive towards and that instructors have the opportunity to assist clear up misconceptions before learners get off track. Second, engaging in the process of formative assessment enables instructors to gather the information that reveals the requirements of their students. When instructors have a clear grasp of what it takes for their students to be successful, they are better able to design challenging educational environments that push every learner to their full potential. Thirdly, the primary role of formative assessment that will assist in enhancing academic achievement is to provide both learners and instructors with frequent feedback on the achievement that is being made toward their objectives. Learners can bridge the gap between their existing knowledge and their learning objectives through the use of formative assessment (Greensetin, 2010 ). The fourth benefit of doing the formative assessment is an increase in motivation. Formative assessment entails creating learning objectives and monitoring the progress towards those objectives. When learners have a clear idea of where they want to go, their performance dramatically improves. Fifthly, students must identify a purpose for the work that is assigned to them in the classroom. Connecting the learning objectives with real-world problems and situations draws students into the instructional activities and feeds their natural curiosity about the world. Sixthly, an in-depth examination of the data gathered via formative assessment provides the educator with the opportunity to investigate their own methods of teaching and identify those that are successful and those that are not. It is indeed possible that some of the strategies that work for one group of learners won’t work for another. Lastly, students become self-regulated when they are provided with the tools they need to set, track, and ultimately achieve their own learning objectives. Students may develop into self-reliant thinkers if they are exposed to models of high-quality work and given adequate time to reflect on and refine their own work.

The positive effects of formative and summative assessment on students’ motivation are supported by The Self Determination Theory (SDT) of Motivation which is a motivational theory that provides a way of understanding human motivation in any context (Ryan & Deci, 2000 ). SDT attempts to understand human motivation beyond the simple intrinsic/extrinsic model. It suggests that human motivation varies from fully intrinsic motivation, which is characterized by fully autonomous behavior and “for its own sake” to fully extrinsic motivation, which is characterized by behavior that is fully heteronomous and which is instrumentalized to some other end.

In this study, the self-regulatory skills of the students in the EGs where the formative assessment practices were applied did significantly differ from the ones in the CG where no formative assessment practices were applied. Thus, students’ self-regulation was shown to be improved as a result of formative assessment procedures. Similar findings were observed in the experimental research by Xiao and Yang ( 2019 ) that compared the self-regulation abilities of EG and CG learners in secondary school and discovered a substantial difference in favor of the former group. Research findings based on qualitative data reveal that learners engaged in a variety of cognitive techniques and self-regulatory learning practices. The participants acknowledged that they were an integral part of their own learning and that they accepted personal responsibility for their progress. Teachers reported that learners’ ability to self-regulate improved as a result of formative assessment, which fostered ongoing, meaningful, and learning-effort and performance-focused dialogue between teachers and learners. The students’ progress in the areas of self-regulation and metacognitive abilities, as well as their growth in accordance with educational standards, may be supported by a rise in their success in diagnostic examinations thanks to the use of formative assessment (DeLuca et al., 2015 ). In a study that he conducted in 2015, Woods examined the link between formative assessment and self-regulation. He highlighted that teachers who use formative assessment strategies need to comprehend the participants’ self-regulatory learning processes to make appropriate decisions for their classrooms. Furthermore, Woods ( 2015 ) recommended that educators make regular use of formative assessment to foster the growth of learners’ abilities to self-regulate and to boost the motivation levels of their learners. Wiliam ( 2014 ) also asserted that self-regulatory learning could be an important component of an effective formative assessment in relation to the techniques of explaining, sharing, and comprehending the learning goals and success criteria and students taking the responsibility for their own learning.

It is vital to note that learners who have developed self-regulation skills employ their cognitive abilities; work toward their learning objectives; seek out appropriate support from peers, adults, and authority figures; and, most significantly, accept personal accountability for their academic success. As a result, learners’ abilities to self-regulate have a direct effect on the type of formative assessment based on learning and the applications designed to eliminate learning deficiencies. Self-regulation is an ability that needs time and practice to acquire, but it is possible to do so with the right tools and a continuous strategy. Formative assessment techniques were shown to boost learners’ ability to self-regulate, although this effect was found to be small when the study findings were combined with those found in the literature. This finding may be attributed to the fact that, although formative assessment procedures were implemented for an academic year, they were limited to the context of the social research classroom, and students’ abilities to self-regulate may develop and evolve over time.

The findings of this research can increase the knowledge of the students about two types of assessment. This study can encourage students to want their teachers to assess their performances formatively during the semester. Also, the findings of this study can assist instructors to implement more formative-based assessments and feedback in their classes. This study can highlight the importance of frequent input, feedback, and exam for teachers. An exact analysis of formative assessment data permits the teachers to inspect their instructional practices in order to understand which are producing positive results and which are not. Some that are effective for one group of students may not be effective for another group. The implications of this research can help students try to compensate for their deficiencies by taking responsibility for their own learning instead of just attempting to get good grades. In this respect, formative assessments ensure that students can manage the negative variables such as a high level of examination and grading.

Using formative assessments helps teachers gather the information that reveals the students’ needs. Once teachers have an understanding of what students need to be successful, they can generate a suitable learning setting that will challenge each learner to grow. Providing students and teachers with regular feedback on progress towards their aims is the major function of the formative assessments that will help in increasing academic accomplishment. Formative assessments can help the students close the gap between their present knowledge and their learning objectives. Moreover, using formative assessment gives the students evidence of their present progress to actively monitor and modify their own learning. This also provides the students the ability to track their educational objectives. Also, via using formative assessment, the students have the ability to measure their learning at a metacognitive level. As the students are one of the main agents of the teaching-learning process, instructors must share the learning objectives with them. This sharing can develop the students’ learning in basic knowledge and higher order cognitive processes such as application and transfer (Fulmer, 2017 ). In fact, if learners know that they are expected to learn in that lesson, they will concentrate more on those areas. Formative assessments make the teaching more effective by guiding learners to achieve learning objectives, setting learning needs, modifying teaching accordingly, and increasing teachers’ awareness of efficient teaching methods. Lastly, our findings may aid material developers to implement more formative-based assessment activities in the EFL English books.

In conclusion, this study proved the positive impacts of applying formative assessments on Iranian EFL students’ academic motivation, attitude toward learning, test anxiety, and self-regulation skill. Therefore, teachers are strongly recommended to use formative assessment in their classes to help students improve their language learning. Using formative assessment allows teachers to modify instruction according to the results; consequently, making modifications and improvements can generate immediate benefits for their students’ learning.

One more conclusion is that using formative assessment gives the teacher the ability to provide continuous feedback to their students. This allows the students to be part of the learning environment and to improve self-assessment strategies that will help with the understanding of their own thinking processes. All in all, providing frequent feedback during the learning process is regarded as an efficient technique for motivating and encouraging students to learn a language more successfully. Indeed, by assessing students during the lesson, the teachers can aid them to improve their skills and examine if they are progressing or not. Thus, formative assessment is an essential part of teaching that should be used in EFL instructional contexts.

As we could not include many participants in our study, we recommend that future researchers include a large number of participants to increase the generalizability of their results. We worked on male EFL learners; the next studies are required to work on both genders. We could not gather qualitative data to enrich our results; the upcoming researchers are advised to collect both quantitative and qualitative data to develop the validity of their results. Next researchers are called to examine the effects of the summative and formative assessments on language skills and sub-skills. Also, next researchers are offered to inspect the effects of other types of assessments on language skills and subskills as well as on psychological variables involved in language learning.

Acknowledgements

Not applicable.

Abbreviations

Authors’ contributions.

All authors had equal contributions. The author(s) read and approved the final manuscript.

Authors’ information

Seyed M. Ismail is an assistant professor at Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. His research interests are teaching and learning, testing, and educational strategies. He published many papers in different journals.

D. R. Rahul is an assistant professor School of Science and Humanities, Shiv Nadar University Chennai, Chennai, India. He has published several research papers in national and international language teaching journals.

Indrajit Patra is an Independent Researcher. He got his PhD from NIT Durgapur, West Bengal, India.

Ehsan Rezvani is an assistant professor in Applied Linguistics at Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Isfahan, Iran. He has published many research papers in national and international language teaching journals.

We did not receive any funding at any stage.

Availability of data and materials

Declarations.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Contributor Information

Seyed M. Ismail, Email: [email protected] .

D. R. Rahul, Email: moc.liamg@ttinrdluhar .

Indrajit Patra, Email: moc.liamg@0nortengampi .

Ehsan Rezvani, Email: [email protected] .

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Summative Assessment and Feedback

Main navigation.

Summative assessments are given to students at the end of a course and should measure the skills and knowledge a student has gained over the entire instructional period. Summative feedback is aimed at helping students understand how well they have done in meeting the overall learning goals of the course.

Effective summative assessments

Effective summative assessments provide students a structured way to demonstrate that they have met a range of key learning objectives and to receive useful feedback on their overall learning. They should align with the course learning goals and build upon prior formative assessments. These assessments will address how well the student is able to synthesize and connect the elements of learning from the entirety of the course into a holistic understanding and provide an opportunity to provide rich summative feedback.

The value of summative feedback

Summative feedback is essential for students to understand how far they have come in meeting the learning goals of the course, what they need further work on, and what they should study next. This can affect later choices that students make, particularly in contemplating and pursuing their major fields of study. Summative feedback can also influence how students regard themselves and their academic disciplines after graduation.

Use rubrics to provide consistency and transparency

A rubric is a grading guide for evaluating how well students have met a learning outcome. A rubric consists of performance criteria, a rating scale, and indicators for the different rating levels. They are typically in a chart or table format. 

Instructors often use rubrics for both formative and summative feedback to ensure consistency of assessment across different students. Rubrics also can make grading faster and help to create consistency between multiple graders and across assignments.

Students might be given access to the rubric before working on an assignment. No criteria or metric within a summative assessment should come as a surprise to the students. Transparency with students on exactly what is being assessed can help them more effectively demonstrate how much they have learned.  

Types of  summative assessments

Different summative assessments are better suited to measuring different kinds of learning. 

Examinations

Examinations are useful for evaluating student learning in terms of remembering information, and understanding and applying concepts and ideas. However, exams may be less suited to evaluating how well students are able to analyze, evaluate, or create things related to what they've learned.

Presentation

A presentation tasks the student with teaching others what they have learned typically by speaking, presenting visual materials, and interacting with their audience. This can be useful for assessing a student's ability to critically analyze and evaluate a topic or content.

With projects, students will create something, such as a plan, document, artifact, or object, usually over a sustained period of time, that demonstrates skills or understanding of the topic of learning. They are useful for evaluating learning objectives that require high levels of critical thinking, creativity, and coordination. Projects are good opportunities to provide summative feedback because they often build on prior formative assessments and feedback. 

With a portfolio, students create and curate a collection of documents, objects, and artifacts that collectively demonstrate their learning over a wide range of learning goals. Portfolios usually include the student's reflections and metacognitive analysis of their own learning. Portfolios are typically completed over a sustained period of time and are usually done by individual students as opposed to groups. 

Portfolios are particularly useful for evaluating how students' learning, attitudes, beliefs, and creativity grow over the span of the course. The reflective component of portfolios can be a rich form of self-feedback for students. Generally, portfolios tend to be more holistic and are often now done using ePortfolios .

• Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning
• Instructional Guide
• Formative and Summative Assessment

Assessment is the process of gathering data. More specifically, assessment is the ways instructors gather data about their teaching and their students’ learning (Hanna & Dettmer, 2004). The data provide a picture of a range of activities using different forms of assessment such as: pre-tests, observations, and examinations. Once these data are gathered, you can then evaluate the student’s performance. Evaluation, therefore, draws on one’s judgment to determine the overall value of an outcome based on the assessment data. It is in the decision-making process then, where we design ways to improve the recognized weaknesses, gaps, or deficiencies.

Types of Assessment

There are three types of assessment: diagnostic, formative, and summative. Although are three are generally referred to simply as assessment, there are distinct differences between the three.

There are three types of assessment: diagnostic, formative, and summative.

Diagnostic Assessment

Diagnostic assessment can help you identify your students’ current knowledge of a subject, their skill sets and capabilities, and to clarify misconceptions before teaching takes place (Just Science Now!, n.d.). Knowing students’ strengths and weaknesses can help you better plan what to teach and how to teach it.

Types of Diagnostic Assessments

• Pre-tests (on content and abilities)
• Self-assessments (identifying skills and competencies)
• Discussion board responses (on content-specific prompts)
• Interviews (brief, private, 10-minute interview of each student)

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment provides feedback and information during the instructional process, while learning is taking place, and while learning is occurring. Formative assessment measures student progress but it can also assess your own progress as an instructor. For example, when implementing a new activity in class, you can, through observation and/or surveying the students, determine whether or not the activity should be used again (or modified). A primary focus of formative assessment is to identify areas that may need improvement. These assessments typically are not graded and act as a gauge to students’ learning progress and to determine teaching effectiveness (implementing appropriate methods and activities).

A primary focus of formative assessment is to identify areas that may need improvement.

Types of Formative Assessment

• Observations during in-class activities; of students non-verbal feedback during lecture
• Homework exercises as review for exams and class discussions)
• Reflections journals that are reviewed periodically during the semester
• Question and answer sessions, both formal—planned and informal—spontaneous
• Conferences between the instructor and student at various points in the semester
• In-class activities where students informally present their results
• Student feedback collected by periodically answering specific question about the instruction and their self-evaluation of performance and progress

Summative Assessment

Summative assessment takes place after the learning has been completed and provides information and feedback that sums up the teaching and learning process. Typically, no more formal learning is taking place at this stage, other than incidental learning which might take place through the completion of projects and assignments.

Rubrics, often developed around a set of standards or expectations, can be used for summative assessment. Rubrics can be given to students before they begin working on a particular project so they know what is expected of them (precisely what they have to do) for each of the criteria. Rubrics also can help you to be more objective when deriving a final, summative grade by following the same criteria students used to complete the project.

Rubrics also can help you to be more objective when deriving a final, summative grade by following the same criteria students used to complete the project.

High-stakes summative assessments typically are given to students at the end of a set point during or at the end of the semester to assess what has been learned and how well it was learned. Grades are usually an outcome of summative assessment: they indicate whether the student has an acceptable level of knowledge-gain—is the student able to effectively progress to the next part of the class? To the next course in the curriculum? To the next level of academic standing? See the section “Grading” for further information on grading and its affect on student achievement.

Summative assessment is more product-oriented and assesses the final product, whereas formative assessment focuses on the process toward completing the product. Once the project is completed, no further revisions can be made. If, however, students are allowed to make revisions, the assessment becomes formative, where students can take advantage of the opportunity to improve.

Summative assessment...assesses the final product, whereas formative assessment focuses on the process...

Types of Summative Assessment

• Examinations (major, high-stakes exams)
• Final examination (a truly summative assessment)
• Term papers (drafts submitted throughout the semester would be a formative assessment)
• Projects (project phases submitted at various completion points could be formatively assessed)
• Portfolios (could also be assessed during it’s development as a formative assessment)
• Performances
• Student evaluation of the course (teaching effectiveness)
• Instructor self-evaluation

Assessment measures if and how students are learning and if the teaching methods are effectively relaying the intended messages. Hanna and Dettmer (2004) suggest that you should strive to develop a range of assessments strategies that match all aspects of their instructional plans. Instead of trying to differentiate between formative and summative assessments it may be more beneficial to begin planning assessment strategies to match instructional goals and objectives at the beginning of the semester and implement them throughout the entire instructional experience. The selection of appropriate assessments should also match course and program objectives necessary for accreditation requirements.

Hanna, G. S., & Dettmer, P. A. (2004). Assessment for effective teaching: Using context-adaptive planning. Boston, MA: Pearson A&B.

Just Science Now! (n.d.). Assessment-inquiry connection. https://www.justsciencenow.com/assessment/index.htm

Selected Resources

Suggested citation

Northern Illinois University Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. (2012). Formative and summative assessment. In Instructional guide for university faculty and teaching assistants. Retrieved from https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/instructional-guide

• Active Learning Activities
• Assessing Student Learning
• Direct vs. Indirect Assessment
• Examples of Classroom Assessment Techniques
• Peer and Self-Assessment
• Reflective Journals and Learning Logs
• Rubrics for Assessment
• The Process of Grading

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Summative Assessment

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Summative assessment evaluates student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against a standard or benchmark. Teachers use it to measure students’ understanding and mastery of the material. Summative assessments, such as final exams, end-of-term projects, and standardized tests, provide a snapshot of students’ academic performance. These assessments play a crucial role in determining grades, informing instruction, and guiding future educational decisions. They help educators identify areas where students excel and where they need improvement, ensuring that educational goals are met.

What is Summative Assessment?

Summative assessments are essential for assessing learning objectives . Learning outcomes describe what students should learn and be able to do after taking a course or program. The summative assessment determines a course’s final grade. Summative assessment helps instructors determine whether students have learned enough to pass a course or program. statistics reports  like this are essential for determining effective classroom management plan  success and planning.

Summative Assessment Examples

• Final Exams : Comprehensive tests at the end of a course covering all material taught.
• Standardized Tests : Assessments like SAT, ACT, or state exams that measure student performance against a standard.
• End-of-Term Projects : Large projects completed at the end of a term, such as research papers or science fair projects.
• Capstone Projects : Multi-semester projects in higher education that demonstrate a student’s learning and skills.
• Portfolios : Collections of student work over time, demonstrating progress and mastery of subject matter.
• Performance Tasks : Assessments where students demonstrate their knowledge and skills through a practical task, such as a lab experiment or a history presentation.
• Final Presentations : Oral presentations summarizing the key learnings and findings from a course or project.
• Cumulative Quizzes : Quizzes that cover all the material learned over a certain period.
• Written Essays : In-depth essays written at the end of a course to assess understanding and analysis of the material.
• Oral Exams : Verbal examinations where students answer questions or explain concepts to demonstrate their knowledge.
• Art Exhibitions : For art courses, a display of students’ artworks created during the term.
• Practical Exams : Hands-on tests in subjects like nursing, engineering, or culinary arts to assess practical skills.
• Final Reports : Detailed reports in subjects like business, science, or social studies summarizing research and findings.
• Certification Exams : Professional certification tests that students must pass to demonstrate their competence in a specific field.
• Comprehensive Skill Assessments : Evaluations of skills in areas like music, dance, or sports through performance and technique demonstration.

Summative Assessment Examples for Kindergarten

• Collecting a range of students’ work over time, such as drawings, writing samples, and projects.
• Teachers can assess growth in various skills, including fine motor skills, literacy, and numeracy.
• Story Retelling : Have students listen to a story and then retell it in their own words, assessing comprehension and narrative skills.
• Show and Tell : Students bring an item from home and explain it to the class, evaluating speaking and presentation skills.
• Teachers can use checklists to record students’ mastery of specific skills, such as recognizing letters, counting objects, or following instructions.
• Rubrics provide clear criteria for evaluating the quality of students’ work, such as artwork or writing.
• Class Book : Create a class book where each student contributes a page, showing their understanding of a theme, like “All About Me” or “Animals”.
• Thematic Displays : Students create displays or posters on topics they’ve learned about, such as seasons, community helpers, or plants.
• Structured observations during play or specific activities can provide insights into social skills, problem-solving abilities, and other developmental milestones.
• Worksheets : Simple worksheets can be used to assess skills like letter recognition, counting, matching, and basic writing.
• Drawing and Labeling : Students draw pictures and label parts, such as drawing a family and labeling members, assessing both artistic expression and literacy.
• Interviews : One-on-one interviews where teachers ask questions related to a topic, assessing verbal communication and understanding.
• Group Discussions : Facilitated discussions where students share what they’ve learned about a topic, assessing their ability to recall and articulate information.
• Games : Educational games that reinforce learning objectives, such as matching games for letter sounds or number recognition.
• Technology-Based Assessments : Interactive activities on tablets or computers that evaluate skills through engaging tasks.
• Role-Playing : Students act out scenarios related to what they have learned, such as being a doctor, a shopkeeper, or a weather reporter.
• Songs and Rhymes : Singing songs or reciting rhymes learned during the unit, assessing memory and rhythmic skills.
• Home Projects : Assigning simple projects that students complete with their parents, such as creating a family tree or a “Me Box” with items that represent the child.

Summative Assessment Examples for Early Childhood

• Collection of a child’s work over time, such as drawings, writing samples, and project work.
• Includes teacher observations and notes on the child’s progress.
• Age-appropriate standardized tests to assess basic skills in areas like literacy and numeracy.
• Examples include the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement or the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test.
• Comprehensive reports that summarize a child’s development and learning across various domains.
• Include teacher comments, checklists, and ratings on skills and behaviors.
• Activities where children demonstrate their knowledge and skills through hands-on tasks.
• Examples include storytelling, solving puzzles, or participating in group projects.
• Tools used by teachers to rate a child’s performance against specific criteria.
• Include developmental milestones and learning standards.
• Structured observations of children during different activities and routines.
• Focus on specific skills such as social interaction, problem-solving, and physical coordination.
• Meetings between parents and teachers to discuss the child’s progress and share assessment results.
• Provide a comprehensive view of the child’s development from both school and home perspectives.
• Narrative assessments where teachers document and interpret significant moments of learning.
• Include photos, quotes from the child, and reflections on their development.
• Tools used to identify children who may need further evaluation or support.
• Examples include the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ) and the Denver Developmental Screening Test.

High School Summative Assessment Examples

• Description : Comprehensive tests covering all material taught during the course.
• Purpose : To evaluate overall understanding and retention of course content.
• Description : Tests like SATs, ACTs, or state-specific exams.
• Purpose : To assess student readiness for college and adherence to state standards.
• Description : In-depth essays requiring research, analysis, and synthesis of information on a given topic.
• Purpose : To evaluate critical thinking, writing skills, and subject mastery.
• Description : Long-term projects such as science fair projects, history day presentations, or engineering designs.
• Purpose : To assess practical application of knowledge, creativity, and problem-solving skills.
• Description : Presentations on topics studied in class, often accompanied by visual aids or multimedia.
• Purpose : To evaluate public speaking skills, comprehension, and the ability to convey information clearly.
• Description : Collection of a student’s best work over the course of a semester or year.
• Purpose : To demonstrate growth, learning progress, and skill development in various subjects.
• Description : Comprehensive projects completed in the final year of high school, often interdisciplinary.
• Purpose : To synthesize learning from multiple areas and prepare for post-secondary education or careers.

Types of Summative Assessment

• Standardized Tests : National or state exams designed to measure students against a common standard.
• Final Exams : Comprehensive tests given at the end of a course covering all material taught.
• Midterm Exams : Exams given halfway through a course to assess knowledge up to that point.
• Research Projects : In-depth studies on a particular topic requiring investigation, analysis, and presentation.
• Capstone Projects : Cumulative projects typically completed at the end of a program, integrating knowledge from various courses.
• Research Papers : Detailed written reports on a specific topic, involving critical analysis and synthesis of information.
• Essays : Written responses to prompts that assess students’ ability to articulate and defend a position or analyze a concept.
• Academic Portfolios : Collections of student work that demonstrate learning and progress over time.
• Art Portfolios : Compilations of artistic works showcasing skills and creativity.
• Oral Presentations : Students present their knowledge or research findings verbally, often with visual aids.
• Poster Presentations : Visual displays summarizing research or projects, typically presented at academic fairs or conferences.
• Performances : Students demonstrate their skills through performances, such as in music, drama, or dance.
• Practical Exams : Hands-on tests in fields like medicine or engineering, where students perform specific tasks or procedures.
• Though often formative, quizzes can also be summative if they contribute significantly to a final grade or evaluate cumulative knowledge.
• ACT/SAT : Standardized tests used for college admissions in the United States.
• GRE/GMAT : Exams used for admission to graduate programs.
• Comprehensive Reviews : Assessments that require students to review and synthesize information from an entire course or program.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment refers to a range of formal and informal evaluation procedures conducted by teachers during the learning process. These assessments help modify teaching and learning activities to improve student attainment. The primary 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.

Examples of Formative Assessment

• Quizzes and Polls : Short, ungraded quizzes or polls to gauge understanding of the material.
• Observations : Teachers observe students during class activities and discussions to assess their engagement and comprehension.
• Questioning : Asking open-ended questions during a lesson to check for understanding and stimulate critical thinking.
• Peer Assessment : Students assess each other’s work, providing feedback and learning from their peers.
• Self-Assessment : Students reflect on their own learning, identify areas for improvement, and set goals.
• Exit Tickets : Brief prompts or questions given at the end of a lesson to assess what students have learned and identify any remaining questions or concerns.
• Journals and Learning Logs : Students keep records of their learning experiences, progress, and reflections.
• Concept Maps : Students create visual representations of their understanding of a topic, helping teachers identify gaps in knowledge.

Formative vs Summative Assessment

What is the primary goal of summative assessment.

The primary goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning, skill acquisition, and academic achievement at the end of an instructional period, such as a unit, course, semester, or school year. It aims to determine the extent to which students have met the learning objectives, inform final grades, and provide data on the effectiveness of the curriculum and teaching methods. Summative assessments also serve as tools for accountability, ensuring that educational standards are met, and for credentialing, certifying that students have acquired the necessary competencies for progression or graduation. Examples include final exams, standardized tests, and end-of-term projects.

When to use Summative Assessment

• End of a Unit or Course : Summative assessments are typically administered at the end of a specific unit, course, semester, or academic year to determine whether students have mastered the material.
• Certification and Qualification : When a certification or qualification is required, summative assessments are used to certify that the student has the necessary knowledge and skills. Examples include final exams, standardized tests, and professional certification exams.
• Grading and Reporting : These assessments provide a way to assign grades or scores that can be used for report cards, transcripts, and other forms of academic record keeping.
• Curriculum Effectiveness : Summative assessments can help educators and administrators evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum and make decisions about future instructional strategies and curriculum development.
• Accountability : Schools and educational programs often use summative assessments to demonstrate accountability to stakeholders such as parents, school boards, and government bodies. They show that students are meeting established learning standards and benchmarks.
• Program Evaluation : These assessments can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of educational programs and initiatives, guiding decisions about program continuation, modification, or discontinuation.
• Placement Decisions : Summative assessments can be used to make decisions about student placement in advanced courses, special programs, or remediation.

Characteristics of Summative Assessments

• Evaluative : They are used to measure the level of learning or achievement after instruction has been completed.
• Finality : These assessments are usually administered at the end of a learning period, unit, semester, or academic year.
• Comprehensive : They cover a broad range of material that was taught during the instructional period.
• High Stakes : The results of summative assessments often have significant consequences, such as determining final grades, advancement to the next grade level, or graduation.
• Standardized : Many summative assessments are standardized to ensure consistency and comparability across different student groups.
• Formal : These assessments are usually more formal and structured than formative assessments, often taking the form of tests, exams, or final projects.
• Performance-Based : They evaluate the overall performance and understanding of students on the subject matter.
• Feedback and Reporting : Summative assessments provide feedback that can be used to inform stakeholders, such as students, parents, teachers, and administrators, about the student’s academic progress.
• Benchmarking : They are used to benchmark student performance against standards or expectations, such as state or national standards.
• Criterion-Referenced : They often compare student performance against a predetermined standard or criteria rather than against other students’ performances.

Benefits for Students

• Summative assessments provide a clear measure of what students have learned and how well they have mastered the course material. This helps students understand their level of knowledge and skills in the subject.
• These assessments offer valuable feedback to students about their strengths and areas for improvement. Knowing their performance can motivate students to put in more effort and improve in areas where they are weak.
• Summative assessments encourage students to set learning goals and hold themselves accountable for meeting them. The need to perform well in these assessments can drive students to stay focused and disciplined throughout the course.
• Performing well in summative assessments can build students’ confidence and prepare them for future academic challenges, including higher education entrance exams and professional certification tests.
• These assessments often require students to demonstrate critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective communication skills. Preparing for and taking these exams can enhance these important skills.

What is a summative assessment?

Summative assessment evaluates student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against a standard or benchmark.

Why is summative assessment important?

Summative assessments help measure student progress, guide future teaching, and determine grades or academic readiness.

How does summative assessment differ from formative assessment?

Summative assessments evaluate learning at the end of a period, while formative assessments monitor progress during instruction.

What are examples of summative assessments?

Examples include final exams, standardized tests, end-of-term projects, and cumulative presentations.

How do teachers use summative assessment results?

Teachers use results to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses, inform future instruction, and assign grades.

Can summative assessments be used for all subjects?

Yes, summative assessments can evaluate understanding in any subject, from math and science to literature and art.

What are the characteristics of effective summative assessments?

Effective summative assessments are fair, comprehensive, aligned with learning objectives, and provide clear, measurable outcomes.

How do students benefit from summative assessments?

Students gain a clear understanding of their learning achievements and areas needing improvement, helping guide their academic goals.

What is the role of feedback in summative assessment?

Feedback helps students understand their performance, recognize strengths, and identify areas for improvement

How can technology enhance summative assessments?

Technology offers diverse assessment methods, immediate feedback, and data analysis to improve teaching strategies and student learning outcomes.

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