How Do Students Benefit from Assessments?

Each type of assessment used in the district produces a different type and grain size of evidence, from the very individualized information of formative assessment to the broader year-long view of summative assessments. These assessments given throughout the year work together to create a multi-faceted view of learning at an individual, class, district and state level. The figure below illustrates the frequency of each type of assessment and its importance in creating a body of evidence of achievement and growth for each student.

The relevance of real-time data

Formative assessment provides very fine grain information, sometimes targeting only a single standard or aspect of a standard, which may be tailored to an individual student or a small group and of a particular moment. It is timely and informative, providing real-time feedback that teachers are then able to quickly apply to adjust their teaching plan to better reflect specific needs, or that students can apply to their own work to improve it. It is the immediacy and relevance of the insights gained that makes it highly effective. This allows teachers and students to incorporate the evidence into learning and act on insights to augment their classroom-based instruction or work immediately, making a positive impact on deepening student learning.

The benefits of interim assessment

School and district leaders need to have a view of student performance as the school year unfolds so they can make informed, local decisions such as where to deploy coaches, or the types of professional development needs. Similarly, teachers want to be able to gauge student performance against summative expectations at the end of the year and adjust curriculum and learning strategies for both the student and cohort at regular points accordingly.

A variety of interim assessments can provide additional opportunities to monitor student progress using a set of content that is broader than formative, before reaching the summative end-of-year testing. Performance on the interim assessments will confirm a teacher’s formative assessment judgments about student learning, or help teachers to identify students who may be performing more strongly or more poorly than the teacher had realized, and focus instruction in these areas (District interim assessment tool (top tier) – Illuminate).

Beyond accountability

District and school leaders want to also understand student performance in aggregate, both in terms of absolute attainment and progress over time, but also by different populations of students to identify disparities and monitor the effectiveness of approaches being used to reduce achievement gaps. This is the role of summative assessment – to provide data that can support meaningful comparisons across groups of students, classes, schools, and districts. This macro data provides districts and schools with an overall pulse on how students are progressing by grade, by school and by content area. It also measures student achievement against required state standards to deliver the type of information that may then be used to develop educational policies at a state and federal level.

However, summative assessment has applications beyond accountability. The data can help district or school leaders to identify areas for professional learning, and it can support teacher refection on teaching strategies or curriculum at the end of the year and inform adjustments in instructional planning for the next year.

Educational Testing Service (2018). Understanding Balanced Assessment Systems.