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With the adoption of district screening tools (MAP, Star) and data warehouses (eduCLIMBER), summative assessment data has never been easier to access. In addition, online formative assessment tools (highlighted below) are growing in number and functionality. So now that we have all of this data, what's next?
Back in 2003, Thomas Guskey wrote the article How Classroom Assessments Improve Learning and it is still very relevant. Guskey States the following:
- If assessments provide information for both students and teachers, then they cannot mark the end of learning. Instead, assessments must be followed by high-quality, corrective instruction designed to remedy whatever learning errors the assessment identified
- Teachers must follow their assessments with instructional alternatives that present those concepts in new ways and engage students in different and more appropriate learning experiences.
- High-quality, corrective instruction is not the same as reteaching, which often consists simply of restating the original explanations louder and more slowly. Instead, the teacher must use approaches that accommodate differences in students' learning styles.
Formative Assessment Cycle -John McCarthy
In Not Just Numbers: How Educators Are Using Data in the Classroom, Mary Jo Madda discusses how educators are moving from being data-driven to data-informed:
- Some of the most informative data, came not from summative tests or graded assignments, but rather from assessments used to identify students’ learning preferences.
- Collecting more data isn’t always the best option. Rather, spend your time exploring what types of data works for you and your student.
To take it a step further, Tom Schimmer says Everything is Assessment. Schimmer discusses the continuous assessment-instruction-feedback loop, specifically:
- Every activity must be linked to the intended learning. Activities are just activities unless there is a direct link between the activity and the intended learning.
- The results of every activity must have the potential to illicit an instructional response from the teacher.
The rest of this blog is going to highlight online tools available to you for formative assessments, but that really isn't the point. I love good tech tools, but a formative assessment tool won't improve student achievement...using the data from the tool to inform your instruction will! Guskey, Madda, and Schimmer all tell the same story, assessment results should be used as a roadmap to "corrective", "driven", or "responsive" instruction. Hopefully the tech tools below allow you to access and analyze formative assessment data faster, easier, and collaboratively with your team, ultimately improving student achievement!
Assessment results should be used as a roadmap to
Assessment results should be used as a roadmap to
"corrective", "driven", or "responsive" instruction.
"corrective", "driven", or "responsive" instruction.
If formative assessment is a cycle, learning never stops!
If formative assessment is a cycle, learning never stops!
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