Formative assessments measure progress
When teachers need to assess how well students grasp concepts as the material is being taught, they administer formative assessments. Through these assessments, teachers can recognize where students need help, and then they can adjust their teaching to immediately address those problem areas.
This type of assessment creates a feedback loop between the student and the teacher so they can work together to improve learning.
Formative assessments are more flexible than summative assessments. To gather data, instructors can use student reflections, discussion sessions, homework, quizzes, and collaborative activities as formative assessments.
Summative assessments measure mastery
Summative assessments are given at the end of a lesson unit or course to measure students’ mastery of the standards. The most common types of summative assessments are end-of-unit or chapter tests, midterm exams, final exams, state assessments, portfolios of work, and research reports.
In contrast to formative assessments, summative assessments are high-stakes tasks. These are typically graded to tell you whether the student has learned the material. Such assessments are delivered too far down the learning path to be used in making instructional adjustments.
