The Purpose--and Mis-Use--of Formative Assessment

This article from Education Week very simply and clearly explains what formative assessment is supposed to be, and how it is often misunderstood and misused.

A poignant point from the article: "[I]t’s not the test per se that is formative or summative. It is the use to which the test’s results are put."

This to me is one of the most important things to keep in mind.  I have seen here at my institution "formative assessment" defined in such a way that the emphasis is on the assessment of the student progress rather than on how this data is being used to assess the effectiveness of the instruction. There is a big difference, but I think many educators (especially, I'd venture to say, those in higher education who do not necessarily have degrees in education fields) do not fully have this understanding. Giving quizzes or assignments throughout a course can be one means by which educators can employ formative assessment processes, but they are not the only, nor necessarily the most effective, means.

Regardless of the means by which formative assessment data is obtained, the purpose of formative assessment must be kept in mind:  to evaluate whether or not teaching and learning activities are effective, and then to make changes accordingly to the lesson design and instructional methods.  Formative assessment is a much more subtle, nuanced, and complicated process than simply monitoring students' quiz results or grades on assignments to assess their progress in class.  It is what is done with these grades, quiz results, or other more informal assessment techniques (such as simply asking questions in class to gauge students' understanding at a given moment in time) that distinguishes formative assessment from summative assessment; the latter is for the purpose of evaluating what students have learned; the former is for evaluating how instruction or learning processes can be improved.