What is the difference between “formative” and “summative” assessment?

It is essential that teachers understand the various purposes of their assessment efforts. Although there are many ways that assessment purposes can be defined, the most common categories include diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments. In classroom practice, it is common for these purposes to become confused. Frequently, there are vague and imprecise distinctions between formative and summative purposes in the classroom. These confused purposes often result in problems for both teachers and students. Clearly, teachers should understand the distinction between formative and summative purposes and know how to implement these separate purposes in practice.

Summative assessments are designed to authenticate or provide evidence of student learning. These assessments occur within classrooms and are imposed from outside classrooms as well. In the classroom, summative assessments usually occur at the end of instruction and document what students have learned. It is common for these tests and exams to be used to determine student report card grades. From outside the classroom, large-scale summative assessments must also be considered as well. Rick Stiggins (2002) refers to these high-stakes tests as “assessments of learning” noting that many outside stakeholders look to this type of evidence for accountability purposes to decide if public education efforts are effective.

In contrast, formative assessments occur during the learning process providing information that can be used to inform and/or improve learning. Grant Wiggins underscores this educative purpose for the assessment process.

“The aim of assessment is primarily to educate and improve student performance, not merely to audit it” (Wiggins,1998).

Teachers utilize this type of assessment on a day-to-day basis throughout the learning process. Black and Wiliam (2004) describe these assessments as informal in nature, embedded in teaching and learning, and diverse in nature dependent on individual teaching styles. These researchers continue to clarify that assessments become formative when evidence is used to adapt teaching to meet individual student needs. Formative assessments, therefore, should provide feedback to be used by both teachers and students to adjust teaching and learning strategies. These formative assessments are frequently referred to as “assessments for learning” because they lead to greater success at later stages of learning (see SERVE’s Model for Formative Assessment).

Davies (2000) also discusses the role of formative assessment in the learning process. According to Davies, formative assessment promotes learning because it encourages students to take risks, make mistakes, and then work differently as a result. Mistakes are seen as important because they provide assessment evidence for learners to use as feedback. This feedback helps learners understand what is not working and figure out what alternate strategy will work. Students must understand that mistakes are part of the learning process so that they will be willing to take the necessary academic risks.

Formative assessment has been singled out in recent assessment literature and research. Evidence exists revealing unprecedented gains in student learning resulting from appropriate formative assessment practice. Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam (1998) conducted an extensive review of research and literature on assessment practices worldwide indicating that improved formative assessments yield higher student achievement on summative assessments. A further analysis of this research revealed that formative assessment assisted low achieving students the most resulting in a reduced overall range of achievement scores.

The following table illustrates the relationship between formative and classroom summative assessments (O’Connor, 1998).

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