Case Studies: Overview | Summative | Formative | Assessment for Learning
Assessments for learning, like all formative assessments, happen throughout the learning process to provide teachers with invaluable information about student needs. Assessment for learning is distinctive, however, due to the critical importance placed on moment-to-moment, day-to-day instructional decisions made by students and their teachers. This continuous flow of descriptive feedback provides immediate insight into students' strengths and weaknesses and can be used to engage students as active participants in their own learning.
The following two groups, the Assessment Reform Group and the Assessment Training Institute, offer guidance about how to effectively use assessment data to continually inform teachers' practice and improve student learning.
Assessment Reform Group
The Assessment Reform Group (ARG) was founded in 1989 as the Policy Task Group on Assessment set up by the British Educational Research Association (BERA). In 1996, the Group adopted the name ARG. The Assessment Reform Group works to ensure that assessment policy and practice at all levels take account of relevant research evidence. It also works closely with teachers, teacher organizations, and administrators to advance understanding of the roles, purposes, and impacts of assessment.
ARG identifies the following ten guiding principles of assessment for learning:
- Assessment for learning should be part of effective planning of teaching and learning. A teacher's planning should provide opportunities for both learner and teacher to obtain and use information about progress towards learning goals.
- Assessment for learning should focus on how students learn. The process of learning has to be in the minds of both learner and teacher when assessment is planned and when the evidence is interpreted. Learners should become as aware of the 'how' of their learning as they are of the 'what'.
- Assessment for learning should be recognized as central to classroom practice. Much of what teachers and learners do in classrooms can be described as assessment. That is, tasks and questions prompt learners to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding, and skills.
- Assessment for learning should be regarded as a key professional skill for teachers. Teachers require the professional knowledge and skills to: plan for assessment; observe learning; analyze and interpret evidence of learning; give feedback to learners; and support learners in self-assessment.
- Assessment for learning should be sensitive and constructive because any assessment has an emotional impact. Teachers should be aware of the impact that comments, marks, and grades can have on learners' confidence and enthusiasm and should be as constructive as possible in the feedback that they give.
- Assessment for learning should take account of the importance of learner motivation. Assessment that encourages learning fosters motivation by emphasizing progress and achievement rather than failure. Motivation can be preserved and enhanced by assessment methods which protect the learner's autonomy, provide some choice and constructive feedback, and create opportunity for self-direction.
- Assessment for learning should promote commitment to learning goals and a shared understanding of the criteria by which they are assessed. For effective learning to take place, learners need to understand what it is they are trying to achieve - and want to achieve it. Commitment follows when learners have some part in deciding goals and identifying criteria for assessing progress.
- Learners should receive constructive guidance about how to improve. Learners need information and guidance in order to plan the next steps in their learning. Teachers should pinpoint the learner's strengths and offer advice about how to develop those strengths. Feedback should be clear and constructive about any weaknesses and how they might be addressed.
- Assessment for learning develops learners' capacity for self-assessment so that they can become reflective and self-managing. Independent learners have the ability to seek out and gain new skills, new knowledge, and new understandings. Teachers should equip learners with the desire and the capacity to take charge of their learning through developing the skills of self-assessment.
- Assessment for learning should recognize the full range of achievements of all learners. Assessment for learning should be used to enhance all learners' opportunities to learn in all areas of educational activity. It should enable all learners to achieve their best and to have their efforts recognized.
Assessment Training Institute
Educational Testing Services (ETS) created the Assessment Training Institute (ATI) to help teachers improve student achievement by integrating student-involved classroom assessment into day-to-day instruction. ETS has created a framework that synthesizes research-based recommendations for developing intrinsic motivation and student engagement through assessment for learning best practices. These seven strategies, elaborated in Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing it Right - Using It Well (CASL), are organized around three fundamental requirements. All students must know: (1) where they are going; (2) where they are now; and (3) how to close the gap between the two.
- Where They Are Going. In this phase, educators employ two strategies: (1) provide students with a clear and understandable vision of the learning target and (2) use examples and models of strong and weak work.
- Where They Are Now. In this phase, educators employ two new strategies: (3) offer regular descriptive feedback and (4) teach students to self-assess and set goals.
- How to Close the Gap between the Two. In this phase, educators employ the final three strategies: (5) design lessons to focus on one learning target or aspect of quality at a time, (6) teach students focused revision, and (7) engage students in self-reflection and let them keep track of and share their learning.
Learn more about these seven strategies.
The following resources were developed by the Assessment Training Institute to aid educators in implementing assessment for learning practices.
- Books & DVDs. ATI has written many books and DVDs to help educators learn the assessment for learning process and help them integrate assessment for learning in their classrooms and schools.
- Papers. ATI's staff contributes publications to many leading national journals that draw connections between classroom assessment and student learning.
- Study Guides. ATI offers study guides to support educators through their reading of several ATI publications.
- Training Institutes. ATI offers several seminars, workshops and conferences designed to familiarize participants with the foundations of assessment for learning and guide participants to introduce assessment for learning into their schools/districts, lead and manage the learning team process and build the classroom assessment portion of a balanced assessment system.
View this PowerPoint to learn more about Assessment for Learning.