Case Studies: Overview | Summative | Formative | Assessment for Learning
Summative assessments are cumulative exams administered in order to determine whether students have mastered the expected learning outcomes at a particular point in time. Summative exams are often given as end-of-unit or end-of-year exams intended to capture and summarize the development of learners at a given point in the learning process. Summative exams can be used to:
- Report students' academic proficiency to parents, the community, and the state.
- Diagnose strengths and weaknesses in student performance from year to year.
- Compare student achievement among student subgroups (e.g., by race, socioeconomic status, English Language Learner status, etc.) and to external performance criteria (e.g.,"cut scores" for proficiency).
- Assist school districts and the state departments of education in making decisions about the effectiveness of instruction, curriculum, and professional development.
- Determine whether a particular school or district has made Adequate Yearly Progress as defined under the No Child Left Behind legislation.
Below are examples of summative assessment systems that are national, regional, and statewide in scope.
National Assessment of Educational Progress
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), or The Nation's Report Card, is the only nationally representative summative assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. Assessments are conducted periodically in the arts, civics, economics, geography, mathematics, reading, science, U.S. history, and writing. NAEP provides results for populations of students (e.g., all fourth-graders) and groups within those populations (e.g., female students, Hispanic students). Since NAEP assessments are administered uniformly and randomly to students across the nation, NAEP results serve as a common metric for all states and selected urban districts. The assessment stays essentially the same from year to year, with only carefully documented changes. This permits NAEP to provide a clear picture of student academic progress over time.
The National Assessment Governing Board, appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Education but independent of the Department of Education, sets policy for NAEP and is responsible for developing the framework and test specifications that serve as the blueprint for the assessments. They have made several useful resources available:
- NAEP frameworks. Each NAEP assessment is built around an organizing framework, which is the blueprint that guides the development of the assessment instrument and determines the content to be assessed. NAEP frameworks present and explain what experts in a particular subject area consider important. Each framework contains a subject outline that describes what students at grades 4, 8, and 12 should know and be able to do in that NAEP content area. The frameworks also provide specific examples of challenging objectives and sample test questions to illustrate the content standards. This information may serve as a "road map" to help teachers and curriculum planners evaluate and revise current state or district standards.
- Sample questions. After each assessment, NAEP releases dozens of sample questions to the public - more than 2,000 questions are currently available. The tools featured on this sample questions site can be used to supplement classroom instruction, provide additional insight into the content of the assessment, and show what students nationally or in your state or district know and can do.
- State profiles. State profiles present key data about each state's student and school population and its NAEP testing history and results. The profiles provide easy access to all NAEP data for participating states and links to the most recent state report cards for all available subjects. A State Comparisons tool also allows you to compare performance among states.
New England Common Assessment Program
In 2002, the Commissioners of Education in Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont formed the New England Compact to provide a forum for states to address issues arising from the assessment requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind legislation. The New England Compact focuses on the development and implementation of grade level expectations (GLEs) and state assessments based on those expectations. By pooling their resources, each state is able to gain access to high quality assessments while sharing the cost burden with partner states. From this Compact emerged the New England Common Assessment Program NECAP, a series of annually administered reading, writing, mathematics and science achievement tests, which were developed in collaboration by the Vermont, Rhode Island and New Hampshire departments of education.
State Assessments
State summative assessments are the lynchpin of No Child Left Behind. By January 2009, 39 states had received the status of Full Approval or Full Approval with Recommendations from the U.S. Department of Education for their implementation of high quality standards and assessment systems. The Department's designation system reflects a continuing effort to enforce the testing requirements of NCLB while recognizing the challenges of developing rigorous standards and assessment systems. To aid in the effort to improve the quality of state exams, the Department has revised its peer review process for standards and assessments so as to provide more feedback and greater transparency to states.
- The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) is considered by researchers to be among the most rigorous state assessment systems. The MCAS uses four types of questions to assess students' knowledge and skills: (1) multiple-choice questions; (2) short-answer questions; (3) open-response questions; and (4) writing prompts. View sample test questions and sample student work and scoring guides for the MCAS.
- Learn more about other state assessment systems: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
The following resources provide additional information on developing summative assessments.
- Park University has provided helpful guidelines for understanding the purpose and uses of summative assessments.
- EPPI-Center, an organization that conducts systematic reviews across a range of topics, has produced a Summative Assessment Summary discussing how to determine the validity and reliability of summative assessments.
- Educational Testing Service (ETS) currently develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually in more than 180 countries and at over 9,000 locations worldwide. ETS' K-12 Education Division is a leading provider of custom large-scale assessments, products, and services that help students, teachers, school leaders, and parents. Search the ETS Test Collection, the world's largest test collection database, for a comprehensive listing of commercial and non-commercial educational tests.
- Pearson provides assessments for educational, clinical and psychological use. Pearson's K-12 assessment practice offers tools to address the key areas of measuring academic achievement. See all of Pearson's products and services.