Summative Assessment

Doug Winkelstein
Summative Assessment
Summative assessment, although very different, works hand in hand with formative assessment. With formative assessment, the teacher is checking for immediate feedback and understanding from students. They can use this information to shape lessons while they are taking place. For example, if all students are answering questions correctly, the teacher should speed up, move on, or start some type of enrichment. If students are not being successful with the formative assessment, the teacher should realize that they need to change their plans in order to make sure that the material is actually being taught.
Summative assessment happens at the end. It happens at the end of a chapter, unit, marking period, or school year. These assessments are done with a different purpose in mind. They are completed in order to shape future curriculum and to track a student’s progress throughout the school year, or several school years.
When thinking about summative assessment, Managing Curriculum and Assessment makes the point by saying the assessment should be planned along with the unit. A teacher should not wait until everything is taught before thinking about the assessment. If you plan the assessment first, it can be used as a map when planning lessons. Students will learn better if there are specific learning goals and objectives that a teacher is aware of from the beginning.
There are other things that a teacher should be considering when creating a summative assessment. What is the district looking for in terms of learning goals? What types of assessment should be used. Does one need to stick to a traditional paper and pencil exam, or can a teacher be creative with their summative assessments? Also, are all of the objectives being taught evenly, or will some end of being more important than others that should be focused on the assessment?
Once the lesson is taught and the summative assessment is given, a teacher should use the data given by the assessment in order to shape his teaching for the rest of the school year, and for the next year to come. Summative assessment information is not immediate like formative assessment, but it will allow a teacher to have a lot of information about a specific student and the class as a whole. What did the class learn? What needed further explanation? Are there patterns in certain questions that will allow a teacher to understand what the students were thinking when they answered the question incorrectly? All of this information can help a teacher restructure curriculum and individual lessons for future, improved results.
Summative assessments can also be used for teacher assessment as well. If merit pay is really something that will be happening, summative assessments may be the first step in making sure that system is run fairly and with data to back it up.