DeBacker Boosters: DeBacker Reflects on Assessments

Classroom Assessment Techniques by S. Longstreet (Youtube)

Assessments

Assessments come in all forms from thumbs up or down to those high stake standardized test. Popular terms for assessments types are formative and summative. Merriam Webster Online Dictionary defines formative as “capable of alteration and development” (2010).

Encarta dictionary defines formative assessments of students as “the assessment at regular intervals of a student's progress with accompanying feedback in order to help to improve the student's performance” (2010). Formative assessments are ongoing and can direct the teachers’ instruction according to the needs of the students at any given time during a lesson. Merriam Webster dictionary online defines summative in terms of cumulative, “made up of accumulative parts” (2010). The National Middle School Association comments on summative assessments:

Summative Assessments are given periodically to determine at a particular point in time what students know and do not know. Many associate summative assessments only with standardized tests such as state assessments, but they are also used at and are an important part of district and classroom programs. Summative assessment at the district/classroom level is an accountability measure that is generally used as part of the grading process (2010).

Opinions on the value of formative and summative assessments vary greatly among teachers, schools, and districts. DeBacker’s classroom experiences lead her to value formative assessments over summative assessments. Since formative assessments are ongoing she can assess target goals on a regular basis and direct her teaching on a class by class basis, thus providing the students with authentic and relative teaching and learning experiences. As a result of incorporation regular formative assessments, DeBacker’s students tend to have a great deal of success on those high stake summative assessments.