Using Formative Assessment
to Evaluate Student Learning
Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching
2015
Barbara Taylor
Professional Learning Facilitator, Secondary Science
Charles A. Dana Center
2015
Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Learning
Resources
Page D. Keeley, editor.
(2008). Science Formative
Assessment: 75 practical
strategies for linking
assessment, instruction,
and learning. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Margaret Heritage. (2010).
Formative assessment:
Making it happen in the
classroom. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Corwin.
W. James Popham. (2011). Transformative
assessment in action: An Inside look at
applying the process. Alexandria VA: ASCD.
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Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Learning
Types of assessment
We use the general term assessment to refer to all those
activities undertaken by teachers—and by their students in
assessing themselves—that provide information to be used
as feedback to modify teaching and learning activities.
Such assessment becomes formative assessment when
the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching to meet
student needs.
— Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box:
Raising standards through classroom assessment.
Phi Delta Kappan, 80(2), 139–144, 146–148. [emphasis added]
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Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Learning
Formative assessment . . .
. . . is a planned process in which assessmentelicited evidence of students’ status is used by
teachers to adjust their ongoing instructional
procedures or by students to adjust their learning
tactics.
— Popham, W. J. (2011). Transformative assessment in action: An
Inside look at applying the process. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, page 6.
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Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Learning
Types of assessment
•  Summative assessment — Used to measure and document
the extent to which students have achieved a learning target.
Summative assessment tends to be more formal in nature and
usually involves grading or other means of determining
proficiency.
•  Formative assessment — Used to gather evidence of student
understanding in order to inform instructional adjustments and
provide feedback to students before the end of instruction.
•  Diagnostic assessment — Used to identify preconceptions,
lines of reasoning, and learning difficulties prior to instruction.
If it is used to inform and improve teaching and learning, then
diagnostic assessment is also formative.
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Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Learning
Types of assessment
•  Summative Assessment — Used to measure and document
the extent to which students have achieved a learning target.
Summative assessment tends to be more formal in nature and
usually involves grading or other means of determining
proficiency.
•  Formative Assessment — Used to gather evidence of student
understanding in order to inform instructional adjustments and
provide feedback to students before the end of instruction.
•  Diagnostic Assessment — Used to identify preconceptions,
lines of reasoning, and learning difficulties prior to instruction.
If it is used to inform and improve teaching and learning, then
diagnostic assessment is also formative.
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Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Learning
Questions teachers must be able to answer include …
•  What do my students need to know and be able to do?
•  What do my students know and what are they able to do?
•  What evidence can I collect to determine what my students know
and are able to do?
•  What changes can I make to help students learn what they need
to know and be able to do?
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Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Learning
Questions teachers must be able to answer include …
“To assess student achievement accurately, teachers and
administrators must understand the achievement targets their
students are to master. They cannot assess (let alone teach)
achievement that has not been defined.”
— Richard Stiggins
Assessment Training Institute
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Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Learning
Formative assessment cycle
Study
Standards
Make
Instructional
Adjustments
Formative assessment design
begins with studying the
standards in a unit of study. This
study enables teachers to
Interpret
determine
the concepts and
Evidence
processes that are essential to
this unit of study.
Capture
Evidence
Develop
Learning
Progression
Determine
Goals and
Criteria
Plan the
Assessment
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Practices: From Standards to Assessment
What should students know, understand, and be able to do?
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Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Learning
Formative assessment cycle
Study
Standards
Next, concepts Make
and processes are
bundled and Instructional
sequenced
into a learning
Adjustments
progression, and successful student
performance is described by learning
goals and success criteria. At select
points within the learning progression,
Interpret assessment tasks
planned formative
Evidence
are used to assess student learning.
Capture
Evidence
Develop
Learning
Progression
Determine
Goals and
Criteria
Plan the
Assessment
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Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Learning
Developing a learning progression
Overarching Learning Goal
Building
Block #2
Building
Block #1
Concept
Concept
Concept
Concept
Practice
Concept
Practice
Building
Block #3
Practice
Concept
Practice
Practice
Concept
Practice
Practice
Practice
— Adapted from Popham, W. J. (2011). Transformative assessment in action:
An inside look at applying the process. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
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Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Learning
What are learning goals and success criteria?
Learning goals
•  Specify the learning that is intended for a sequence of lessons
or unit of study.
•  Are broken down into sub-goals, or success criteria.
Success criteria
•  Make clear what the students will learn during a lesson or series
of lessons.
•  Indicate how a student can demonstrate his/her learning
en route to meeting the learning goals.
Taken together, the learning goals and success criteria enable
both teacher and students to develop a conception of the learning
that must occur.
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Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Learning
What are learning goals and success criteria?
Both learning goals and success criteria are:
•  Clear, specific, measurable statements that describe what
students should know and be able to do.
•  Reflect the expectations of the standards (i.e., disciplinary
core ideas, practices, and crosscutting concepts).
Unlike the learning goal, the success criteria should align
to only select portions of the standards to reflect
manageable sub-goals that lead to the learning goal.
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Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Learning
Formative assessment cycle
Study
Standards
Make
Instructional
Adjustments
Interpret
Evidence
Develop
Formative assessment
Learning tasks are
Progression
designed to elicit specific
evidence from students.
Evidence is gathered and
analyzed, then usedDetermine
to make
instructional adjustments.
Goals and
Criteria
Capture
Evidence
Plan the
Assessment
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Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Learning
Formative assessment tasks
In 2001, the National Research Council published Knowing
what students know: The science and design of educational
assessment, which identifies three elements that underlie
good assessments:
•  Cognition: What do we know about how students learn?
•  Observation: How do we create situations that allow us to
observe student performance?
•  Interpretation: How do we draw inferences from the
performance?
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Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Learning
Formative assessment tasks
(8.5) Matter and energy. The student knows that matter is
composed of atoms and has chemical and physical properties.
The student is expected to:
(D) recognize that chemical formulas are used to identify
substances and determine the number of atoms of
each element in chemical formulas containing
subscripts;
(E) investigate how evidence of chemical reactions indicate
that new substances with different properties are
formed; and
(F) recognize whether a chemical equation containing
coefficients is balanced or not and how that relates to
the law of conservation of mass.
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Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Learning
Formative assessment tasks
(7.12) Organisms and environments. The student knows that
living systems at all levels of organization demonstrate the
complementary nature of structure and function. The student
is expected to:
(B) identify the main functions of the systems of the
human organism, including the circulatory,
respiratory, skeletal, muscular, digestive, excretory,
reproductive, integumentary, nervous, and endocrine
systems;
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Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Learning
Formative assessment tasks
(8.9) Earth and space. The student knows that natural events
can impact Earth systems. The student is expected to:
(C) interpret topographic maps and satellite views to
identify land and erosional features and predict how
these features may be reshaped by weathering.
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Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Learning
Contact information
Barbara Taylor
Professional Learning Facilitator, Secondary Science
Charles A. Dana Center
barbara_taylor@austin.utexas.edu
For information on the Dana Center’s other professional
development opportunities, see
www.utdanacenter.org/pd
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