Formative Assessment Quote Bank
Immediacy. Frequency, Variety
“…attention to minute-by-minute and day-to-day formative assessment is likely to have the biggest
impact on student outcomes.” (Wiliam 27).
“The process used by teachers and students to recognize and respond to student learning in order to
enhance that learning, during the learning” (Wiliam 37)
“Checking for Understanding presumes that students are able to demonstrate their understanding in
different ways” (Fisher and Frey 8).
Another strong finding of the research being conducted on formative assessment practices is related to the
frequency of its use by classroom teachers. In 1991, Robert Bangert-Drowns, James Kulik, and Chen-Lin
Kulik analyzed findings from 29 studies on the frequency of assessments. They found that even a single
formative assessment practice used in a 15-week unit of study resulted in an effect size gain of 0.34 and
the more frequently the practices are used the greater the effect size. (Iowa 5)
Fuchs and Fuchs (1986) discovered a similar gain in effect size with multiple uses of formative assessment
practices. They found that if a teacher provided two formative assessment practices per week in the form
of curriculum-based data collection, they resulted in an effect size of 0.85, or a percentile gain of 30
points on a standardized test. (Iowa 5)
Teaching-Learning Cycle
Effective teaching not only involves imparting information and understandings to students (or providing
constructive tasks, environments, and learning) but also involves assessing and evaluating students’
understanding of this information, so that the next teaching act can be matched to the present
understanding of the students. This “second part” is the feedback part, and it relates to the three major
questions: Where am I going? How am I going? and Where to next? These three questions address the
dimensions of feed up, feed back, and feed forward. An ideal learning environment or experience occurs
when both teachers and students seek answers to each of these questions. -- John Hattie and Helen
Timperley
“Evaluation which is directly related to the teaching-learning process as it unfolds can have highly
beneficial effects on the learning of students, the instructional process of teachers, and the use of
instructional materials by teachers and learners” (Wiliam quoting Bloom 33)
“The act of checking for understanding not only corrects misconceptions, it also improves learning” (Fisher
and Frey 2)
“[Fullan, Hill, and Crevola] advocate for precision teaching that is data driven and provides feedback to
students to monitor their own learning. [The approach] requires that teachers know the curriculum deeply
(an expert model) and is knowledgeable of the ways in which learner progress can be checked along the
way (checking for understanding)” (Fisher and Frey 11).
Black and Wiliam (1998a) also found that ―…irrespectively of the particular approach adopted, we have
not come across any reports of negative effects following an enhancement of formative assessment
practices.‖ Usually new initiatives/strategies will result in a dip in student learning as the teacher learns to
hone the strategy or instructional practice and as the students become accustomed to it. Then after a
period of time the increases in student learning occur. What Black and Wiliam found was that no dip in
student learning occurs as teachers begin to implement formative assessment practices. … As part of the
same study, Black and Wiliam found that learning gains were greater for low achieving students than for
all other students— reducing the achievement gap. It is important to note they found learning gains
reported for all students in classrooms engaged in formative assessment practices. (Iowa 5)
[Fuchs and Fuchs] found that regular assessment (two to five times per week) with follow-up action
produced a substantial increase in student learning” (Wiliam 35)
These strategies are a planned part of instruction and may include observations, embedded questions,
probes, ungraded quizzes, scoring guides, or other checks for understanding. (Iowa)
Like most important elements in sound instruction, formative assessment is first a mindset. It is a
purposeful act that requires planning. Teachers who are assessing formatively have no problem with
principals who ask without warning, “What evidence from assessments do you have for making this
decision regarding instruction?” Teachers don’t worry about such questions because they are always
thinking about what they know about their students. A basic tenet of formative assessment is that
teaching and learning are interactive. Students learn how to learn for themselves using teacher and
classmate connections, and teachers adjust instruction in light of evidence gathered in assessments. (Rick
Wormeli, “Staying Focused on Formative Assessment”)
Informs Instruction
“An assessment functions formatively to the extent that evidence about student achievement is elicited,
interpreted, and used by teachers, learners, or their peers to make decisions about the next steps in
instruction that are likely to be better, or better founded, than the decisions they would have made in the
absence of that evidence” (Wiliam 43)
Quoting Popham: you cannot call it “formative assessment” unless instruction is improved. (Wiliam 39)
“Assessment carried out during the instructional process for the purpose of improving teaching or
learning” (Wiliam quoting Shepard 37).
“Encompassing all those activities by teachers, and/or by their students, which provide information to be
used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged” (Wiliam 37)
Such assessment becomes “formative assessment” when the evidence is actually used to adapt the
teaching work to meet learning needs. (Black, Harrison, Marshall, & Wiliam, 2003)
In classrooms, formative assessment refers to frequent, interactive assessments of student progress and
understanding to identify learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately. Teachers using formative
assessment approaches and techniques are better prepared to meet diverse students’ needs – through
differentiation and adaptation of teaching to raise levels of student achievement and to achieve a greater
equity of student outcomes. (CERI 1)
Process not an event
Formative assessment is regarded as a process (Wiliam 37).
The process includes collecting information on student progress toward a learning goal and using the
information to adjust instruction and increase student learning. The assessment for learning process is not
an add-on to instruction, but an integral part of instruction necessary to identify and close the learning
gap for each student.
Formative assessment is a process used by teachers and students as part of instruction. It provides
feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students’ achievement of core content (Iowa.
Adapted from Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010).
“Because understanding develops as a result of ongoing inquiry and rethinking, the assessment of
understanding should be thought of in terms of a collection of evidence over time instead of an event …”
(Fisher and Frey quoting Wiggins and McTighe 6)
Elements of Formative Assessment
Using assessment to improve learning requires five elements to be in place:
1) Provision of effective feedback to students
2) Active involvement of students in their own learning
3) Adjustment of teaching to take into account the results of assessment
4) Recognition of profound influence assessment has on the motivation and self-esteem of students, both of
which are crucial influences on learning
5) The need for students to be able to assess themselves and understand how to improve (Wiliam 39)
“Checking for Understanding should do the following:
1) Align with enduring understandings
2) Allow for differentiation
3) Focus on gap analysis
4) Lead to precise teaching
In other words, checking for understanding should become part of the routine of teaching” (Fisher and Frey 12).
Critical attributes of the assessment for learning process include
• an understanding of the learning progression,
• clear learning goals,
• instructional modifications based on elicited evidence of learning,
• descriptive feedback,
• self- and peer-assessment,
• and a collaborative classroom climate.
(Iowa 2)
Feedback
Feedback needs to be timely and specific, and include suggestions for ways to improve future
performance. … Teachers also benefit from the feedback process. When providing feedback, teachers pay
closer attention to what students do and do not understand well, and are better prepared to adjust
teaching strategies to meet identified student needs. (CERI 9-10)
“You can’t learn without feedback . . . . It’s not teaching that causes learning. It’s the attempts by the
learner to perform that cause learning, dependent upon the quality of the feedback and opportunities to
use it. A single test of anything is, therefore, an incomplete assessment. We need to know whether the
student can use the feedback from the results.” -- Grant Wiggins
"Feedback is not praise or blame, approval or disapproval. Feedback is value-neutral . . . . It's what you
did and did not do, whether you realized it or intended it. Assessment should make its chief business the
confronting of performers with the effect of their work . . . . And then performers must do something
about the effect, either to explain it, to justify it, or to correct it." -- Grant Wiggins
“Feedback will be effective to the degree that it shows students something about their work that they
might not have noticed themselves, but that they understand in terms of how it fits with what they are
trying to learn and accomplish.” -- Susan Brookhart
Assessment is primarily concerned with providing teachers and/or students’ feedback information, which
they then need to interpret when answering the three feedback questions: Where am I going?, How am I
going? and Where to next?. Specifically, feedback is actions or information provided by an agent (e.g.,
teacher, peer, book, parent, experience) that provides information regarding aspects of one’s performance
or understanding. Feedback is information about the task that fills a gap between what is understood
(How am I going?) and what is aimed to be understood (Where am I going?). It can lead to increased
effort, motivation or engagement to reduce the discrepancy between current status and the goal, it can
lead to alternative strategies to understand the material, it confirm to the student that they are correct or
incorrect, it can indicate that more information is available or needed, it can point to directions that the
students could pursue, and it can lead to restructuring understandings (Where to next?). -- John Hattie