Formative Assessment and Assessment for Learning
CHAPTER 1:
Formative Assessment and Assessment for Learning
CHAPTER 1
Formative Assessment and Assessment for Learning
1
CHAPTER 1:
Formative Assessment and Assessment for Learning
Innovations that include strengthening the practice of formative assessment produce significant and often substantial learning gains.
—Black & Wiliam, 1998b, p. 140
his conclusion, from Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam’s comprehensive review of research on formative assessment practices, has changed the face of assessment today. It is in large part responsible for the widespread focus in education on the particular kind of assessment known as “formative.” Their research review (1998a) examined studies that collectively encompassed kindergarteners to college students; represented a range of subject areas including reading, writing, social studies, mathematics, and science; and were conducted in numerous countries throughout the world, including the United States. The gains reported in the studies they describe are among the largest found for any educational intervention. Typical effect sizes were between 0.4 and 0.7. In other words, the achievement gains realized by students whose teachers rely on formative assessment can range from 15 to 25 percentile points, or two to four grade equivalents, on commonly used standardized achievement test score scales. In broader terms, this kind of score gain, if applied to performance on recent international assessments, would move the United States’s rank from the middle of the pack of 42 nations tested to the top five (Black & Wiliam, 1998b). An additional outcome common among the studies they analyzed is that certain formative assessment practices greatly increased the achievement of low-performing students, in some cases to the point of approaching that of high-achieving students. Not surprisingly, a plethora of formative assessment
T
3
Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning
programs and products has
Formative Assessment and Assessment for Learning
CHAPTER 1
Formative Assessment and Assessment for Learning
1
CHAPTER 1:
Formative Assessment and Assessment for Learning
Innovations that include strengthening the practice of formative assessment produce significant and often substantial learning gains.
—Black & Wiliam, 1998b, p. 140
his conclusion, from Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam’s comprehensive review of research on formative assessment practices, has changed the face of assessment today. It is in large part responsible for the widespread focus in education on the particular kind of assessment known as “formative.” Their research review (1998a) examined studies that collectively encompassed kindergarteners to college students; represented a range of subject areas including reading, writing, social studies, mathematics, and science; and were conducted in numerous countries throughout the world, including the United States. The gains reported in the studies they describe are among the largest found for any educational intervention. Typical effect sizes were between 0.4 and 0.7. In other words, the achievement gains realized by students whose teachers rely on formative assessment can range from 15 to 25 percentile points, or two to four grade equivalents, on commonly used standardized achievement test score scales. In broader terms, this kind of score gain, if applied to performance on recent international assessments, would move the United States’s rank from the middle of the pack of 42 nations tested to the top five (Black & Wiliam, 1998b). An additional outcome common among the studies they analyzed is that certain formative assessment practices greatly increased the achievement of low-performing students, in some cases to the point of approaching that of high-achieving students. Not surprisingly, a plethora of formative assessment
T
3
Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning
programs and products has