Formative Assessment

Formative assessment, also called formative evaluation, formative feedback or assessment for learning, and including diagnostic testing, is a range of formal and informal assessment procedures that teachers carry out during the learning process itself in order to modify teaching and learning activities and improve student attainment. The goal of a formative assessment is to monitor student learning so as to provide ongoing feedback that helps students identify their own strengths and weaknesses and target the areas that need work, while also helping teachers recognize where students are struggling so that problems can be addressed immediately. It typically involves qualitative feedback, rather than scores, for both student and teacher, focused on the details of content and performance, and it is commonly contrasted with summative assessment, which seeks to monitor educational outcomes, often for purposes of external accountability.