By Francis (Skip) Fennell and Jonathan A. Wray
The importance of formative assessment has been discussed for decades. Scriven (1967) and Bloom (1969) were early advocates of the potential of formative evaluation to improve instruction. Based on their review of hundreds of studies, Black and Wiliam (1998) defined formative assessment as “encompassing all those activities undertaken 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”. Formative assessment includes all actions that provide information to be used as feedback to modify teaching and learning. The focus of this white paper is on the everyday importance of classroom-based formative assessments as links to planning and instruction. The phrase “assessing to inform” is what classroom-based formative assessment is all about.
Learn more about formative assessments, how they are important in the math classroom, and what strategies make them effective.
