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For many teachers, the word assessment conjures up negative feelings. High-stakes, summative assessments are used to gauge student learning against a standard or a benchmark (Afflerbach 2016; Ferguson 2017) and are sometimes used to make significant educational decisions about children. Largely because of this pressure, school districts across the country now require benchmark assessments two or more times during the school year to track students' progress. With so many mandated assessments, teachers often feel they have no time to teach.
Although these fall and winter benchmark tests are intended to be formative assessments that help guide instruction, many teachers don't find them to be very helpful. For example, in a recent conversation, a firstgrade teacher lamented that six weeks into the school year she had yet to begin working with small groups in her classroom. While she recognized that some of the delay related to getting classroom routines and procedures under way, she also clearly stated, "All I ever seem to do is assess my children, and the information doesn't even help me plan instruction." Though this may seem a little extreme, her feelings are shared by teachers nationwide (Saeki et al. 2009).
Benchmark assessments often have a narrow focus and rigid procedures and, as a result, do not capture children's true knowledge and skills. In contrast, formative assessments monitor children's learning and provide ongoing checks of student progress that allow teachers to "plan and adapt curriculum to meet each child's developmental and learning needs" (Copple & Bredekamp 2009, 321).
Formative assessment is theoretically intended to bring together three fundamental processes: (1) determining where children are in their learning; (2) understanding the developmental continuum and educational expectations; and (3) charting a course to support children's progress (Hattie & Timperley 2007; Black & Wiliam 2009). Formative assessments are often embedded in the daily 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" (Black & Wiliam 1998, 7).
For teachers, the most useful formative assessments tend to be authentic in nature and look at children's performances on specific, real-life tasks (Wiggins 1990). The information gleaned from this type of assessment supports teachers in planning responsive and intentional instruction....