Assessment Types

Assessment is the process of discovering, often in measurable terms, knowledge, skills, attitudes and the ability to apply newly acquired knowledge in new situations.

Formative assessment allows the monitoring of the development of understanding as bridging occurs with existing ideas and skills and how these skills and ideas are developing. And, the teacher’s role is changing as they monitor, coach and guide students to construct their scientific understanding. There is evidence that using formative assessment leads to considerable gains in levels of achievement.

Summative assessment has an important but different role. Its purpose is to reflect achievement at the end of a unit or course. It can be by summarizing evidence already used for formative purposes or checking up on focused knowledge or skills.

Performance Assessments Performance assessment is a measure of assessment based on authentic tasks such as activities, exercises, or problems that require students to show what they can do. Some performance tasks are designed to have students demonstrate their understanding by applying their knowledge to a particular situation. For example, students might be given a current political map of Africa showing the names and locations of countries and a similar map from 1945 and be asked to identify and explain differences and similarities. To be more authentic (more like what someone might be expected to do in the adult world), the task might be to prepare a newspaper article explaining the changes. Performance tasks often have more than one acceptable solution; they may call for a student to create a response to a problem and then explain or defend it. The process involves the use of higher-order thinking skills (e.g., cause and effect analysis, deductive or inductive reasoning, experimentation, and problem solving). Performance tasks may be used primarily for assessment at the end of a period of instruction, but are frequently used for learning as well as assessment.

Seamless Assessments is the difference in assessment for learning as opposed to assessment of learning. Ongoing assessment is already embedded in effective inquiry-based instruction. However, whether the scoring of assessments is primarily designed to guide instruction or measure achievement toward the standards is another matter. Assessment that is primarily designed to measure learning, and is often considered punitive, can be effective. But somehow coupled with that must be assessment for learning, that is not necessarily used to quantitatively measure a student’s cognitive abilities but is instead used to guide the path instruction should take to be most effective.

In the education industry, alternative assessment or portfolio assessment is in direct contrast to what is known as performance evaluation, traditional assessment, standardized assessment or summative assessment. Alternative assessment is also known under various other terms, including: authentic assessment, integrative assessment, holistic assessment, assessment for learning.