Formative assessment is a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides explicit feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students' achievement of intended instructional outcomes. Formative assessment is a method of continually evaluating students' academic needs and development within the classroom and precedes local benchmark assessments and state-mandated summative assessments.

 

Teachers who engage in formative assessments give continual, explicit feedback to students and assist them in answering the following questions:

 

   1.  Where am I going?

   2.  Where am I now?

   3.  How can I close the gap between the two?

 

In order to show students how to close the gap between where they are academically and where they want to be, teachers must help students evaluate their progress in the learning process and give them explicit descriptive feedback specific to the learning task.

 

From Learn NC. Read more