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Center for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability

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Formative Insights Assessment for Learning
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What We Do

Transforming assessment and building systemwide capacity to advance equity

Amplifying student agency and identity is at the center of Formative Insights, our unique model of formative assessment.

We help educators cultivate inclusive learning environments where students develop positive learner identities and feel equipped and empowered to direct their own learning. In this model, teachers share responsibility for learning with students and effectively shift towards a lasting culture of internal accountability in which students learn from one another as well as their teacher.

Formative assessment is the process by which, during the course of instruction, teachers and students gather and interpret evidence of student learning and plan next steps to meet intended learning goals.

Student Agency

District Learning supports Leader Learning supports Teacher Learning supports Student Learning supports Student Agency

Ways of working: collaboration, inquiry, reflection, dialogue, feedback, mutual trust

Ways of thinking: equity, self-efficacy, beliefs, mindset, shared vision, shared responsibility, value of diversity, legitimizing errors, de-privatization of practice

A paradigm shift across all levels of the education system

Our approach encourages educators to think of formative assessment as an intentional and ongoing process embedded in daily teaching and learning. Leaders help implement and scale formative assessment practices, which need the appropriate supports and mindsets to promote positive learning outcomes.

All educators, school staff, and leaders have an important role in creating the conditions in which formative assessment can take root.

Formative assessment involves:

Collecting and using evidence to guide learning

Sharing responsibility for learning between teachers and students

Improving disciplinary learning through asset-based instruction

Formative assessment shifts away from:

Relying solely on teacher-directed testing and external accountability

Focusing on prescriptive skills as part of instruction

Concentrating on grades or scores at the end of an instructional sequence

Characteristics of a strong formative assessment culture

Students

Seek multiple viewpoints or approaches to learning

Become learning resources for one another

Use feedback from peers to guide their learning

Teachers

Share responsibility for learning and assessment with their students

Create opportunities for students to reveal their current thinking

Model metacognitive strategies

Leaders

Expand growth-oriented leadership mindsets

Create and sustain systems of teacher supports

Model a culture of adult learning

Key outcomes

Increased collaborative learning with peers

Improved positive learner identities

Greater student agency

Increased use of formative assessment to guide learning

This shift in learning and leadership is navigated through an ongoing focus

on our four guiding principles: 

learning culture, student identity,

formative assessment, and student agency.

Learn More about our Guiding Principles

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Contact the Formative Insights team to learn more about formative assessment practices and implementation.

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