Center for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability

Keyword: Formative Assessment

Student Agency through Formative Assessment

Students must interpret evidence of learning and apply it to move their learning forward. This reading explains how formative assessment fosters learner agency and how other assessment types can hinder its development.

Noticing Formative Assessment Expertise

This table outlines teacher and student expertise in formative assessment. This is a helpful introductory tool to explore expectations and hopes for formative assessment practices for teachers and students.

Defining Formative Assessment

Bell and Cowie’s definition of formative assessment as a process of evidence use adopted by WestEd. This resource unpacks their definition and introduces the formative assessment feedback loop.

Discourse Fundamentals

Through 4 guiding principles and key structures for discourse, this introductory reading, adapted from Margaret Heritage’s work, supports teachers in extending student thinking and creating structures for evidence to become visible during learning.

The Teacher’s Role in Classroom Discourse

Effectively facilitating discourse involves creating daily routines that offer extended opportunities for evidence of student knowledge and thinking to emerge during learning.