The Nature and Impact of Teachers’ Formative Assessment Practices
This technical report details a study that examines three questions relating to formative assessment: (1) What is the quality of implementation of a formative assessment science unit in middle school classrooms? (2) What is the quality of teacher feedback provided to students? (3) To what degree do teachers make instructional changes based on the formative assessment results? The study focuses on 13 middle school science teachers from diverse schools. The technical report states that the quality of implementation of the formative assessments varies considerably among teachers; that the use of effective feedback to students is unexpectedly rare; and that little use is made of the assessment results to modify instruction. The technical report discusses important implications for the effective use of formative assessments.
This technical report focuses on two topics: (1) Foundational Approaches in Science (FAST) science materials and (2) formative assessment. The technical report details a formative assessment study of 13 middle school science teachers and provides some unique perspectives. It may therefore be useful to educators and stakeholders.