- Formative Assessment measures a student’s progress toward mastery of a course’s content and/or skills. More specifically, formative assessments help students identify their strengths, weaknesses, and target areas that need improvement; and help teachers recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately. Formative assessment should occur daily within a class. Examples of formative assessments include: homework, in-class work, drafts of writing assignments, pre-lab work, practice problems/question set.
- Summative Assessment measures the level at which students have mastered a course’s content and/or skills at the end of a period of instruction. Examples of summative grades include: unit tests, essays or other formal writing assignments, lab reports, projects, quizzes, presentations, recitals, etc.
