What are formative assessments?

Formative assessments are tools used to monitor student learning during instruction. The primary purpose of these assessments is to provide ongoing feedback that can help both students and teachers identify areas that need improvement while instruction is still happening. This continual assessment allows educators to adjust their teaching strategies, provide additional support, or modify instruction to better meet the needs of their students.

By focusing on the learning process rather than the final outcomes, formative assessments encourage a growth mindset and allow for a more tailored learning experience. This approach enables educators to foster mastery of the material as they have the opportunity to address misunderstandings and reinforce concepts in real time.

In contrast, assessments designed to evaluate learning after a unit has concluded or those solely used for grading do not provide the same level of engagement with students' learning paths and can miss opportunities to enhance learning while it is still taking place. Similarly, assessments that are conducted before instruction begins serve a different purpose, often intended to gauge prior knowledge rather than to monitor ongoing progress.