Formative and Summative Assessment

Good assessment in any content area utilizes both formative and summative strategies. Formative strategies are used in process, allowing the teacher and student to chart progress and guide development. There are a variety of formative assessment tools available to teachers and students, including observation checklists, rubrics, and personal reflection prompts.

Summative strategies look at outcomes – did students learn or were they able to do what we set out to teach them? The Connecticut State Department of Education suggests that the following criteria should apply to summative assessment to ensure validity and usefulness.
Summative arts assessment tasks should:

• Be challenging, meaningful, and related to the arts instruction.
• Require that students in the performing arts create, perform, and respond, and students in the visual arts should create and respond. Each of these tasks is part of the artistic process and students should successfully demonstrate each.
• Provide students with clear examples of high-quality student work.
• Include critique, revision, and student self-assessment.