2006, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) attempted to tighten the definition of formative assessments. According to Popham (2008),
A central activity in the CCSSO assessment initiative was the creation of a new consortium focused specifically on formative assessment. A CCSSO consortium is composed of key department of education personnel from those states that wish to participate. Each of these groups is referred to as a State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards (SCASS), and a new SCASS dealing exclusively with formative assessment, known as Formative Assessment for Students and Teachers—or FAST SCASS, if you’re in a hurry—was formed in mid-2006. (pp. 4–5)
At its inaugural four-day meeting in October of 2006, FAST SCASS crafted a definition of formative assessment that reflected the latest research on effective assessment practices. As reported by Popham, the following definition came out of this effort: “Formative assessment is a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students’ achievement of intended instructional outcomes” (2008, p. 5). Defining features of formative assessment were as follows:
• Formative assessment is a process, not any particular test.
• It is used not just by teachers but by both teachers and students.
• Formative assessment takes place during instruction.
• It provides assessment-based feedback to teachers and students.
• The function of this feedback is to help teachers and students make adjustments that will improve students’ achievement of intended curricular aims. (Popham, 2008, p. 5)
In his 2008 book Transformative Assessment, Popham updated that definition again: “Formative assessment is a planned process in which teachers or students use assessment-based evidence to adjust what they are currently doing” (p. 6). He also listed the following characteristics:
• Again, formative assessment is not a test but a process—a planned process involving a number of different activities.
• One of those activities is the use of assessments, both formal and informal, to elicit evidence regarding students’ status: the degree to which a particular student has mastered a particular skill or body of knowledge.
• Based on this evidence, teachers adjust their ongoing instructional activities or students adjust the procedures they’re currently using to try to learn whatever they’re trying to learn. (p. 6)
The preceding definitions have certainly illustrated the general concept of formative assessment, but this book is intended to go one step further by specifying how formative assessment might manifest in the classroom. To this end, the categories depicted in table 2.1 are used throughout the book. Table 2.1 addresses two important distinctions in classroom assessment: types of assessments and uses of assessments. This chapter attempts to flesh out the defining characteristics of both.
Before delving into the anatomy of formative assessment, we should begin with a working definition of classroom assessment in general. Paraphrasing from the distinctions made in Classroom Assessment and Grading That Work (Marzano, 2006), we will define a classroom assessment as anything a teacher does to gather information about a student’s knowledge or skill regarding a specific topic. This definition is very much in keeping with the general descriptions of assessment provided by Black and Wiliam in their 1998 article titled “Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment.” That work was a brief description of the findings from their synthesis of 250 studies on formative assessment. They noted:
We use the general term assessment to refer to all those activities undertaken by teachers—and by their students in assessing themselves—that provide information to be used as feedback to modify teaching and learning activities. (1998b, p. 2)
Interestingly, this definition is almost identical to the definition of formative assessment they offered in their more technical discussion of their findings, “Assessment and Classroom Learning,” which was also published in 1998. As stated previously, their definition of formative assessment was:
Formative assessment … is to be interpreted as all of those activities undertaken by teachers and/or by their students which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged. (1998a, pp. 7–8)
The similarities in definitions for the general construct of assessment and the more specific construct of formative assessment highlight the need for clearer distinctions. Examining types of assessment in contrast to uses of assessment helps provide these distinctions.
Types of Classroom Assessments
According to table 2.1, there are three types of assessments a teacher might use in the classroom: obtrusive assessments, unobtrusive assessments, and student-generated assessments. Each can and should be used in a comprehensive system of formative assessment.
Table 2.1 Distinctions Regarding Classroom Assessments
| Types of Classroom Assessment |
| Obtrusive |
| Unobtrusive |
| Student generated |
| Uses of Classroom Assessment |
| Formative scores |
| Summative scores |
| Instructional feedback |
Obtrusive Assessments
Obtrusive assessments interrupt the normal flow of activity in the classroom. Instruction does not occur during obtrusive assessments. Instead, instruction stops while students “take the assessment” (hence the term obtrusive).
Obtrusive assessments can take many forms. Probably the most common form is the paper/pencil test. For example, as a form of obtrusive assessment, a science teacher schedules a quiz to assess students’ understanding of the concept of mutualism, or a language arts teacher provides a five-item short-answer test designed to assess the students’ comprehension of a reading passage.
Demonstrations and performances can also be forms of obtrusive assessments. For example, as a form of obtrusive assessment, a dance teacher asks students to perform a dance step they have been practicing during the week, a physical education teacher focusing on basketball asks students to demonstrate the proper execution of a free throw, or a science teacher asks students to demonstrate how the cell membrane is selectively permeable by designing and explaining a model. Obtrusive assessments can also be oral. For example, as a form of obtrusive assessment, a social studies teacher asks an individual student to explain the defining characteristics of a constitutional democracy. In all of these examples, instruction stops while assessment occurs. The following examples depict obtrusive assessments in a variety of subject areas.
Language arts: To assess the students’ ability to write a persuasive paper, the teacher assigns students the task of identifying a claim about a topic of their choice and supporting that claim with appropriate facts and qualifiers. Students begin the task in class and
