What is Summative assessment?
Assessment of Learning, or as it is also known as Summative assessment, is the opposite of formative assessment. One reason for this is that unlike Assessment for Learning, which focuses on the learning yet to come, Assessment of Learning assesses the learning that has occurred, be gained or learnt. Summative assessments evaluate the performance of an individual at the end of a unit, term or learning intention, allowing the educator to understand the knowledge, skills and behaviours they have developed during their learning journey.
Another difference between Formative and Summative assessment is that summative assessment is an endpoint, formal and learning outcome-centred assessment type. This means that this type of assessment focuses solely on what has been learnt rather than on what can be learned, developed or improved within the context of structured assessment parameters, standards formats and non-adaptive approaches.
As Summative assessment is an endpoint assessment, it is used to check on an individual’s development of the required knowledge, skills and behaviours, thus allowing the educator or educational setting the data required or wanted. This assessment can often be completed in large-scale or localised assessment. For example, large-scale summertime assessment is often linked to statutory requirements such as the Standardised Assessment Tests, more commonly referred to as SAT within England. This type of Summative assessment holds little to no value to the individual completing it as the data is often only used to compare the overall success of a school and other schools. However, another large-scale summative assessment type can be a General Certificate of Secondary Education or GCSE. These assessments gain the individual a nationally and internally recognised qualification due to a standardised approach to the assessment process and quality assurance of the knowledge, skills and behaviours gained. Another type of large-scale assessment that is somewhat different to the previous two is that of assignment coursework.
Localised Summative assessments are often less standardised than large-scale assessments. They will usually only be used within a school, classroom or with a specific individual to meet the understanding and development of the required knowledge, skills and behaviours. Localised summertime assessments are often used in preparation for large-scale assessments. These can be quizzes, specific curriculum tests, or produced work with the express purpose of being assessed.
Finally, one of the other distinctive features of Summative assessment compared to Formative assessment is the quality of feedback the individual will receive. As mentioned above, Summative assessment focuses more on the endpoint outcomes than on developmental practice like Formative assessment. As such, the feedback provided is often evaluative, meaning it can be like with GCSEs being synthesised down to a numbered grade.
Information on similar topics:
NEN Explain: Formative Assessment
Nottingham Education Network 