Summative Assessment

Summative assessment refers to the assessment of students that occurs at the end of a period of instruction. The purpose of summative assessment is to provide teachers and others with a summary view of learning and accomplishments. In this sense, summative assessment provides a holistic measurement of an individual’s knowledge, skills, or dispositions. Summative assessment is best understood in comparison to formative assessment. Summative assessment, on one hand, describes the traditional use of classroom (and most standardized achievement) testing; it comes at the end, it is used to assign a grade, and the [Page 1634]information is meant primarily for teachers, parents, and administrators, though it is shared with students. For students, it provides the answer to the question: How did I do? Formative assessment, on ...