FAME is an exciting professional learning initiative sponsored by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) that promotes teacher collaboration and planning
for effective formative assessment practice.
To illustrate, as a result of a synthesis of more than 250 studies, Black and Wiliam (1998) describe the impact of
effective formative assessment in the following way:
No matter how much technology may change writing instruction, there will never be an advance sophisticated enough to replace the writing conference as the most
effective formative assessment tool available for gauging students» writing progress, both overall, and specific to a current assignment.
There are
other effective formative assessment strategies such as personal white board paddles and clickers (individual response remotes) that I have seen teachers use to assess understanding at deep levels.
In working with schools attempting to
implement effective formative assessment, the author and his colleagues have learned that the necessary changes in classroom practice, although often apparently quite modest, are actually difficult to achieve.
Next Blog: The next blog will go into how teachers and administrators can best build and sustain expertise and skills in
effective formative assessment practices throughout schools and districts, not just in isolated classrooms.
I think we need to be clear what we mean by personalized learning - to me it means that students get what they need when they need it and
effective formative assessment can help both teachers and students do that...
Effective formative assessment can improve student learning.
Effective formative assessment is more than just about connecting the dots.
Students who are partnered with a teacher that maintains
an effective formative assessment process learn how to learn.
Research has shown that
effective formative assessment has the potential to greatly increase student achievement.
Clearly, this entails informed and well - designed instruction but it is noteworthy that
an effective formative assessment process provides continuous and, in many cases, immediate feedback on how well the instruction is working.
But
effective formative assessment is not part of most classrooms, largely because teachers misunderstand what it is and don't have the necessary skills to implement it.
aimsweb ™ Plus is an efficient and
effective formative assessment, data management, and reporting system for grades K - 8 supporting multi-tiered instructional models.