While not perfect, summative tests provide a snapshot of the school that can be compared to prior years (see Formative vs Summative Testing, Princeton Review). Public schools in the spring usually have high stakes summative tests, such as STAR–California Standardized Testing and Reporting–we don’t at Sts. Peter & Paul’s. But, our Junior High Students do have final exams in their core subjects.
The National Middle School Association (NMSA) is the only national education association dedicated exclusively to middle school education. A featured article by Catherine Garrison and Michael Ehringhaus on NMSA’s website discusses assessment.
The key is to think of summative assessment as a means to gauge, at a particular point in time, student learning relative to content standards. Although the information that is gleaned from this type of assessment is important, it can only help in evaluating certain aspects of the learning process. Because they are spread out and occur after instruction every few weeks, months, or once a year, summative assessments are tools to help evaluate the effectiveness of programs, school improvement goals, alignment of curriculum, or student placement in specific programs.
If you’re a parent/guardian of a young adolescent, you will want to check out NMSA’s Fundamentals for Student Success in the Middle Grades.
Graphic from Flickr Creative Commons License minciusodas
