Formative Assessment

Black’s and William’s article argues that formative assessment is an essential component of classroom instruction and its implementation can significantly improve student learning outcomes. They found that students who had experienced formative assessment strategies, particularly the low achievers, had demonstrated significant learning gains. For students to achieve these gains, they must be actively involved by using the feedback themselves for effective learning. According to the authors, the feedback given should focus on the quality of the student’s work, along with advice given on what the student can do to improve. It should avoid making comparison with other students. The authors also suggested that students be trained on how to self-assess and that teachers create opportunities for students to dialogue with them as ways to improve formative assessment. They also recommended for a change of policy and advocated four steps to implementation. This implementation is via teacher development and it entails the following: learning from development, dissemination, reducing obstacles and research. On the whole, both authors maintain that formative assessment is essential to effective teaching.

One thing that really caught my attention as I read this article was how “frequent assessment feedback” (p.83) has helped not only the low achievers but also those students with learning disabilities to enhance their learning. This is a wonderful piece of news to me as it not only validates my inquiry proposal project on the use of self-assessment to help high functioning children with special needs to overcome learned helplessness, but it helps to add on the sparse literature on the use of assessment for learning with children with special needs. For these students, the teachers will inevitably need to spend extra time to both teach and show them how to self-assess their work. But it is time well invested as self-assessment will help the children to become motivated, engaged and independent learners. According to Millar and Turner (1987) , “mildly handicapped students, particularly the learning disabled, have been described as ‘ inactive ’ (Torgeson, 1982), ‘passive,’ evidencing ‘learned helplessness’ (Gavalek and Raphel, 1982 ) ” (p.4) or “ showing a ‘ production deficit ’ (that is having ability, but not applying it)” (Millar, 1988, p.4). Self-assessment will therefore help these children to move out of their state of learned helplessness to one of active engagement. At the same time, it will shift the traditional decision making responsibility from the teacher to the students and cause teachers to rethink about their role, their students’ role and how they plan their lesson. While I am confident that the high functioning children with special needs can be taught how to self-assess, I wonder if low functioning children with special needs can be trained in like manner. Perhaps, there is a need for the authors of the article to define learning disabilities further.

As I read Black’s and William’s article, I was made to wonder about the role of school leaders. Other than giving support to the teachers to enable them try out and implement assessment for learning in the classroom, what else is required from them. I believe along with support, be it financial or technical, there is a need for school leaders to show patience. Making a fundamental change such as the introduction of assessment for learning into the classroom does take time. Both Black and William (2005) highlighted this in their article as well. They state that “fundamental change in education can be achieved only slowly – through programs of professional development that build on existing good practice” (p.82). It is interesting to see the use of the adverb “only” before another adverb “slowly” and I believe this is deliberate as the authors intend to impress upon the readers, in particular school leaders, of how slow change occurs. The idea of slowness is again reiterated by the authors when they discussed about the substantial rewards that comes from the use of formative assessment. Black and William state that the rewards are not seen quickly but it is a “relatively slow one and takes place through sustained programs of professional development and support” (p.88). In putting the adverb “relatively” before the verb “slow”, the authors not only stresses how slow rewards come from using formative assessment but it also implies the need to exercise patience when using formative assessments to help raise student achievement standards. In the light of this, school administrators must therefore give their teachers sufficient time to raise these standards in the classrooms as the latter is not achieved within a short period of time. They should exercise patience as well. Patience is a virtue which unfortunately some school leaders, who are so result oriented, may seriously lack. It a virtue that needs to be cultivated and will certainly be well appreciated by teachers who are embarking on innovative practices in the classrooms.

Other than patience, I believe it is equally important for school administrators to demonstrate assessment literacy if they want to implement the use of formative assessments in their schools. According to Stiggins (2001), “Sound assessment represents one essential key to school effectiveness” (p.13) and a principal’s role is “to advocate on behalf of balanced development and use of assessments” (p. 15). To take on this role, a school leader has to be sufficiently “assessment literate” (p. 15) so that he can “understand assessment results and promote an open and honest analysis of student success, both in the community and classroom” (p.15). But how many school leaders are sufficiently “assessment literate”? Stiggins states that there has been a “long history of failure in training teachers and administrators in effective assessments practice” (Stiggins, 2001, 26). What therefore is being done to address the lack of assessment literacy amongst school administrators? While I know that there are perhaps assessment courses offered for teachers to attend back at home, I am not sure if there are any being offered to school administrators. If there is none, perhaps school administrators should want to seriously consider enrolling themselves in those that are being offered to their staff. This is because knowledge of formative assessment will enhance the instructional leadership capacity of the school administrator. It would also, as Blase and Kirby (1992) state, enable them to lead effectively by standing behind. Leading by standing behind is amongst one of the many strategies effective school leaders use to bring out the best in the teachers.