Barriers In Conducting Formative Assessment

Almost One Quarter Of The Teachers Say They Do Not Face Any Barriers To Conducting Formative Assessment.

Among Those Who Did Indicate Barriers, The Most Frequently Selected Barriers Were Related To Time. A Teacher Reporting Of Barriers To Formative Assessment Is Consistent Across Subject Areas And Grade Levels. Years Of Experience Teaching Was Related To Teachers Reporting Insufficient Training For Formative Assessment And Facing No Barriers.

With The Shift From Print To Digital, Students Receive Hundreds Of Pieces Of Feedback From The Thousands Of Keystrokes That Make Up Their Digital Day. The Problem Is That, Other Than Proprietary Walled Gardens, None Of That Feedback Is Collected Consistently And Presented In A Unified Manner.

It Was Disappointing To Find That Most Teachers Still Use Spreadsheets To Manually Enter And Track Formative Assessment Data. They Spotted Four Problems

1. Different Standards
2. No Common Tagging Scheme For Content And Assessment
3. No Agreement On Competency
4. Inadequate Tools

Digital Learning And The Explosion Of Formative Data Means The Beginning Of The End Of Weeklong State Tests. By Using Thousands Of Formative Observations, It Will Be Increasingly Easy To Accurately Track Individual Student Learning Progressions. But Making Better Use Of The Explosion Of Formative Data Will Require Leadership And Investment.

This Is An Education Problem More Than A Technology Problem. It Would Help If School Networks Agreed On Competency-Based Protocols And Used Their Market Leverage To Drive Investment To Solutions.