Regular readers will know that I do the occasional consulting and am in the fortunate position of being able to choose projects and topics. Yesterday, I led the first of what will be a series of professional conversations on evaluation and I was shocked, shocked I say, at what I heard.
As I do always, my first step is to define terms and then to agree on common language. The obvious starters for ten include objective, subjective, skills, content and of course summative and formative. And therein lies the problem.
At the outset, all participants assured me they were clear on these terms and made full use of all in their teacher's toolbox. And yet nary a one of these university-qualified, college of education-trained, internally professionally developed and highly-experienced teachers of all levels G1 - 12 and all subjects, English to PE to Band could explain the difference, especially between of course summative and formative.
Indeed, across the board, "formative assessment" was graded because only grades can provide feedback and in many cases, these grades were included in calculating end-of-semester averages.
The two concepts are distinct, and while activities (aka instruments) might look the same, their purpose and their place in a program are completely different. I like to use "assessment" and "evaluation".
Assessment signifies formative, developmental, focused on feedback, subjective, informal, student-centered and above all, ungraded.
Evaluation signifies measurement, is one-and-done, linked to standards with explanations of grades but no real feedback, formal, objective and of course graded.
If I ask for chicken and they give me fish, I'll go hungry, particularly if I do not have the option of going to a different restaurant. Terms we use as teachers are important because they represent concepts, and distinguishing between these two concepts is critical. How, when and when are the focal points of future sessions. What dismays me is that such a group could be so wrong, and have been for so long and the why of that needs to be explored.
**Please leave comments and queries below.**
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