The Formative Assessment Research Project
Project Start Date: August, 2014
Project Team : Elizabeth Phillips, AJ Edson, Yvonne Grant, Funda Gonulates, Molade Osibodu, & Amy Ray
Background
Assessment in Connected Mathematics is an integral part of the learning process. Extensive recent research has demonstrated convincingly that student learning improves significantly when teachers: (a) provide frequent feedback on students’ progress and (b) when teachers use that assessment as a core input to their planning for instruction. For this reason, the assessment in CMP is multidimensional, giving students many ways to demonstrate how they are making sense of mathematics (for more information about assessment in CMP, visit Assessment). In the Formative Assessment Project, our work emphasizes how formative assessment is ongoing during planning, teaching, and reflecting in problem-based mathematics classrooms.
Description
Once teachers have begun using inquiry-based instruction in CMP, it becomes clear that traditional forms of assessment are insufficient to gauge student learning. Throughout a CMP lesson, teachers engage in three components of formative assessment, supported by current research and best practices in mathematics education. This is shown below. To address concerns about how to assess student learning during the enactment process, we have developed a set of resources to help mathematics teachers and instructional leaders make sense of formative assessment as an ongoing process in CMP lessons.
Purpose
Formative assessment is the essence of teaching. The set of formative assessment resources are valuable for individual teachers and for creating and fostering conversations around assessment during planning, teaching, and reflecting. It is also important that professional development involving assessment should address the role of assessments in teachers’ reflections and decisions.
Resources
The following resources for formative assessment were developed to help mathematics teachers and instructional leaders make sense of formative assessment as an ongoing process occurring throughout CMP lessons. They are also valuable for individual teachers and for creating and fostering conversations around assessment during planning, teaching and reflecting.