Overview of Summative (Mastery & Standardised) Testing vs. Formative (Diagnostic) Testing

1. Overview of Summative (Mastery & Standardised) Testing vs.Formative (Diagnostic) Testing Presented by Philip Holmes-Smith School Research Evaluation and Measurement Services

2. Examples of Summative (Mastery) Testing • Assessment tools such as: • Classroom-based topic tests (e.g. Yr4 Maths test on area & volume, Yr7 Science test on Cells, etc.) • VCE exams, • AMEB Music Exams, • Drivers License test. • Main Purpose (main question answered): • To test whether or not a student has mastered the skills as set out in the curriculum. • Desired outcome: • If students have learnt well they should get a 100% mark on the test

3. Summative (Mastery) Testing • Mastery tests have at least two major uses, namely: • they provide immediate feedback to teachers on how well students have mastered the knowledge and skills of the work currently being taught – information that can be used to provide individual remediation as needed, and • they provide feedback to parentsabout the progress of their children against the taught curriculum.

4. Examples of Summative (Standardised) Testing • Systemic sponsored assessment tools such as: • NAPLAN, • On-Demand Adaptive Tests, • English Online Assessment (Government schools). • Other commercial tests such as: • PAT-RorTORCH(Reading) • PAT-MathandI Can Do Maths(Maths) • Main Purpose (main question answered): • To determine where a student falls along a continuum of development. • Desired outcome: • If the test difficulty has been chosen correctly for a student the student should get about 50% of the questions correct.

5. Summative (Standardised) Testing • Summative testing is essential to : • monitor the effectiveness of your teaching, and • monitor the progress of students along a developmental continuum. • But, research shows that summative tests do not lead to improved learning outcomes. As the saying goes: • “You don’t fatten a pig by weighing it” • So, although it is essential, keep summative testing to a minimum.

6. Examples of Formative (Diagnostic) Testing • Assessment tools such as: • Marie Clay Inventory, • On-Demand Linear Tests, • English AND Maths Online Assessment (Government schools), • SINE (CEO schools), • Probe. • Main Purpose (main question answered): • To discover what the student knows and what they don’t know. • Desired outcome: • No good or bad score. Results are used to inform teaching

7. Diagnostic Testing (Feedback) • Hattie (2003)† shows that our most effective teachers (in terms of improving the learning outcomes of students)constantly use diagnostic information (Feedback) to inform their teaching. • Hattie (2009)* shows that using feedback (i.e. using diagnostic information about what each student can and can’t do to inform teaching) has one of the biggest impacts on improving student learning outcomes. (Effect size =0.73) 2003: http://www.acer.edu.au/documents/RC2003_Hattie_TeachersMakeADifference.pdf 2009: Hattie, John. (2009). Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. NY: Routledge. † *

8. Summary • Use Mastery testing to monitor whether students have mastered the learning covered in the curriculum you have offered. • Use Summative testing to: • monitor the effectiveness of your teaching, and • place students at some point along the curriculum continuum. • Use Diagnostic testing to determine what students already know and what they don’t know which should then be used to inform your teaching.