The amount of Assessments that are required in a our school district has been a huge topic of discussion over the past couple of years. Research shows that formative assessments used in the classroom and/or at the building level that help students improve are much more effective than high stakes summative assessments that are often required by the state or federal government. We often do not receive the results from these summative assessments for many months following administration of the test and thus they are not helpful to the individual students. Summative Assessments do have a place in a balanced assessment system to help improve educational models and programs when used for the appropriate reasons. While we must and will continue to administer all state and federally required assessments, we do have the ability to reduce the district mandated summative assessments. We have been listening to parents and faculty at the Chatting with the Superintendent meetings, through committee meetings and other forums. As a result, please see the attached Memorandum from Dr. Patterson that provides direction on our assessment reduction plan in the school district. We will continue to administer the NWEA assessment at the district level but we do not promote test preparation with that assessment.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-3bcgrrp8jFMUFSZ2NIczBncE5ISkhQZ3JpWDZ2LUFELWhR/view?usp=sharing
Here is a link to a website that I found which helps to define summative vs. formative assessments.
https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/formative-summative.html
Here is a link to the Chatting with the Superintendent Press Release.
https://dearbornschools.org/district/news/147-chatting-with-the-superintendent