How Can Formative Assessment Be Used to Establish Instructional Priorities?
Through the consistent use of formative assessment, teachers can quickly gather data to determine whether students are mastering the goals and standards or there are gaps in students’ learning. Teachers can then use this information to establish priorities for future lessons. For example, if the majority of your class has mastered a specific standard, you may choose to use instruction time to delve into that standard further or explore an applied aspect of it. If, however, formative assessment data indicate that your students need more instruction or more practice, then you may decide to reteach certain elements or assign more group exercises targeting a particular skill. In this way, formative assessment guides the establishment of priorities for teaching and learning. Although “data-driven instruction” has become a current buzz phrase, it can mean many different things. Some districts are disaggregating the data from standardized tests and using those data to pinpoint students’ stren
