Online Formative Assessments as Predictors of Student Academic Success

Increasingly, educational reform efforts are turning towards data-driven decision making strategies to help teachers improve instruction through skills-based instruction/content that is both measurable and aligned to common rigorous standards, such as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Examining the impact of a formative online assessment system on a summative measurement of student achievement may provide evidence that data-driven instructional platforms can impact student achievement and learning outcomes. Guided by the theoretical frameworks of Vygotsky and Dewey, along with the concepts of multiple intelligence, constructivism, and mastery learning, this study examined the relationship between student scores from an online formative assessment administered quarterly and an end-of-year summative evaluation. A stepwise multiple regression analyzed the predictive power of the iReady formative assessment program towards archived SAT-10 reading and mathematics data among Grades 1-4 students, before and after the iReady program was implemented (N = 339). The results showed a significant relationship between the iReady program and SAT-10, explaining 11.6% of the variance in SAT-10 scores. The study\u27s intended audience is educators, school districts, and policy makers who are using the achievement data produced by formative assessments to improve results on measures of academic achievement, leading to positive social change