Utilizing Formative Assessments to Inform Teacher Instruction and Student Engagement

ABSTRACT The purpose of this program evaluation was to gain a clear understanding of how formative assessments impact teacher instruction and engage students. I used a survey with the teachers and data taken from their math formative assessments and NWEA MAP testing results on the mathematical concepts such as: Operations and Alegebraic Thinking, Numbers and Operations, Measurement and Data and Geometry. There were gaps identified with the formative assessments, teacher reflection with instruction and the absence of student engagement throughout the process. I found that teachers were not always using formative assessments to reteach concepts or adapt their instruction. Additionally, students had no responsibility or were not cognizant of their results on assessments or goal attainment. I recommended that the school should reformat or rewrite the current assessments to match the rigor Common Core, while forcing teachers to use data to assess their teaching and student learning in order to become reflective practitioners. Moreover, we should work to make students responsible for their own learning by engaging them through the data and goal attainment