Formative assessments (of which PASeries is one, using screener, progress and diagnostic tests) is in the news everywhere these days, it seems.
District Administration's "
Making Assessments Work" states, "Educators can't wait until the end of the year to gauge how they're doing, and they have to be sure that what they're teaching equates to what will be required of their students on the state's summative test." The article also lists its definitions of such terms as formative assessment, predictive assessment, value-added assessment, vertical scaling, computerized adaptive testing and (take a breath before proceeding) more. A telling point of the confusion in the classroom: "Formative testing seems to mean just about anything that's non-summative."
Almost on cue, Education Week features a commentary titled, "
Is Formative Assessment Losing Its Meaning?" As the author notes that formative assessment, as a term with a specific definition, may be heading down the same road as "aligned" and "standards-based reform." One observation, "Any test can be used to some extent in a formative way: to help shape instruction, to identify curricular strengths and weaknesses, or to inform students of what they know and don't know, or can and cannot do, at a given point in time. Any formative benefit for teachers and students, however, is dependent upon the quality of the test itself."
Another reason for the strong item authoring and review procedures, and scientific scales that link to other assessment instruments and curriculum materials, in PASeries.