What It Means
Summative assessment measures what a student has learned once the teaching for a stretch of time is finished. The ERIC papers on assessment systems describe it as given at the end of a period, such as a unit, a semester or a school year, and scored against a set of content standards. It can be a teacher's end-of-unit test or final project, a course final exam, or a state test whose results feed school accountability.
Try It: Pick a Test and See What It Measures
Pick a summative test and see who gives it, when, and who uses the result.
The teacher
The school or teacher
The state
Last days of a unit
End of a semester or year
Once a year
The unit grade
The course grade
School reporting
States test reading, math and science under ESSA. Standardized testing has rules of its own.
The first two are Buhata's everyday examples. Your child's syllabus says how much each one counts.
How Parents Say It
- "The unit test is Friday and it's a big chunk of the grade."
- "Finals week starts Monday."
- "His project counts as the summative for this unit."
The Breakdown
From classroom to state, by stage
| Stage | Summative example | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| End of a unit | Chapter test, essay or project | Whether your child learned that unit's skills |
| End of a semester or course | Final exam | Learning across the whole course |
| End of a school year | State test, for the grades and subjects the state testsStandardized testingTests given and scored the same way for every student; in U.S. public schools, mainly the yearly state tests in reading, math and science that ESSA requires. See more | How students did against the state's standards; feeds school reporting |
Source: the summative, interim and formative levels in the ERIC paper "The Role of Interim Assessments in a Comprehensive Assessment System"; the unit and course examples are Buhata's.
How it differs from the checks along the way. Formative checks happen during learning and change what the teacher does next. Interim or benchmark tests come a few times a year. A summative test comes last and looks back. REL Southeast's reading guide calls the reading version an outcome assessment and says it shows whether students made real gains or losses.
Younger and older students. In the early grades a summative task might be, for example, a short project; in high school it might be a final exam. How much a test counts is set by the teacher or the school.
When to talk to the teacher. If a unit test score surprises you, ask to see the test and which standards your child missed, and whether there's a chance to show the skill again.
Good to Know
Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, ed.gov says every state measures student performance in reading, math and science, and those yearly state tests are the best-known summative tests. Standardized testing has its own rules, which your state education department publishes. For classroom tests, the syllabus or the teacher decides the weight, retake policy and late work rules, so read it at the start of each course.
FAQ
What is an example of a summative assessment?
An end-of-unit test, a final exam, a final project or a yearly state test. Each comes after the teaching and measures what was learned.
Is a final exam a summative assessment?
Yes. It comes at the end of a course and measures learning across it, which is what makes an assessment summative.
Why do summative tests matter more for grades?
They measure learning after the teaching is finished, so teachers often give them more weight than practice work. The exact weight is in your child's syllabus or the school's grading policy.
Do It in Buhata
Calendar, Countdown
Add each unit test and final to your Buhata Calendar and set a Countdown to the biggest one so the study days are visible.
Open BuhataRelated Terms and Categories
- Formative assessment
Quick, frequent checks a teacher uses during lessons to see what students understand and adjust teaching while learning is still under way.
- Standardized testing
Tests given and scored the same way for every student; in U.S. public schools, mainly the yearly state tests in reading, math and science that ESSA requires.
- Report card
(1) The school's periodic report of a student's grades to parents; (2) the yearly public report on school and district results that ESSA requires states and districts to publish.
- Standards-based grading
A way of grading that reports how well a student has met each learning standard, usually on a short scale of levels, instead of one averaged letter grade per subject.
Sources
"The Role of Interim Assessments in a Comprehensive Assessment System" (ERIC, U.S. Department of Education); "Formative Assessment and Next-Generation Assessment Systems" (ERIC, U.S. Department of Education); Institute of Education Sciences, REL Southeast, "Assessment Terms Used in Reading" (infographic, 2020); U.S. Department of Education, "What is the Every Student Succeeds Act?"
- files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED551318.pdf
- files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED543063.pdf
- ies.ed.gov/sites/default/files/migrated/rel/infographics/pdf/REL_SE_Assessment_Terms_Used_in_Reading.pdf
- www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/laws-preschool-grade-12-education/esea/what-is-the-every-student-succeeds-act
Last updated .