Formative Assessment and the Role of Teachers’ Content Area

• In Event: New Views on Formative Assessments

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of teachers’ content area on the adoption of formative assessment practices in high school mathematics and science classrooms. Two-hundred and forty-one mathematics and science high school teachers participated in a two-year professional development program focused on formative assessment. Participating teachers completed self-report surveys describing their implementation of formative assessment throughout the two year program. Results indicate that there is no difference between mathematics and science teachers in the type of formative assessment adopted at the category level. However, differences were observed with respect to how teachers operationalized the categories. These differences have implications for the content and structure of professional development programs designed to increase the use of formative assessment.

Authors

• Christine Jennifer Lyon, ETS

• E. Caroline Wylie, ETS