After reading about formative and summative assessments, I have concluded that formative assessments should be used more often than summative. Formative assessments allow teachers and students to see their own progress and understand what they need to keep working on until their fluent in the content area. Since there are so many different types of formative assessments (e.g. paper and pencil tests, observations, questioning, profolios etc.) it is important to have student envolvement and prompt feedback. The best part about formative assessments is that allows teachers/students to change their methods if the ones they were using were ineffective and it provides practice. It is not important to grade these assessments but to use the infomation gathered to prepare for summative assessments.

Summative assessments are used at different times throught out the school year, they are usually given in the beginning, the end and spaced out through out the year. A good thing about summative assessments is that as a teacher you can give one at the beginning of the year to have a better understanding of where each of your new students stands in the academic proccess (perdictive test). Teachers can learn what students need to know before teaching the new material for the year and what areas just need to be reviewed breifly. When using a summative assessment in this way i believe that the test should not be graded. Other ways to use summative assessments include state-wide assessments, ditrict benchmarks, end of the chapter/unit teats, end of the semester exams and scores for ayp/report cards. So, after administering many formative assessments, a summative assessment takes place and the results show what students have learned compared to the content standards at the particular time.

As a future teacher i like the idea of using formative assessments in my classroom and smaller summative ones spairingly. I know that many students are not good test takers and become nervous before exams, and feel that if you give formative assessments before hand the teacher and the student are more comfortable when the summative test comes around. Formative assessments are a great way to learn about each students learning process and can help a teacher solve problems such as "why is my student proforming below average on summative assessments but doing well with everything up to it?"

In class, we also discussed benchmark tests, particually those used in the philadelphia school district. I like the idea of benchmark tests because it makes teachers, students, parents and administrator accountable for their work. Also i like it because a lot of formative assessments are used and when a a sumative test is given, the same one is used through out the district. This shows what teachers are doing a better job at getting material across, and those that need help can maybe go and ask another teacher how they taught their kids a certain lesson. Benchmark tests also give teachers time to look and the results of the tests and reteach the material to students that did not do so well and provide enrichment for those who did outstanding. This type of testing can help students on standardized tests and identify their strengths/weaknesses.

One of the last topics we touched on in class was the controversial subject of accountability. Personally, I believe that holding a teacher accountable for student learning is an awesome idea. There are many teachers out there that still use the "old" teaching system of lecturing and tests. Since we are trying to prepare kids for the future, this type of teaching is unexceptable. When teachers know that their pay depends on how well they teach their students it can create postive atmospheres, better teachers, school pride and raise the bar for everyone in the school. Although i think teacher accountability is a good idea, i believe that parents also need to be accountable for what their students learn. They need to enforce homework, reading and learning in general in their childs life.