Educational Assessment 101: Definition, Types, Examples & Importance

Formative assessments offer many benefits for students and teachers. For students, formative assessments can:

• Increase their motivation and engagement in learning
• Help them identify their strengths and weaknesses
• Help them monitor their learning and set goals
• Help them develop metacognitive and self-regulation skills

For teachers, formative assessments can:

• Provide valuable information about students’ learning needs and progress
• Help them adjust their instruction and provide differentiated support
• Help them communicate effectively with students and parents
• Help them evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching methods and materials

Read More: 20 Best Formative Assessment Tools

3. Summative Assessment

Summative assessments are used at the end of a learning block, such as a unit, a semester, or a year, to evaluate students’ achievement of the learning goals. They are designed to measure the outcomes that students are expected to demonstrate at the end of the instruction. 

They also provide feedback on the effectiveness of the learning process, the quality of the instruction, and the long-term impact of the learning. 

Some summative educational assessment examples are:

• Final exams: These comprehensive tests cover the entire content and skills taught in a course or a grade level. They can be written or oral and include multiple-choice, short-answer, or essay questions.
• Projects: These are complex tasks that require students to apply their knowledge and skills to create a product or a solution. They can be individual or group-based and involve research, design, or presentation.
• Portfolios: These are collections of students’ work and achievements over time. They can include samples of their best work, reflections, feedback, and self-evaluations.
• Standardized tests: These are tests that are administered and scored consistently across schools or districts. They can be used to measure students’ proficiency in specific subjects or skills or to compare their performance with other students or groups.

Watch: How to Create Online Tests or Exams

4. Standardized Assessments

Standardized assessments, or standardized tests, are given and scored consistently across large groups of students. They are often used to measure students’ proficiency in particular subjects or skills or to compare their performance. 

They also help teachers and students discover why a student might be struggling, succeeding, or accelerating on their grade-level standards and plan the next step in their assessment for learning.

Some standardized educational assessment examples are grade-level tests and the SAT. 

These tests are usually objective, with question types like multiple-choice and true-or-false. However, some tests also include subjective items, like short-answer and essay questions. They can be given in person or online.

Watch: Question Types for Online Learning & Assessment

5. Performance-Based Assessments

Performance-based assessments require students to demonstrate their skills and knowledge in a specific domain, such as writing an essay or delivering a speech. They evaluate students’ ability to use what they have learned in a meaningful way rather than just memorizing facts or information. 

This type of assessment is becoming more popular as competency-based education gains traction. Competency-based education emphasizes students’ mastery of specific outcomes rather than following a fixed curriculum.

Performance-based assessments are usually conducted face-to-face, but they can also be done online in some cases. For example, students enrolled in a web development or graphic design course may showcase their learning by creating a digital project using online tools.

6. Norm & Criterion-Referenced Assessments

Referenced assessments are assessments that compare students’ results to a particular standard. There are two types of referenced assessments: norm-referenced and criterion-referenced.

Norm-referenced assessments compare students’ performance with the performance of a large group of similar students, whose score is referred to as the norm. 

For example, imagine all students in Grade 9 take the same norm-referenced test. If a particular student scores in the 91st percentile, that means they did better than 90% of the sample serving as the norm. 

Norm-referenced tests are often used to rank or classify students according to their relative abilities or achievements.

Criterion-referenced assessments are tests that measure students’ performance against a set of standards or criteria, which are based on the curriculum and learning objectives. 

For example, students in a class may be required to score 80% or higher on a particular test before moving on to the next concept. 

Criterion-referenced tests are often used to determine whether students have achieved the expected learning outcomes or demonstrated proficiency in a certain skill or subject.

7. Ipsative Assessments

The term “ipsative” comes from the Latin word “ipse” which means “of the self.” Ipsative assessment is a type of assessment that compares a student’s performance with their previous performance rather than with the performance of others or with a set of criteria.

Ipsative assessment measures a student’s personal improvement and progress over time rather than their absolute level of achievement. It can also help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and set realistic goals.

8. Alternative Assessments

Alternative assessments are different from traditional tests, such as multiple-choice or true-or-false questions. They can include various tasks and activities that allow students to demonstrate their learning in different ways. They are often more flexible and student-centered than traditional tests.

Some alternative educational assessment examples are:

• Observations: Teachers watch and record students’ behaviors, actions, and interactions in the classroom or other settings.
• Essays: Students write responses expressing their thoughts, opinions, or arguments on a topic or question.
• Performance tasks: Students perform a task that requires them to apply their knowledge and skills to create a product or a solution.
• Exhibitions and demonstrations: Students display or present their work or performance to the class or an audience.
• Portfolios: Students collect and showcase their work and achievements over time.
• Journals: Students record their learning experiences and thoughts.
• Project work: Students work individually or collaboratively on a task that involves planning, researching, designing, and producing a product or a solution related to a real-world problem or issue.
• Interviews: Teachers ask, and students answer questions about a topic or problem orally. They can do this in-person or via video interview mediums, such as video conferencing tools and online quizzes.

Watch: How to Create a Video Interview Quiz

9. Authentic Assessments 

Authentic education assessments are alternative assessments that measure students’ ability to apply their knowledge and skills to real-world situations and problems. 

They require students to perform complex and action-oriented tasks that reflect the standards and expectations of the discipline or profession. They also require students to use higher-order critical thinking skills.

Some examples of authentic educational assessment tasks are:

• Projects: Students plan, research, design, and produce a product or a solution related to a real-world problem or issue.
• Portfolios: Students collect and showcase their work and achievements over time and reflect on their learning process and outcomes.
• Real-world applications: Students apply their knowledge and skills to authentic contexts or situations they may encounter in their personal or professional lives.

Authentic assessments have many benefits for deeper learning and skill development. For example, they can:

• Help students connect their learning to real-life situations and problems by simulating authentic contexts or scenarios
• Help students develop transferable skills for their future careers or studies by requiring them to use higher-order, critical thinking skills
• Help teachers evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching methods and materials by measuring the impact of their instruction on students’ learning outcomes

Now that we have discussed the various types of educational assessments and their purposes, let’s understand their importance in the education system and their role in improving teaching and learning.

Importance of Assessments in the Education System

Educational assessments are powerful tools that can enhance learning and teaching when done well. Some of the benefits of a good educational assessment are:

• Progress monitoring: Assessments help educators track students’ progress and identify their strengths and weaknesses so that they can provide appropriate support and intervention.
• Feedback: They provide feedback to students about their performance, which they can use to monitor their learning and set goals for improvement.
• Motivation: They motivate students, as they know they will be assessed on what they have learned and how well they have learned it.
• Alignment: They help educators align their instruction with the learning objectives and outcomes and determine the most effective strategies and methods to help students achieve them.
• Curriculum improvement: They can improve the curriculum by identifying gaps, redundancies, or inconsistencies in the content and skills taught.
• Evaluation: They can be used to evaluate teachers’ and school systems’ performance and the impact of different teaching practices on student learning.
• Differentiation: They help educators differentiate their instruction and assessment according to their students’ diverse needs and abilities and provide them with multiple ways to demonstrate their learning.

These are the benefits of “good” educational assessment, but what makes assessments good?

What Makes an Educational Assessment “Good”?

A good educational assessment should follow three basic principles of quality:

1. Assessments should be aligned with defined objectives and outcomes 

Clarity about the desired knowledge and skills students are expected to learn and demonstrate is essential for designing and implementing effective assessments. The assessments should match the learning objectives and outcomes and measure the extent to which students have achieved them.

2. Assessments should be valid 

Validity refers to how well an assessment measures what it claims to measure. Different types of assessments are suitable for different types of learning, and they should be chosen accordingly.

For example, a multiple-choice test may be a valid way to assess students’ knowledge of historical facts but not their research skills.

3. Assessments should be reliable 

Reliability measures how consistent and accurate an assessment is. A reliable assessment should produce similar results when administered under the same conditions and minimize errors and biases that may affect the scores. 

For example, a reliable assessment should have clear instructions, fair scoring criteria, and adequate time limits.

We’ve gone through the basics of educational assessment and how quizzes are often used for it. But did you know you can create and share quizzes online easily? Before finishing this post, let’s check out the steps for making an online educational quiz.

How to Create an Educational Assessment Quiz Online

Here are the steps for creating an online educational assessment quiz. We’ve taken ProProfs Quiz Maker as an example here.

Step 1: Choose a quiz type

You can create a scored or personality quiz depending on your needs.