ABSTRACT
High-stakes tests are often called assessments, but in reality, assessment has a much broader role than fueling pressure in our academic lives. Instruction would just be a collection of activities if we didn’t pay close attention to what students are learning and adjust accordingly. Research shows that teachers rarely assess vocabulary in a way that truly evaluates learning or use the results of such assessment to help them plan further instruction. Test-taking is also considered a genre and students need to know how to be test-savvy. Formative assessment is a plan to gather day-to-day information about learners, what they are learning, and what they need to learn. Formative assessments provide information to help students learn at a higher level. Summative assessments can be high-stakes tests, standardized state exams, district or interim tests, midterms, and final exams, but they take place at the end of instruction.
