The main difference between formative vs summative assessment is timing and purpose. Formative assessment happens during learning to provide ongoing feedback, while summative assessment occurs at the end of a learning period to evaluate a child's cumulative understanding.
For every early childhood educator, effectively monitoring student performance is key to supporting holistic child development. This guide dives into the critical distinctions between formative assessment and summative assessment in early childhood education, exploring how you can apply both methodologies strategically in your childcare program.
Understanding their unique purposes is vital. When used together, these assessment strategies provide a comprehensive picture of a child's learning journey and inform effective teaching practices.
What is formative assessment?
Formative assessment is an ongoing, informal evaluation that gauges a child’s understanding during the learning process. It provides real-time insights that help teachers answer essential questions: Is the learning on track? What teaching strategies should be removed or improved?
For example, imagine teaching preschoolers numbers one through 10, but most children do not grasp the concept. Formative assessment provides teachers with real-time feedback to recognize where the children struggle and gives them data to address any issues immediately.
According to the Institute of Education Sciences, formative assessment is primarily informal. This approach works exceptionally well for preschoolers, as they learn best through play, exploration, and interaction. Through daily interaction with and observation of the children, you can collect information on their accomplishments, needs, interests, social skills, and behavior. You can assess their learning in various scenarios like group instruction and activities, center rotations, recess, lunch, and individually working with them.
Formative assessment helps preschool teachers adjust instruction to meet each child’s needs as they grow and change. For example, a child finding it difficult to grasp concepts from a workbook might benefit from using physical objects or playing a game. Common examples of formative assessment include observation, one-to-one conversations, and samples of children’s work.
What is summative assessment?
Summative assessment evaluates a child's cumulative learning at the end of a specific instructional period. It helps teachers gauge a child’s understanding and proficiency after a unit, lesson, or semester.
After the learning period, teachers grade a child’s performance against a standard or benchmark. For example, while using a preschool assessment form, the teacher may write the letter “M” to indicate a child has mastered the alphabet or “D” to show a child is still developing a specific skill, like counting up to 10.
Summative assessments affect a child’s ability to progress to the next level or unit. For example, you may need to repeat lessons for a child who hasn't grasped some concepts. On the other hand, a child who has mastered the concepts will move on to the next learning level. Summative assessment also helps highlight gaps in the curriculum and instruction so teachers can recognize where they need to change teaching strategies.
Brightwheel makes it easy to track student progress. With streamlined milestone tracking, customizable portfolio templates, and easy sharing with families, teachers can assess children's progress in real-time and enhance learning in the classroom.
Preschool Daily Sheet
Use this template to document a child's activities, meals, naps, and learning throughout the day.
What is the difference between formative and summative assessment?
While both methods help track a child's development, formative assessment is better suited for ongoing adjustments during lessons, while summative assessment works best when you need a formal evaluation of what the child learned over a completed term.
Preschool assessments play a crucial role in early childhood education, serving as foundational tools for understanding each child's developmental progress and learning needs. Here are the main differences between formative and summative assessments:
Low stakes vs high stakes
Formative assessment is generally low stakes, and is mainly done by observation and interaction. On the other hand, summative assessment is usually high stakes because it’s graded and tends to have consequences if a child hasn’t mastered key concepts.
Informal vs formal
Formative assessments are primarily informal, allowing children to participate without knowing you are assessing them. Summative assessments are highly structured and aligned with instruction goals and expected outcomes. In some cases, the child might be aware that you’re assessing them.
Timing differences
The time frame is one of the most significant differences between these two types of assessment. Formative assessments happen continuously during the learning period as the teacher deems appropriate. However, summative assessments are often one-off evaluations at the end of the learning period.
Focus and scope
Formative assessment focuses on improving how a child learns. It helps monitor the child’s learning progress so that teachers can catch problems early and adjust their instruction method if necessary. Summative assessment focuses more on evaluating the overall understanding of what children have learned.
Formative assessment covers small areas of learning, while summative assessment covers a large portion of learning. For example, a teacher will monitor the performance of a child’s recognition of the number “one” when performing a formative assessment and test the child’s recognition of numbers one through 10 when conducting a summative assessment.
Using brightwheel for formative and summative assessments
Brightwheel provides tools that seamlessly support both formative and summative assessments, helping childcare providers monitor and evaluate a child's progress with ease. Features like the daily report and messaging feature are perfect for formative assessment. Teachers can log daily observations, track specific milestones, and share real-time updates with parents about individual achievements, such as a child’s ability to trace the letter “A” or count to five. These tools allow caregivers to focus on small, incremental areas of learning and progress, ensuring personalized attention to each child’s development.
On the other hand, brightwheel's comprehensive reporting features act as summative tools, enabling providers to evaluate broader educational goals. These progress reports consolidate data over time, offering detailed insights into a child’s overall growth and understanding, like mastering recognition of all numbers from one through 10 or achieving proficiency in key early literacy skills. By leveraging these features, educators can present clear, data-driven outcomes to families, ensuring transparency and highlighting the effectiveness of their programs.
What are examples of formative assessment in early childhood education?
Preschool formative assessments rely on continuous monitoring of physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development during daily activities. Examples include observation, reviewing work samples, and engaging in targeted conversations.
Observation
Teachers need to observe children to assess their engagement in lessons and understanding of key concepts. This monitoring extends beyond the classroom and can continue on the playground during recess.
Two childhood observation methods you can use include anecdotal records and running records. Anecdotal records are brief notes taken by a teacher detailing a child’s actions and comments during an activity. These notes are typically written in past tense and answer the questions “what, where, and when” of a specific activity. Running record observations, on the other hand, are written in the present tense, offering a detailed account of a child’s actions and interests as they happen.
Teachers will have a general idea of a child’s development by observing their behavior, interests, social skills, academic accomplishments, and more. Monitoring will help teachers understand the child's needs and what areas to spend more time on. An excellent way for educators to keep their observations organized is to print index cards with space for details like the date, the child’s name, a skill you’re assessing, and observations.
Samples of children’s work
Samples of children’s work, like drawings, crafts, and paintings, help their families understand what the children are learning. It’s helpful to include a few notes to explain the sample so the family has context on what the child was doing or what skill they were learning. Save each child’s samples in an individual folder or box.
One-to-one conversations
One-to-one conversations are effective because you get the opportunity to interact with the child directly and really understand what a child knows and how they came to that knowledge. To dig deeper into a child’s understanding, ask questions like “How did you figure that out?”, “Tell me how you know”, “Why do you think that?” Remember to follow these up with clarifying questions.
Family communication
Regular communication between teachers and families is crucial for assessing growth and development. For example, teachers can send short questionnaires with a couple of action points to parents or guardians to monitor skills the child might be struggling with, such as self-regulation. When assessment happens on both fronts, it’s more effective.What are examples of summative assessment for early childhood?
Summative assessments in early childhood utilize structured tools to measure a child's cumulative growth across key developmental domains. Examples include progress report cards, performance tasks, and comprehensive portfolios.
Progress report cards
Progress report cards give families a quick and clear look at what areas the child is excelling in and where they need to improve. Ensure that you cover the child's progress in the main developmental areas: language, social-emotional development, physical skills, and cognitive skills. Your specific childcare program will determine how often you issue a progress report card; however, quarterly or semi-annually is a great place to start.
Hands-on performance tasks
Performance tasks are practical, simple, and straightforward tasks that allow children to put their knowledge to work. They can help teachers evaluate specific skills such as color knowledge, pattern skills, or counting skills. For example, if you want to assess color knowledge and pattern skills, place manipulatives of three different colors in front of the child. Then ask them, “Can you put all the yellow bears together, all the blue bears together, and all the green ones together?” You can also do the same for different shapes.
Portfolios
A portfolio is a structured way to document a child’s learning progress and growth over a period of time. It can include any material that highlights a child’s development such as drawings or art samples, photographs documenting a specific activity, or descriptions of conversations with the child. The portfolio can be a digital collection of records, a physical portfolio, or a combination of both.
How to combine formative and summative assessment
Effectively monitoring and supporting child progress in early childhood education relies on a thoughtful integration of both formative and summative assessment approaches. When used in tandem, these assessment strategies create a comprehensive and holistic understanding of each child's learning journey.
The synergistic relationship between formative and summative data
Formative assessment offers ongoing insights that let educators adjust instruction in real time, while summative assessment captures overall learning at specific moments. When used together, daily formative feedback prepares children for summative evaluations, and summative results help refine formative strategies. This combined approach ensures every child’s progress is supported and confirms teaching effectiveness over time.
Creating a balanced assessment portfolio
For each child, building an assessment portfolio becomes an invaluable tool. This isn't just a folder of papers; it's a dynamic collection that demonstrates growth over time. It typically includes anecdotal notes from formative observations, photos or videos of skills in action, examples of children's work (drawings, dictated stories, constructions), and standardized checklists or progress reports from summative assessments.
A well-organized portfolio offers a rich, multi-faceted narrative of a child's development, providing concrete evidence of their learning journey to share with families and future educators.
Using assessment insights to inform teaching practices
The ultimate goal of combining these assessment types is to genuinely inform teaching practices. The data gathered from both formative and summative assessments should directly influence your curriculum planning, activity design, and individual interactions.
If formative assessments reveal a common misconception among several children, you might adjust your daily circle time or small group activities. If summative data shows consistent strength in one area, you might extend learning opportunities. Conversely, if a summative assessment highlights an area of unexpected difficulty, it prompts a deeper look through formative observations to pinpoint specific challenges, allowing for targeted interventions and a truly responsive learning environment.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Can you use formative assessment instead of summative assessment?
A: No, the two assessments serve different purposes. Formative assessment helps you adjust daily teaching strategies, while summative assessment is necessary to formally evaluate a child's overall developmental milestones at the end of a term.
Q: How often should childcare programs conduct summative assessments?
A: Most early childhood programs conduct summative assessments quarterly or semi-annually. This schedule gives children enough time to develop new skills while keeping families regularly updated on their progress.
Q: What is the best way to share assessment results with families?
A: The most effective method is combining written progress reports with visual portfolios and one-on-one family-teacher conferences. Using childcare management software like brightwheel also allows you to share real-time updates and portfolios securely with families.
Q: How can new staff members be trained to conduct assessments without feeling overwhelmed?
A: Start by providing clear, step-by-step guidelines and examples of completed assessments to set expectations. Pair new staff with experienced team members for hands-on training and support during their initial assessments. Use tools like brightwheel to simplify the process by offering templates, automated tracking, and easy documentation. Encourage regular check-ins for feedback, and remind staff to focus on small, manageable steps rather than trying to complete everything at once.
The bottom line
Mastering both formative and summative assessment strategies is essential for early childhood educators. While formative assessments provide ongoing insights to guide immediate instruction and foster continuous learning, summative assessments offer a comprehensive overview of learning outcomes and program effectiveness.
By purposefully integrating these assessment tools, providers can gain a holistic understanding of each child's development, ensuring they are well-equipped to support every learner's journey and meet the diverse needs within their early learning environment.
