The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has a white paper on 21st Century Assessments that recommends both formative and summative assessements.
In the paper, they recommend:
“Assessment must be seen both as an instructional tool for use while learning is occurring (formative), and as an accountability tool to determine if learning has occurred (summative).”
21st Century Skills include hard to measure skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration.
They write:
“Thus, a 21st century assessment must be able to measure or observe a student’s mastery along several different axes. In addition, assessing student work using established rubrics and checklists is important. Not all assessments need to be formal and published.”
They recommend that assessments be part of a comprehensive continuum:
“21st century skills assessment must be ongoing. Students must visualize their thought process and how it aligns with a strategy to solve or complete a problem. Since students’ thought constructs are continually changing, formative assessment should be regularly given so students can see improvements in their skills and strategies, as well as knowledge transfer to parallel or related problems.”
They also recommend that assessments reflect learning that is multidimensional, integrated, and revealed in performance over time:
“Formative assessments should relay to the student that high-quality education involves a process of knowledge integration, processing, and performance.”
We believe GradePad helps teachers do ongoing performance assessment for 21st Century Skills.