Understanding Common Formative Assessments

Front

A Common Formative Assessment (CFA) is primarily designed to assign a final grade at the end of a unit or course.

Back

False

Answer explanation

CFAs are formative assessments, meaning their main purpose is to provide feedback during the learning process to adjust instruction, not assign a final, summative grade.

Front

A key characteristic of a CFA is that it is collaboratively developed and administered by a team of teachers who teach the same course or grade level.

Back

True

Answer explanation

The 'Common' aspect means it's a shared assessment tool, typically developed by a Professional Learning Community (PLC) or collaborative team to ensure consistency and compare results.

Front

The data gathered from a CFA is used by teachers to identify which instructional strategies were most effective and what content needs to be re-taught.

Back

True

Answer explanation

CFAs provide timely, specific data that allows teachers to reflect on their teaching practices and adjust their instruction to close learning gaps.

Front

Examples of a CFA can include an exit ticket, a short quiz, or a common written response question.

Back

True

Answer explanation

A CFA can take many forms, as long as it is a brief, common measure that provides data on a specific learning target to inform instruction.

Front

A CFA is the same thing as a unit test, only it's given by all teachers at the same time.

Back

False

Answer explanation

A CFA is not the same as a unit test (which is summative). A CFA is given during the unit to inform instruction, while a unit test is given after instruction to measure mastery.

Front

If a teacher gives a CFA a numerical grade, the assessment is no longer considered formative.

Back

False

Answer explanation

An assessment's format or scoring (graded or not) doesn't determine if it's formative. What makes it formative is how the results are used—specifically, if they are used to adjust ongoing teaching and learning.

Front

Students who perform well on a CFA should immediately move on to the next unit of study while their peers receive re-teaching.

Back

False

Answer explanation

Students should receive extension (Tier 1 enrichment) that deepens their understanding of the current learning target, rather than moving ahead and potentially disrupting the team's instructional pacing and content sequence.

Front

If all students pass a CFA, teachers still need to discuss the results and can move on to the next learning objective.

Back

True

Answer explanation

Even with high scores, teacher teams should still discuss why the results were high (i.e., identifying the highly effective instructional strategies) to replicate that success in future units.

Front

The CFA process is finished once the assessment has been collaboratively developed and scored.

Back

False

Answer explanation

Development and scoring are only the first two steps. The critical part of the CFA process is the team analyzing the data and jointly planning the follow-up instruction and interventions.

Front

Which of the following is NOT a type of formative assessment technique? Quizzes, One-minute papers, Peer reviews

Back

Standardized tests