1. Assessments FOR Learning
2. Assessments OF Learning
3. In my estimation, the biggest difference between an assessment that is meant to encourage learning (FOR) and an assessment that is meant to demonstrate having learned (OF) is the ability to make mistakes without penalty.
4. Self-Assessment is an assessment wherein students compare their own work to a rubric or standard and think critically about the strengths and weaknesses of their work.
   1. Advantages: Self Assessments require students to evaluate the work they are doing honestly and examine ways to improve without teacher intervention. Self-assessment tests critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, and is a skill students can apply throughout their lives.
   2. Disadvantages: Self-Assessment does not always provide quality feedback to students who are poor critical thinkers or who are not engaged in the academic process.
   3. Self-Assessment is almost always used FOR learning, since one isn't generally unbiased enough to determine one's own course grade.
   4. Self-Assessment could included a worksheet with discussion goals that asks students to gauge the quality of their contributions to class discussions.
   5. Source: http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/assessing/peereval.htm
5. Peer-Assessment is an assessment wherein students provide feedback on one another's work.
   1. Advantages: Students learn how to apply standards in writing or discussion by evaluating their peers. Students are then able to adapt the technique to evaluating their own work. Students also learn to look at editors' notes critically rather than just applying them blindly.
   2. Disadvantages: Students cannot always be counted on to give high-quality feedback, and bad edits can interrupt a writer's process.
   3. Peer Assessment is almost always used FOR learning, because students aren't qualified to provide summative assessment of their classmates work.
   4. The most common form of Peer Assessment, in my experience, is essay peer editing, but peer feedback can also be useful for helping students to meet discussion or public speaking standards.
   5. Source: http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/assessing/peereval.htm
6. Diagnostic assessments, or pretests, are designed to assess the needs of students before learning begins. They are often paired with posttests to gauge student growth over time.
   1. Advantages: Pretests can help the teacher to target instruction to actual student needs, rather than engaging in one-size-fits-all pedagogy. Students can also use pretests to manage expectations about the class and to anticipate the objectives of the class.
   2. Disadvantages: Pretest-posttest design can oversimplify classroom problems for some teachers and administrators, and can have a tendency to shift the responsibility for student learning from students to teachers. Nonetheless it is a very useful informational tool when used properly and with the proper perspective.
   3. Pretests are assessments FOR learning because they help a teacher to understand student strengths and weaknesses before instruction starts.
   4. Diagnostic assessments are often versions of the final summative exam for a unit or class, which acts as the posttest. These are often essays or traditional pen-and-paper exams, but verbal assessments can be used to the same effect.
   5. Source: http://www.education.nt.gov.au/parents-community/assessment-reporting/diagnostic-assessments/diagnostic-assessments
7. Formative Assessment describes a category of assessments that track student progress toward the class objectives and provide timely feedback that helps the student to improve.
   1. Advantages: Formative assessments can help teachers keep on top of student successes and challenges. Effective formative assessments inform classroom decisions, reward students for progress toward objectives, and give students the opportunity to correct mistakes and misjudgments.
   2. Disadvantages: Formative assessments require significantly more effort from the teacher than ignoring student progress does.
   3. Formative assessments are assessments FOR learning because they help students to correct their work and learn from their mistakes.
   4. Essay drafting is a form of formative assessment that teaches the writing process through revision and troubleshooting.
   5. Source: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/5212
8. Summative Assessment describes a category of assessments that assess cumulative student learning, often accompanied by a grade.
   1. Advantages: Summative Assessment gives teachers a tool with which to prove the effectiveness of instruction. It also gives students a tool by which they can demonstrate the fruits of their efforts. Summative Assessment is also the source of grades, which can be used in determining college placement, eligibility for scholarships and rewards, etc.
   2. Disadvantages: Summative Assessments have been traditionally overused, which tends to make mistakes punitive, leading to fear of school and test anxiety.
   3. Summative Assessments define assessments OF learning, since they are generally accompanied by grades and don't offer students opportunities for revision.
   4. These includes many end-of-term presentations and all high-stakes tests.
   5. Source: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/5233
9. Portfolio Assessment is a type of assessment in which a student collects examples of his or her best work and presents them, often to a panel, to demonstrate competence in a subject.
   1. Advantages: Portfolio assessment is beneficial in that it often requires a high degree of self-assessment from the student and it can paint an accurate picture of the student's growth and accomplishment over a period of time.
   2. Disadvantages: Portfolio assessment can require a lot of time and effort, and often requires strong organization skills on the part of the student.
   3. Portfolio assessment is generally an assessment OF learning, and is often used as an "authentic" alternative to traditional high stakes testing. The portfolio, though, is often made up of successful formative assessments.
   4. Many art classes use portfolio reviews to give students an opportunity to showcase their work alongside statements of intent.
   5. Source: http://www.education.com/reference/article/portfolio-assessment/
10. High-Stakes Assessment refers to any assessment that determines qualification or disqualification for a status or benefit, including passing a class, being admitted to college, or being awarded a privilege.
    1. Advantages: Usually comes with a high degree of student buy-in, since there is a direct consequence for not passing.
    2. Disadvantages: Results are often not reliable or representative of student ability. High stakes situations create anxiety that can skew test results. Students who struggle are often categorized as non-learners rather than as students who need additional assistance.
    3. High-Stakes Assessments are always assessments OF learning, though they are not always effective ways to gauge what the student is able to do.
    4. The SAT is an example of a high-stakes assessment.
    5. Source: http://edglossary.org/high-stakes-testing/
11. Performance Based Assessment is a type of "authentic" assessment that requires students to apply knowledge to the performance of a real-world task.
    1. Advantages: Performance Based Assessment allows teachers to assess higher-level thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills in an environment that fosters discovery and growth.
    2. Disadvantages: True Performance Based Assessment can be time-consuming, and requires more planning and energy from the teacher than traditional assessments.
    3. Performance Based Assessment includes both assessments OF and FOR learning, often in the same performance. Often, the final product will act as a summative assessment while formative benchmarks are set along the way to track student progress.
    4. An example of a Performance Based Assessment would be writing, producing, and distributing a student newspaper.
    5. Source: https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-beta/performance-based-assessment
12. Authentic Assessment refers to any assessment that tests knowledge and skills in a way that consistently reflects a student's actual understanding of and ability with a concept.
    1. Advantages: Authentic Assessment filters out unrelated phenomena such as test anxiety and ADHD in order to show a student's proficiencies and weaknesses in an authentic way. Authentic Assessments tend to require collaboration, problem-solving, critical-thinking skills, and other higher-level processes. Student engagement and performance is often much higher than in traditional testing, despite requiring higher-level thinking.
    2. Disadvantages: Authentic Assessment is difficult to administer on a large scale, and it is often requires more time and effort from the teacher or proctor.
    3. Authentic Assessment can include assessments both FOR and OF learning, but it is generally thought of as summative. Often, formative assessments are built in along the way to track student progress.
    4. An example of an authentic assessment would be students making an animation to represent a scene from a novel, with colors and shapes chosen to represent symbolic ideas from the scene.
    5. Source: http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/whatisit.htm