Assessment vs. Evaluation

   As we began this course, I was struggling with the difference between assessment and evaluation.  I'm still having a hard time differentiating the two.  The thesaurus seems to agree that assessment and evaluation are closely related.  As I read through this weeks readings and looked over my class notes I considered that people assess a situation and evaluate a product or process.  Could an assessment be an informal evaluation?  It sounds like it to me.  After listening to the mini lesson on the definition of evaluation, I recall that describing a situation is a type of informal evaluation and making judgements on the information found and what needs to be done is more a formal evaluation.  My classmates tell me that assessments are only tools used to make evaluations.  Is evaluation simply then a more formal and complex assessment?  Or is there a distinction between the two I'm not processing?

Informal vs. Formal

   As a class(with instructor prompts) we were right on target about informal evaluations.  The book, Program Evaluation, claims that informal evaluation "lacks formal evidence" and "systematic procedures".  We listed surveys, interviews, observations and self reports-each lacking formal evidence and systematic procedures- and each are based on "highly subjective perceptions".  Informal evaluations occur regularly and sometimes without much thought as the book explains.  Formal evaluations are much more extensive.  The data collected in a formal evaluation is easier to analyze and has a set criteria making it less subjective.

Summative vs. Formative

   Here also, we were accurate in our attempts to identify examples of both of these types of evaluations.  Formative, as the name implies, is evaluation that is done as a program is being formed.  We included: "assessments used to change teaching strategies" in our class list under formative.  This is difficult to determine.  I can see this as both summative and formative.  If a teacher is trying a specific strategy to teach a concept and decides after the lesson whether the students understood the concept it would be an summative evaluation.  If, however, she is using observations and student feedback during a lesson and alters that strategy it would be an informal formative evaluation. Summative evaluations include looking at the end product instead of the process.  State tests are another blurry area when trying to distinguish between summative and formative.  If the state is using the test in order to rank and rate schools it is a summative evaluation.  If the state is using the test to change state goals and curriculum it could be seen as a formative evaluation.  The use or purpose of the evaluation plays an important part in defining the evaluation type.

Conclusions

   Evaluations are still, by no means, my favorite topic of study.  The word brings to mind things like ISAT scores and other tests used to form opinions on whether students are learning what we are hoping they will learn.  I'm not a big believer in testing so it is good for me to now have a broader view of evaluations.    As teachers, we use informal evaluations daily in our design and implementation of lessons.  Evaluating programs is an important part of education.  I suppose I can't really argue that we need formal evaluations in the schools in order to better the education system.
 

Elizabeth Sanford
1-23-2000