Formative Assessment

“Assessment of student learning plays an important new role in teaching: no longer signaling the end of instruction, it is now recognized to be an integral part of instruction … And in order to assess student learning for the purposes of instruction, teachers must have a “finger on the pulse” of a lesson, monitoring student understanding and, where feedback is appropriate, offering it to students.”

– (Charlotte Danielson)

Utilizing Formative Assessment in AP Classes

Since starting in 2016, AP for All has worked with schools to effectively utilize formative assessment in their classroom through aligned larger assessment and smaller day to day assessments.

Formative and Mock Assessment

Formative Assessment (Ongoing)

College Board Personal Progress Checks: College Board provides Personal Progress checks for each unit outlined in the Advanced Placement Course and Exam Description (CED). Personal Progress Checks assess students’ understanding of all the topics and skills within a unit. After students complete a Personal Progress Check, teachers can use the class report to discuss common challenges with students, identify topics to reteach, and help focus student review. See the AP Classroom User Guide For Teachers and AP Classroom User Guide For Students for more information. Teachers can access Personal Progress Checks on AP Classroom.

Full Length Mock Exam

College Board Secure Released Exams: AP teachers can access free, downloadable full-length AP practice exams. These complete AP Exams are only available to teachers; students can’t access them. College Board limits the use of these downloadable Practice exams to in class only, but they are also available, along with other released questions, in the AP Question Bank on AP Classroom. See the AP Classroom User guides for more information.

Formative Assessment Resources

AP Coordinators can find answers for administering the assessments in the AP for All Scanning Handbook
Check out our calendar to see upcoming Professional Learning opportunities.

Please note, the most critical and impactful formative assessment will take place in AP classrooms regularly.

College Board’s AP Classroom

AP Classroom Supports

Watch discipline-specific AP Classroom sessions at youtube.com/apeducators:

1. AP Classroom: New Year, New Look. An overview of the new look for the 2021-22 school year.
2. My Assignments: AP Daily, Topic Questions, and Progress Checks. A deep-dive into how to access and assign each of these resources, as well as suggestions on when they might be used.
3. My Reports: All Assignments and Progress Checks. A walk-through of the updated reports in AP Classroom, including suggestions for interpreting the displayed data.
4. Question Bank. A detailed exploration of this resource, including building and assigning custom assessments as well as using the right question at the right time of year.

Bookmark and use the AP Classroom Teacher User Guide for assistance: The guide contains step-by-step guidance and screenshots for navigation of supports.

Join the AP Teacher Online Community at apcommunity.collegeboard.org.

Personal Progress Checks

Made up of formative AP questions, personal progress checks are meant to measure student progress through each unit and throughout the year. They measure content and skills in each unit through:

multiple-choice questions that are scored automatically and include rationales to explain correct and incorrect answers
free-response questions with AP scoring guidelines teachers can use to evaluate student answers

AP Classroom Question Bank

Teachers will have access to a database of real AP questions, some of which have never been released before. This online library of more than 15,000 questions can be:

filtered by course content and skills
used to create customized practice and tests
assigned online or on paper as in-class assignments or homework

Progress Dashboard

The progress dashboard helps teachers recognize student achievement and prioritize areas for additional support by:

pinpointing strengths and weaknesses on AP content and skills
charting class and student progress throughout the school year
equipping students to monitor their own progress and take steps to improve

Hear from an AP administrator on the Progress Dashboard.

Daily Formative Assessments

Regular, daily assessment is an integral part of teaching, since it informs students and teachers of how well daily objectives are being achieved, what students have mastered and how teachers might need to adjust their instruction. If classes wait until the end of unit, or for a formal quarterly assessment, it is often too late to address issues in a timely manner.

Teachers should:

Give students several checks for understanding during the class, to assess student understanding of material
Align formative assessments to daily objectives or learning targets. Daily objectives or learning targets should be in line with the Learning Objectives and skills outlined in the College Board Course and Exam Description (CED) for the course.
Formative Assessment is only useful if it includes regular feedback to students, which identify the areas they have mastered and allow for them to improve their mastery of topics and skills.

The best assessments are those that inform both teacher and student about what their next steps should be and the areas where mastery and understanding are budding. The instructional lesson should offer several opportunities for monitoring and responding to student learning.

Additional Resources for Formative Assessment

To learn more about Formative Assessment, refer to Domain 3d of the NYCDOE Danielson Framework on WeTeach. The Danielson Framework for Teaching is the rubric used for teacher development and observation or evaluation. It is used as a formative tool to develop teacher practice as well as a rubric for use when observing and evaluating teacher practice.

Also be sure to check out:

Remote learning resources: