Formative Assessment Tools And Software Buyers’ Guide

Finding the right formative assessment tool is no easy task. Where should you start looking? What questions should you be asking? And what impact should you be expecting from using formative assessment tools?

This first-of-a-kind buyers’ guide will provide a route map to analyse the different formative assessment solutions available, and provide a systematic process for identifying the right solution for your school’s context.

1. What Is Formative Assessment?

Formative assessment encompasses both formal and informal assessment procedures which are used to modify future teaching and learning activities. In contrast, summative assessment is focused on providing a grade for a student.

To identify the opportunities education technology (EdTech) brings to formative assessment via digital tools and software, we have broken down the process into 7 distinct stages.

Teaching and learning: Students are taught by the teacher
Assessment design: Questions are created to test the students
Administer assessment: Students are provided with the questions and complete the assessment
Mark assessment: The students’ returned assessments are marked
Student feedback: Feedback is provided to the students, from simply providing a grade through to more contextual performance feedback
Data capture & storage: Students’ scores are stored in order to track progress over time
Performance analysed: Students’ scores are analysed to spot gaps in knowledge, predict future performance and refine learning content

2. How EdTech Is Transforming Formative Assessment

One of the most powerful opportunities presented by EdTech is its ability to automate repetitive, time-intensive tasks. The opportunity for teachers in this area is to have EdTech automate the admin and paperwork aspects of formative assessment, freeing up time that can be used to increase contact time or feedback frequency with students.

There is enormous breadth in the range of EdTech solutions available to schools. Some use machine learning and AI to intelligently serve students with the right level of content next in their learning journey; other formative assessment tools are designed to simply share information about students’ progress with parents. Some are generic and can be applied to all curriculum areas, while others have been built for a specific subject.

The table below contrasts the traditional, unassisted approach to formative assessment with an EdTech approach. Broken down into each stage of the assessment process, you will see there are plenty of exciting and innovative opportunities for EdTech to augment and build upon traditional practices.

	Traditional Approach	EdTech Approach
Teaching & Learning	The teacher develops their own resources, working late into their evenings and weekends	The teacher utilises existing resources in the form of digital content, interactive applications or even AI-driven curriculum delivery tools
Assessment Questions	The teacher uses paper-based assessments, queuing at the photocopier before school or through their break	The teacher can select from pre-existing assessments or create their own. Distributing the assessments can be done digitally, and may not require more than a few clicks
Administer Assessment	Students can only sit paper-based assessments if in school. Students who aren’t present miss the assessment	Students sit the assessment digitally, available through an app or browser. This flexibility enables students to take assessments ‘on-demand’, as opposed to having to be present in the classroom
Mark Assessment	The teacher marks each student’s responses on paper, with pen	The teacher retains the ability to mark papers individually or could make use of automatic marking solutions, ranging from self-marking quizzes, through to AI / machine learning supported systems
Student Feedback	Students physically receive their returned assessment, graded by the teacher. In some instances, the teacher will provide additional written feedback	The teacher can provide individual feedback and make use of voice notes and / or video or screencasts to provide richer, deeper feedback to students. Student grades and performance can be shared with parents / guardians through EdTech dashboards and apps.
Data Capture & Storage	The teacher stores the data in a spreadsheet, manually inputting student scores, line by line	The teacher can make use of assessment platforms to automate data capture, which can be shared more widely with other staff members or with parents / guardians
Gap Analysis / Spotting Trends	The teacher analyses the scores manually, looking for knowledge gaps or trends in performance	The teacher can make use of solutions that intelligently analyse student performance, either at an individual level or across cohorts (pre-determined such as year groups or custom groups)

3. The Impact Of Formative Assessment Tools And Software

It is clear that EdTech offers plenty of opportunities to improve traditional classroom approaches to formative assessment. But what short and long-term impact should you expect? And what evidence is available to back up the ambitious claims often made by the vendors?

EdTech Impact requires every EdTech vendor, upon registering, to select from a predefined list of education-driven ‘impact metrics’. Customers then ‘score’ each metric alongside written feedback that they submit through independent EdTech Impact surveys.

This gives you, the school buyer, a clearer understanding of what impact the vendor expects you to receive, alongside how they are actually performing in the real world based on qualitative and quantitative feedback from their customers.

We have aggregated 9601 impact metrics across more than 100 formative assessment tools listed on EdTech Impact. This is what teachers had to say:

87% agreed it builds student knowledge
85% agreed it improves attainment
84% agreed it improves parent engagement
82% agreed it improves teacher wellbeing
81% agreed it improves teaching efficiency
70% agreed it reduces teacher workload
62% agreed it reduces the attainment gap
47% agreed it saves the school money

Note: ’Agreed’ is where customers selected either ‘Agree’ or ‘Strongly Agree’ when completing an EdTech Impact survey.

Looking beyond the numbers, EdTech Impact has collected hundreds of written reviews for formative assessment tools that highlight perceived impact:

“I feel for the first time in control of the data”

“Teachers get an instantaneous overview of students’ progress and attainment”

“Completely revolutionised our revision strategy, helping us gain above national average 3 years in a row”

It is important to note that EdTech Impact’s reviews have been collected over the last 2 years from active teachers around the world – each will have used the solution for varying lengths of time, and within wildly different contexts.

If you have the time, we recommend you record your own observations and then compare with other schools like yours. The longer you can do this for, the better. An ideal time would be during an extended trial period (many vendors will allow this if you are willing to share your feedback with them).

If you are really short on time, then make these 3 observations your priority:

Does the solution support and stretch pupils of all levels?
Does the solution tell me more than I knew before about a particular group of students?
Does using the system improve my teaching?

Schools like mine tool
EdTech Impact reviews provide ‘school characteristics’ data for all schools in England. Simply click the school name next to each user review to see their context – e.g. number of pupils on roll, free school meal %, pupils with EAL – or try searching specifically for schools like yours by using our schools like mine search tool.

4. Comparing Formative Assessment Tools And Software Features

There are a lot of EdTech solutions already on the market, each with their own nuances. It’s often only when you start investing time into using them that you get to understand the exact feature list available.

To save you that time, here’s a handy list of formative assessment-specific questions to ask the vendor directly:

Does the platform allow me to define my own questions? Some systems, particularly those whose key purpose is to teach a particular area within a subject, will have predefined questions relating to their core area without an option to create any specific ones.
Are the questions within the platform appropriate for my students? If there are only predefined questions, teachers need to judge whether or not these are appropriate for their particular students and to think about the outlier students — the very low attaining, or high attaining and those with disabilities or additional educational needs. Teachers might want to consider the vocabulary used as well as the complexity of the questions.
Does the platform support all the different types of questions you want to ask your students? Some systems only allow multiple choice questions with one correct answer, while others support a wider range of questions with more than one right answer or the ability to incorporate short free text questions or to include essay questions.
Does the platform give feedback to my students in a way that is appropriate — and can they make use of that feedback? Does the feedback use words that my students will understand? If the feedback is in the form of a mark, does that match with the way my students are normally given feedback?
Can I easily get an overview of individual students and groups of students’ attainment and progress from this platform? Is there a teacher dashboard that I can use to see my students’ progress and attainment? Can I share it with colleagues?
Will this help me know what to teach next? Does the system provide me with enough information to determine what I should do next with my students?

5. Choosing The Right Formative Assessment Solution

Moving beyond features and benefits, the final stage in your research is to double-check the solution fits within your school’s wider digital strategy. This can often be the achilles heel for many EdTech projects, so we want to avoid your solution joining the ever-growing “virtual cupboard of shame” that we so often hear about!

To maximise your chances of success first time around, here is a list of considerations that will help you build a robust business case for all stakeholders involved (and can be applied to almost any EdTech project):

Setting a clear vision. What are the expectations for this project in terms of scale of rollout and expected impact? Are you going to undertake a pilot or phased rollout? How long before you expect to see impact from the new solution, and what impact do you expect to see?
Stakeholder engagement. Are all teachers and/or departments onboard with going forward with the project? Have they had an ability to voice any concerns or offer alternatives (which may already be in use). Have you undertaken any curriculum ‘suitability’ review or similar?
Implementation plan. How will the solution be implemented, how long will it take and who is responsible for each stage? How will teachers be trained? Do you have enough internal resources to easily roll the solution out, or will it fall on a senior leader who already has a full schedule?
Interoperability. Does this system need to interface with other information systems in your school? Can you easily import data such as your class list, a set of parent emails, and your report-writing software? Does it integrate with Google or Microsoft?
Data security. Does it allow for single sign-on? Is the data stored in the system safe? Does it comply with GDPR? Do you have any safeguarding concerns around the use of the system? Who is the data controller – you, the school, the vendor? If it’s the vendor, why is that?
Accessibility. Is the system accessible to all students and staff? Can you change features in order to support students with additional educational needs?
Skills gaps. Do colleagues have the IT skills needed to use this system? Do students have the IT skills needed to use this system? Do parents?
Impact evidence. How robust is the evidence base behind the platform’s effectiveness? Does the vendor have evidence of their solution being used in a school like yours? Can I trial the platform with a small group before purchasing in order to collect my own evidence?
End of contract process. Can they help you export your data if you want to change to a new solution at the end of the contract? Can you keep access to the system for 30 days after the end of the contract to give time to migrate your data?

6. Final Advice And Next Steps

There are many formative assessment solutions on the market offering a wide range of features. This buyers’ guide, combined with EdTech Impact’s reviews and product data, will help save you time and money by effectively navigating the EdTech marketplace, and provide you with a list of laser questions to reveal the right tool for the job.

Remember, stay organised as you compare solutions by making notes and scoring each solution in a spreadsheet. Good luck!

Start your search
Now that you’re a formative assessment expert, the next step is to filter our extensive list of formative assessment solutions, shortlist your top 3 and book personalised demonstrations to ask your list of questions.