Assessment

Braham Area Schools Assessment Information


Data collection is a key part of the educational process.  The Braham Area School District is constantly monitoring student achievement in an ongoing effort to determine if we are adequately meeting student needs.  At the bottom of this page you will find the assessment calendar for our district along with several helpful links.  Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact District Assessment Coordinator Ken Gagner at 320-396-5199 or [email protected]


Assessment of teaching and learning can be viewed as overlapping activities within the instruction of students. Typically, assessment is collected either formatively or summatively. Formative assessment assists the teacher in forming new lessons while a summative assessment comes at the end of a lesson, semester, or year, for a summary of what the student has learned.


Formative Assessment: The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. Formative assessments are generally low stakes, and can be a very quick assessment of whether the child has learned the content. Formative assessments help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work.  They help faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately.  Examples of formative assessments include:

  • Observations

  • Conferences

  • Questioning

  • Drawing concept maps

  • Reflections

  • In class activities

  • Student feedback

  • Self-evaluations


Summative Assessment: The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against standards and/or benchmarks. Rubrics, often developed around a set of standards or expectations, can be used for summative assessment. Summative assessments are often high stakes, which means that they have a high point value. Summative assessment is characterized as assessment of learning and is contrasted with formative assessment, which is assessment for learning.  Examples of summative assessments include:

  • Midterm or end-of-course exams

  • Final projects  

  • Presentation or reports

  • Standardized assessments such as FAST, IGDI, MCA, ACT etc.


Helpful Links: