Program leadership should provide opportunities for beginning teachers and mentors to participate in formative assessment experiences. The formative assessment process is designed to help teachers improve their practice based on conversations held with their mentor, data collected during observations, and the analysis of student work. This is not the same process as a teacher’s (summative) evaluation, which is completed by the administrator. Both of these are unrelated to program evaluation, which is the process of assessing the induction/mentoring program itself. Program evaluation is covered in Standard 9.

The formative assessment process provides a framework that demonstrates beginning teachers’ growth/progress and engages beginning teachers and their mentors in an ongoing, reflective process. The purpose of formative assessment is to improve teaching, as measured by the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards, the Illinois Continuum of Teacher Development (password required), the Charlotte Danielson Framework for Teaching, and/or the Illinois Learning Standards.

The Standard 8 Subsections address the following issues:

When reviewing this standard, keep the following questions in mind:

• What components should be included in the self-assessment process and the development of individual learning plans?
• What procedures should be in place to ensure the utilization of a wide range of formative assessment tools with each beginning teacher?
• What are the levels of beginning teacher practice and criteria for establishing those ratings?
• How can confidentially be maintained in the use of formative assessment data, and what policies are needed to protect the use of data for program purposes not evaluation?

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