As of recently, Sweetwater Union High School District has asked schools within the district to transition from their current program, Illuminate, to a new program, Formative, for final exams and assessments. BVH Advanced Placement Environmental Science , International Baccalaureate Environmental Science and Societies , and Accelerated Biology teacher, Jennifer Ekstein shares the downsides to the Illuminate program.
“One of the downsides of the [Illuminate program] is that there was a separate test bank and testing platform [which] was difficult to toggle back and forth. You also had to click a million times to figure out what test scores were, and it was not [as] intuitive to use,” Ekstein said.
Teachers have expressed numerous different issues with Illuminate such as the program being difficult to maneuver, the program not being user friendly and the program only having the option to put the general types of questions on exams. While students have noticed that questions on Illuminate don’t align with what they’re learning. BVH International Baccalaureate, Applications & Interpretation Standard Level and Higher Level and Integrated Math One teacher Angel Prado states that Formative can be beneficial towards students regarding navigating tests and assessments effectively.
“Formative has features available so that [students] can practice test taking strategies. [Formative] also allows teachers to create assessments that they can share amongst each other to see how students are doing,” Prado said.
With many teachers starting to use Formative, they are discovering that it can be used for more than just tests and assessments. Teachers can use Formative to see how other students are doing in the district and also for daily instruction to help students with lessons. BVH Assessment Teacher on Special Assignments Esmerelda Orozco lists the different ways Formative can be used within the school environment.
“[Depending] on how [teachers] use [formative]. If [teachers] use it only for assessments or tests, they can use the data to reflect on alignment of standards. If they use it for daily instruction, it can give them the opportunity to support students by giving them immediate feedback during their lessons,” Orozco said.
These appealing features within Formative allow for teachers to cater their curriculum further towards their students in a more innovative and engaging way. By assisting teachers reteach lessons and projects more effectively to students, Ekstein gives her insight on methods teachers can use to improve their curriculum through Formative.
“[Formative] will help teachers clearly see where they need to reteach certain standards and help drive their lessons. It also means that teachers may want to use innovative [ways to] reteach projects,” Ekstein said. “[While also having students] see the breakdown of their test scores based on their strengths and weaknesses.”
Despite Formative providing a platform for teachers to improve their curriculum, it can also provide the district with proof on how different schools are doing with different subjects. Allowing the district to cater the final to students progression throughout the year and for teachers to share their methods of teaching to help educators in other schools. Prado describes how both the district and teachers can get information about student learning while having access to the resources other teachers may use.
“Another benefit is that we [teachers] and the district can see how schools are doing with each other,” Prado said. “If they are [explaining a subject better] it gives us a chance as teachers to connect and have conversations like; you know what you are teaching, how you are teaching it and how to make our students successful,” Prado said.
Since Formative can utilize many different test strategies and test questions, it will make it easier for teachers to share their assessments and lessons with one another. Orozco expresses that this concept within Formative can put teachers at ease.
“Formative can be the platform in which schools across the district can share their assessments and lessons because it contains a library in which teachers can publish them,” Orozco said. “This can keep groups of teachers working at one school from feeling isolated, since they can access the library and see what other schools are doing in their content area,“
Overall, Formative is becoming a very beneficial program for students and teachers at BVH and to schools in our district when learning is concerned. Orozco describes the general benefits that formative has for students and teachers within our district.
“Teachers have really appreciated the simplicity in grading student work. Students have appreciated the immediate feedback features and the Practice Sets feature to help them study,” Orozco said. “[Meaning that] our school district is providing more support for instruction and Formative is one way teachers can adapt to student needs.”
