ABA Standards and Formative Assessment

ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools 2014-2015

Why are formative and summative assessments important in legal education? The American Bar Association has recently identified these assessment strategies as a key part of student learning:

Standard 314. ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING

A law school shall utilize both formative and summative assessment methods in its curriculum to measure and improve student learning and provide meaningful feedback to students.

Interpretation 314-1

Formative assessment methods are measurements at different points during a particular course or at different points over the span of a student’s education that provide meaningful feedback to improve student learning. Summative assessment methods are measurements at the culmination of a particular course or at the culmination of any part of a student’s legal education that measure the degree of student learning.