INTRODUCTION

Summative assessment is a critical tool in the educational process, an assessment of what a student has learned at the completion of a given instructional unit or academic period. Properly prepared, it goes beyond grading into the realm of providing useful information about students' achievement, guiding the teacher's instruction, and contributing to decision-making at all levels of an educational system. Several important factors can make summative assessment very effective.

The assessment should be closely aligned with the learning objectives and course or program standards. Such alignment helps in the assurance that the assessment is valid to measure the intended knowledge and skills. Meanwhile, the different ways of assessment are useful in getting a more holistic picture of student learning. There is also an important place for traditional, written examinations. However, projects, presentations, portfolios, and other forms of performance-based measures can capture so many other aspects of student understandings and competencies.

Finally, another feature of summative assessment is that its timing should occur at a logical stopping point, where students have had an opportunity to learn the material well. Clarity of communication of the expectations and grading criteria to students ahead of time is critical for fairness and to also guide them in their own preparation. Rubrics can be particularly helpful in this regard, offering transparent guidelines for evaluation. When designing assessment items or tasks, one should ensure that the set questions have a balance between basic recall questions and those that engage the learner in higher-order thinking that requires the analysis, synthesis, or application of knowledge. Clearly then, the method allows a more differentiated assessment of students' abilities with regard to a whole variety of learning objectives.