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Visible Learning™
Visible Learning MetaX™
Version 1.4 – Updated February 2026

Formative evaluation

Overview

  • Influence: Formative evaluation
  • Domain: Teaching Strategies
  • Sub-Domain: Feedback
  • Potential to Accelerate Student Achievement: Potential to accelerate
  • Influence Definition: Providing instruction or feedback during the lesson rather than at the end (summative) of a lesson or series of lessons. As Bob Stake noted, when the cook tastes the soup, it is formative evaluation; when the guests taste the soup, it is summative evaluation. It can also be a way for teachers to determine if the strategies they are using to teach are effective or need, changed, or a need to reteach.

Evidence

  • Number of meta-analyses: 8
  • Number of studies: 331
  • Number of students: 239,553
  • Number of effects: 980
  • Weighted mean effect size: 0.39
  • Robustness index: 4

Meta-Analyses

Meta-Analyses
Journal Title Author Article Name Year Published Variable Number of Studies Number of Students Number of Effects Effect Size
Exceptional Children Fuchs & Fuchs Effects of Systematic Formative Evaluation: A Meta-Analysis 1986 Formative evaluation 21 3,835 21 0.70
Dissertation Kim Effects of implementing performance assessments on student learning: Meta-analysis using HLM. 2005 Formative assessment 148 NA 644 0.39
Internet site Faber and Visscher Digitale leerlingvolgsystemen: een review van de effecten op leerprestaties 2014 Formative assessment 15 NA 40 0.40
Elementary School Journal Graham, Hebert, & Harris Formative assessment and writing: A meta-analysis 2015 Feedback on writing 27 NA 27 0.61
Conference paper Lee, Chung, Abedi, & Rashedi Systematic review of formative assessment: Efficacy and characteristics. 2018 Formative assessment 32 NA 125 0.28
Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice Kingston & Nash Formative assessment: A meta-analysis and a call for research 2011 Efficacy of formative assessment 13 114,480 42 0.25
Educational Review Chen & Li Formative Assessment in China and Its Effects on EFL Learners' Learning Achievement: A Meta-Analysis from Policy Transfer Perspective. 2021 Formative assessment on EFL 27 5,187 33 0.46
Frontiers in Psychology Xuan, Cheung, & Sun The effectiveness of formative assessment for enhancing reading achievement in K-12 classrooms: A meta-analysis.  2022 Formative assessment 48 116,051 48 0.19
TOTAL/AVERAGE 331 239,553 980 0.41
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