Although formative assessment practices have been shown to increase students’ achievement (Black & Wiliam, 1998), limited research has described or analyzed what these practices look like in mathematics classrooms—especially high school classrooms. Building on prior work (Black & Wiliam, 1998; Cameron, Gawroski, Eich, & McCready, 2011; Chappuis, Stiggins, Chappuis, & Arter; 2012; McMillan, 2007) this study conceptualizes formative assessment as a process that involves teachers and/or students gathering evidence about students’ thinking in order to make decisions to improve instruction and student learning. It focused on six practices: learning targets, questioning, feedback, self-assessment, peer assessment, and instructional decisions. I examined how six high school mathematics teachers implemented formative assessment practices in two series of lessons taught in their classrooms. Through background, pre-lesson, post-lesson, and exit interviews, data was gathered about which practices teachers were implementing, how they were implementing them in their classrooms, and what they saw as supports and obstacles when trying to implement these types of practices in their classrooms. The study nested the formative assessment practices onto a lesson structure framework I developed to show in which activity structures teachers incorporated each of these formative assessment practices and at what level of expertise these practices were implemented. I found that whole class discussions and pair/small group work included the highest occurrences of formative assessment practices. I also found that questioning and feedback were the practices most often implemented by this group of teachers. These teachers also saw professional development, teacher resources, and their students as supports for implementing formative assessment in their classrooms. In addition, they saw their students and time as the most common hindrances in their ability to implement these practices.
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