Introduction to the Professional Development Formative Assessment System (PD-FAS)

This 7-page resource, from Edmonds Community College, provides information about the Professional Development Formative Assessment System (PD-FAS). PD-FAS was created by the Formative Assessment for Advanced Technician Education 2 (FAS4ATE2) project. This project created this assessment system to address two concerns: "how best to design formative assessment for [Advanced Technological Education] ATE PD and to discover what design factors allow for more effective reporting of student-level outcomes."

This document includes a glossary, introduction, the principles, definitions of assessment and evaluation, assumptions, background information, and more. The PD-FAS principles include:

• Only learners (e.g., PD participants, students) can learn.
• Instructors at any level facilitate the process of learning and can learn how to better facilitate learning.
• To facilitate learning, both learners and instructors need to understand, in detail, the learners' thinking and progress.
• When learners and instructors regularly exchange information about the learners' progress, and adapt the learning process accordingly, learning is stickier and more effective.

Related materials are available to view separately.