Assessment in PBL takes several forms, generally fitting
into two broad classifications—formative and summative.
Formative assessments provide insights into the progress
students are making on the project as well as their status
toward mastery of the outcomes. Formative assessments
can consist of authentic assessments including reports,
webs of important information, and oral reports of their
progress toward completion (Polman, 1999).
These formative assessments function to help the teacher determine where students are having difficulty and how to best address those needs.
They also give the teacher insights into both group
and individual functioning, allowing him or her to make
adjustments to group composition, customize learning
expectations, and provide selective and targeted remediation
and assistance. Comparatively, summative assessments in PBL are often administered at periodic intervals to assess specific aspects of the learning goals. While summative assessments are used to take snapshots of student progress, they also inform the teacher about specific assessment deficits with regard to item construction, testing format, and testing setting (Ronis, 2007).
Because of recent accountability issues,
summative assessments, more often than not, resemble state
high-stakes tests.