Common Formative Assessments
Common Formative Assessments (CFAs) are assessments designed to monitor student learning progress throughout the learning process to provide ongoing, timely feedback that can be used by educators to inform instruction and by students to take an active part in their learning.
CFA Key Characteristics
Frequency: CFAS are to be given frequently throughout the learning process to identify learning gaps and resolve them promptly.
Customization & Flexibility: CFAs assess learning objectives using a variety of assessment and item formats.
Collaboration: The CFA process should be developed collaboratively by teams of educators to ensure learning objective alignment and promote consistency across classrooms.
Timely Analysis & Feedback: CFAs provide timely, detailed information that educators can use to inform instructional goals and students can use to monitor their own academic progress.
How does VAST support CFAs?
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VAST was born of a partnership between Viridian and Val Verde and Alvord School Districts. This close partnership has made one of the most user friendly and feature rich assessment systems around.
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VAST includes over 30,000 Common Core aligned items across all subject areas in the Global Catalog as well as a growing number of educator-approved items meeting a high standard rigor, reliability, and usability. Viridian never charges for access to the item bank.
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Any system can assess students’ knowledge and skill but VAST is the ONLY platform that allows the educator to create and administer items that match the content students will see on the Smarter Balanced Assessment. With no additional training required.
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All reporting in VAST is available from the district level to the student level. This allows all educators and learners equal access to information to make data-driven decisions
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VAST integrates with many other assessment, screener, and survey systems allowing for a single pane of glass view of student progress. Viridian does not charge extra to bring in data from other systems