"When the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative; when the guests taste the soup, that’s summative." - Robert Stakes
I really like this quote as I often have to explain the difference between formative and summative assessments. It's simple and catchy.
I also was caught by the statement made by Micheal Scriven in our class reading:
"we had (a) group trying to convince us that there was no such thing in the real world as summative evaluation; reality, they said, evaluation was essentially always formative. This may well have been true of their experiences, but not of a reality containing Consumer Reports and the results of jury trials and appeals. " This is an argument I have also had with colleagues around assessment. What is the real value of your final mark other than to obfuscate where you are on your learning path. I like the idea of programs being evaluated with a formative emphasis.
