Page 364 - DEDU504_EDUCATIONAL_MEASUREMENT_AND_EVALUATION_ENGLISH

Educational Measurement and Evaluation

Notes Summative evaluation is not about stating that three workshops were held, with a total of fifty
people attending (outputs), but rather the result of these workshops, such as increased knowledge
or increased uptake of rainwater tanks (outcomes).

31.2.1 Need for a Summative Evalation
There are some key reasons for using a summative evaluation :
• Summative evaluation provides a means to find out whether your project has reached its
goals/objectives/outcomes.
• Summative evaluation allows you to quantify the changes in resource use attributable to
your project so that you can track how you are the impact of your project.
• Summative evaluation allows you to compare the impact of different projects and make
results-based decisions on future spending allocations (taking into account unintended
consequences).
• Summative evaluation allows you to develop a better understanding of the process of
change, and finding out what works, what doesn’t, and why. This allows you to gather the
knowledge to learn and improve future project designs and implementation.
31.2.2 Characteristics
1. It is the procedure to assess or grade educators’ level of learning in certain period of time.
2. It tends to use well defined evaluation designs (i.e. fixed time and content).
3. It provides descriptive analysis (i.e. in order to give a grade, all the activities done throughout
the year are taken into account). 4. It tends to stress local effects.
5. It is unoppressive and not reactive as far as possible.
6. It is positive, tending to stress what students can do rather than what they cannot.
31.2.3 Summative evaluation can also be subdivided
• outcome evaluations investigate whether the program or technology caused demonstrable
effects on specifically defined target outcomes
• impact evaluation is broader and assesses the overall or net effects - intended or unintended
- of the program or technology as a whole
• cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis address questions of efficiency by standardizing
outcomes in terms of their dollar costs and values
• secondary analysis reexamines existing data to address new questions or use methods not
previously employed

• meta-analysis integrates the outcome estimates from multiple studies to arrive at an overall
or summary judgement on an evaluation question

Summative evaluation is outcome-focused more than process focused. It is important
to distinguish outcome from output.

Summative Evaluation is carried out at the end or conclusion of a programme of instruction. It is
very useful to determine whether or not the broad aims, objectives or goals of the programme
have been achieved. Summative evaluation is judgemental in nature and is offered as class tests,
examinations set up like termly, yearly and external examinations like ‘o’ levels, ’A’ levels. The
examinations used to design course grades and certify the learners.

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