What Are Formative Waypoints Assessments?

Overview

Formative assessments allow educators to monitor student growth of Wayfinder’s six Core Skills between summative assessments. By administering formative Waypoints assessments, educators can use data to adjust instruction and maximize student learning.

For more on how Formative assessment scores are calculated, see How are Formative Waypoints Assessment Values Calculated?

Formative assessments can be administered in two ways:

• Students self-report Waypoints (default)
• Educators observe + report Waypoints

See the chart below for major differences and benefits:

 For more details on our Educator-Observed Assessments please click here. See also our article on Summative Waypoints.

This article contains the following topics:

• How to Set Up Formative Waypoints
• How To Edit Your Formative Settings
• How Students + Staff Take the Assessment
• Viewing Formative Data

How to Set Up Formative Waypoints

Classic Formative Waypoints

Our classic, weekly formative assessments must be enabled at the district level. You will need System Admin access to set up classic formative assessments. See our How to Set Up Waypoints guide for details on general Waypoints setup.

1. Log in as a System Admin
2. Click the Waypoints tab in the left-hand navigation bar
3. Click on "Manage Waypoints" on the left
4. Under the Core Skill Growth section, check the box for Formative Assessments
5. Click the "Update Waypoints" button
6. Click on "Formative Assessments" under Your Waypoints, which may show an alert icon noting that additional setup is required. 
7. Click the "Create Formative Assessments" button in the middle of the screen
8. Select your grade levels and reporting types
9. Click "Submit"

Once a System Admin has set up Waypoints, educators do not need to take any further action to assign the Summative to their school. The assessment will automatically populate on students' (Student-Reported) or educators' (Educator-Observed) dashboards during the set assessment windows. 

Custom Formative Waypoints

Custom Formative Waypoints can be created using Wayfinder's bank of research-backed prompts to focus on specific skills or be assigned to a custom class, small group, or individual student. Only those with Principal, School Admin, or Counselor user access can create Custom Formative assessments. See our How To Set Up Custom Formative Waypoints guide for details. 

How To Edit Your Formative Settings

1. Navigate to the Waypoints page 
2. Select "Formative Assessments" on the left 
3. Click on the settings cog icon at the top right of the page 
4. Click "Edit Settings" 

 

How Students + Staff Take the Assessment

During an open assessment window, participating students and staff will see a formative assessment tile on their dashboard. Review the images below to see what the tile will look like for each participant group. 

The assessment features questions aligned with Wayfinder’s six Core Skills. Participants can either click on the “Start” button or the assessment tile to begin. Once formative assessments are submitted, responses cannot be changed.

3rd-5th Grade Student View

6th-12th Grade Student View

Teacher View (Educator-Observed assessments)
Counselors will see a similar To-Do List on their dashboard

Viewing Formative Data

1. Navigate to Waypoints in the left-hand navigation bar
2. Under the Assessment Name filter on the left, select Formative. 

Overview Tab

1. Hover over the bars in the graph to see specific averages of skill data by week.
2. Completion rate tracks who has completed the assessment. Click on the View Details button to view specific school, class, or student names. 
3. Click on the "Find Activities" button to search for activities that target the Room for Growth skill. 

Students Tab

Click on the skill name at the top of each column to sort by specific skill data.