summative

[ suhm-uh-tiv ]

adjective

1. of greater effect or value than the strict sum of the individual contributing parts; additive:

   Two drugs with similar actions were given, creating a summative response.

2. Education. occurring at the end of a unit or term and covering the entirety of the material from that term; cumulative: summative assignment; Compare formative ( def 4 ).

   summative assessment;

   summative assignment;

   summative feedback.

Word History and Origins

Origin of summative¹

First recorded in 1875–80; from Medieval Latin summāt(us) ( summation ) + -ive

Example Sentences

Indeed, though not the filmmaker’s final film, it is his late masterwork and, I’d argue, his summative achievement: Beneath the surface of a perfect bauble, it contains a little bit of every Altman movie, and all his enduring themes, with a double gut-punch — human, historical — before the credits.

From Los Angeles Times

The research paper, supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, said: “In contrast to the traditional system, where assessments are used solely to provide a final, summative judgment of student performance, formative assessment uses assessments intermittently to provide teachers and/or students with feedback about each student’s progress. This enables teachers and students to adapt their teaching and learning strategies to help each student progress based on their individual needs.”

From Washington Post

Education consultant Ken O’Connor told me, for instance, the Wakefield teachers are wrongly penalizing needy kids who do better on tests and other summative assessments than they do on homework.

From Washington Post

Faculty would grade only summative assessments, mostly a fancy word for tests.

From Washington Post

They said in a letter to district leaders “it is very likely that students who do not complete or do a poor job with formative assessments will not do well on summative assessments either ... Anecdotally, the Spring 2020 virtual learning experiment during the pandemic taught most of us that students do not, will not, complete work if it is not for a grade.”

From Washington Post

Related Words

• aggregate
• increasing