When people think about assessment, they usually mean summative assessment. The main goal of summative assessment is to measure the level of success that has been obtained at the end of units; summative assessment especially includes final exams (only marks without supplementary oral or written feedback). In fact, formative assessment is a specific kind of assessment. The formative assessment provides feedback to both teachers and pupils about the progress of the lesson. And, as Black and Wiliam demonstrated (1998), improving formative assessment raises student achievements.

The development of student assessment is seen as important component in Czech education policy. The main conclusions of OECD (Reviews of Evaluation and Assessment in Education, 2012, 14) about assessment in the Czech Republic pointed out the need for a stronger commitment to improving students´ achievements through the use of formative assessment to enhance student learning, rather than simply through the use of assessment summatively for recording and reporting learning.

There is not much information about formative assessment in the Czech Republic (e.g. Slavík, 1999; Starý, 2007; Novotná et Krabsová, 2013). However all teachers make assessments in every class they teach. Therefore, this paper is focused on the implementation of formative assessment into Czech schools. I put an emphasis on the nature and the main features of formative assessment in the Czech Republic. I would like to summarize the different strategies through which Czech teachers put into practice formative assessment in the educational process. Moreover, the students and teachers´ feelings related to the specific assessment system at selected schools have been also described.

According to objectives, there is one central question and three research subquestions about this process. These are:

Central research question:  What is the role of formative assessment in the lessons of Czech secondary schools (ISCED 2)?

Research subquestions:

1. What strategies of formative assessment are integrated in a specific school student assessment system of Czech secondary school?

2. What are students´ experiences and feelings of formative assessment?

3.  What challenges exist for teachers with implementation the formative assessment into Czech schools?

Black, P., Viliam, D. (1998). Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 80(20), 139–148. Morgan, D. L. (1996). Focus Groups. Annual Review of Sociology, 22, 129–152.. Novotná, K. & Krabsová, V. (2013). Formativní hodnocení: případová studie. Pedagogika, 63(3), 355–371 (in Czech). Santiago, P. et al. (2012). OECD Reviews of Evaulation and Assessment in Education. Czech Republic. Main Conclusions. OECD, 2012. Dostupné z http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/33/47/49479976.pdf Slavík, J. (1999). Hodnocení v současné škole. Praha: Portál (in Czech). Starý, K. (2007). Formativní hodnocení ve školní výuce. In Školní vzdělávání. Zahraniční trendy a inspirace. Praha: Karolinum, s. 222–242 (in Czech)