The influence of application of formative tests in comparison to mere summative tests upon Iranian high school reading improvement in Ilam Province

According to Lawal (1996), reading, generally is a psycholinguistic activity ; this can either beclassified into intensive or extensive reading. He identified two main developmental stages in reading, which he called learning to read and reading to learn . He concluded that the main focus of the learners in primary school is to learn to read . Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text/message. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text/message. Reading can be seen as an interactive process between a reader and a text which leads to automaticity or (reading fluency). In this process, the reader interacts dynamically with the text as he/she tries to licit the meaning and where various kinds of knowledge are being used: linguistic or systemic knowledge (through bottom2 up processing) as well as schematic knowledge (through top-down processing). Al Hossani (2005) believed that bottom up process is a text-based decoding. In this process, text by itself is the great of importance, thus the reader first try to get each words meaning and then interpret the whole text. According to Jacobson (2007), reading consists of four core components: alphabetic, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Nevertheless, the aim of reading is comprehension whether the individuals read for pleasure or for going information .In light with this explanation; he also believed that comprehension happens if the four components of reading have been located in reading process. That is, according to Kruidenier (2007) as when the individual engage in reading, they should be able to recognize each word (alphabetic) and make connection between each word and its meaning based on the stored knowledge in their mind (vocabulary).According to William (2013) the idea that assessment is intrinsic to effective instruction is traced from early experiments in the individualization of learning through the work of Benjamin Bloom to reviews of the impact of feedback on learners in classrooms. As Sheard and Chambers (2014) claim quality assurance in formative assessment is multi-faceted; it includes promoting attainment and progression, enabling and motivating pupils to show what they can do, and combining information of different kinds to inform decisions about pupils’ learning and achievements. The evaluation of students’ progress and the ultimate level of achievement in schools is a very important part of any educational system. The utilization of formative tests in the teaching-learning process involves breaking up the subject matter content or course into smaller hierarchical units for instruction; specifying objectives for each units; designing and administration of validated formative test; offering a group based remediation in areas where students are deficient before moving to another units and then administration of summative test on completion of all units. An optimal FA cycle thus consists of five phases: Planning (setting goals, defining objectives and intended outcomes, and planning action strategies); evidence collection; interpretation (estimating gaps between intended and obtained outcomes); utilization (implementing interventions to close the gaps), and evaluation (assessing the effectiveness of the interventions in closing the gaps) (Birenbaum, 2009).