Summative assessment plays a central role in determining student achievement in secondary education; however, research indicates variation in how summative assessment is interpreted and enacted by teachers. This scoping review mapped and synthesized existing literature examining summative assessment practices in secondary education. This scoping review adopts a single-focus approach to examine how summative assessment is conceptualized and operationalized. Eligibility criteria included peer-reviewed empirical studies published in English between 2005 and 2025 that examined summative assessment practices in secondary school contexts. A systematic search was conducted across major education databases, and data were charted using an iterative, inductive extraction process. Thirty studies met the inclusion criteria, employing qualitative and quantitative designs across a range of secondary subject areas. Four key themes were identified: education reform, the nature and purpose of assessment, consistency of assessment practices, and grading parameters. Findings indicate policy-driven reforms shape assessment practices alongside persistent consistencies in grading and assessment reliability, linked to systemic pressures and teacher judgement. This review highlights ongoing tensions between fairness and accuracy in summative assessment and underscores opportunities for targeted professional learning to enhance teacher assessment literacy. Further research is warranted to examine how Initial Teacher Education programs can better prepare teachers to implement consistent and standards-aligned summative assessment practices.
Wharton et al. (Thu,) studied this question.