Formative

Perfect for classrooms of the future.

See student work in real-time, give feedback, track student success, and collaborate with your fellow teachers — all in one beautiful package.

Our co-founder, Craig Jones, was a middle school science teacher at a struggling public school in South Los Angeles. Thanks to a school grant, he was able to work with a class set of used laptops every day. Initially, Craig patched together some basic software, a student response system and a lot of spreadsheets to help understand his students' strengths and weaknesses to learning standards. The technique of daily formative assessment, more targeted intervention, and faster feedback ultimately led to record-breaking academic outcomes.

After four years in the classroom, Craig went to grad school at UCLA where he met Kevin McFarland, his roommate, and soon-to-be co-founder. Together, Kevin and Craig envisioned a world where faster formative teaching practices could replace traditional end-of-year summative assessments. After multiple research initiatives, prototypes, and the help of countless individuals, Formative (goformative.com) was launched in January 2015.

Today, teachers from over 10,000 school districts across the US and the world have signed up for Formative, driving thousands of learning institutions to upgrade to more powerful partner status. When surveyed, 90% of teachers reported that they believe using Formative improved student achievement, and 97% of students report more confidence in their understanding of the material. We are on a mission to bring this transformative learning approach to more teachers and students and to contribute to a stronger education system.

Formative is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.