Ranking students is the primary issue. A teacher would use a norm-referenced test to compare the reading abilities of students before forming reading groups. This test finds a student's performance level in relation to levels of others on the same test. Most standardized achievement tests are norm-referenced. To obtain the necessary information you may used commercially prepared tests, your own criterion-referenced tests, observations, or other techniques.
Formative evaluation is quite comprehensive in the examination of the content.
Summative evaluation examines the student's broad ability as compared to the detailed examination of each component in formative evaluation. Assesses basic knowledge and skills in relative isolation from typical real-world tasks. Assesses students' ability to use knowledge and skills in tasks similar to those in the outside world. Asks students to demonstrate knowledge and skills in a non-written fashion. Performance assessment is one alternative to traditional methods of testing student achievement.