There is a need to balance teaching growth of all instructional faculty against the need to evaluate instructors for reappointment,  tenure and/or promotion. In order to achieve this balance we recommend that evaluation processes include both formative and summative assessment. Summative assessment results in a determination of whether an instructor is effective or not, while formative assessment results in recommendations for improving teaching. Summative evaluation results in a product (a grade of teaching effectiveness), while formative evaluation continues a process (the refinement of teaching).
A recent study (Lyde, Grieshaber, & Byrns, 2016) that interviewed faculty on an evaluation system involving multiple methods of evaluation (student evaluations of teaching, faculty portfolios, and self-reflection) found that faculty felt that the evaluations were disproportionately summative, lacking sufficient formative outcomes. This study provides a good example of how formative evaluation can be used to refine the evaluation systems of faculty.