Formative assessment has been identified as an effective pedagogical practice in the field of education, where teachers and students engage daily in an interactive process to gather evidence of the students' proficiency of a specific learning goal. The evidence collected by the teacher and a student during the formative assessment process allows for the adjustment of instructional delivery practices resulting in maximum student learning. The problem was that secondary teachers had difficulty incorporating various types of assessments in purposeful ways and continue to use summative assessment as the dominate way to gather student data. The specific problem was that many high school teachers in Grades 9-12 had limited conceptions or even misconceptions of the purpose of formative assessment principles, which may have hindered teachers' effective utilization of formative assessment strategies within their daily pedagogical practices. The purpose of this qualitative action research study was to explore the perceptions and the utilization of formative assessment strategies of high school (Grades 9-12) English Language Arts (ELA) and intensive reading teachers within traditional rural North Central Florida classrooms. Data collection consisted of interviews and observations of nonverbal characteristics during the interview process. Participants were asked about perceptions and utilization of formative assessment principles within their daily pedagogical practices in their traditional secondary literacy classrooms. The NVivo11 software was used to identify patterns and themes across the data that were collected and compared to the study's objectives and research questions. Once themes had been identified, recommendation for practice was suggested to help overcome barriers that impeded consistent implementation of formative assessment principles within traditional secondary literacy classrooms. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]