How does assessment work
Wednesday, 20 January 2010 04:38
Middle Years, Grades 6-10, Assessment
Our goal is to make assessment more meaningful for students, parents and teachers. To help us do this, we have adopted a criterion-based assessment system from the IB Middle Years Program (MYP). Here are some highlights of the system:
· Assessment criteria (also known as rubrics) take the mystery out of what is expected of students. By reading the descriptors, the students can focus on what
is expected of them and what quality looks like in each subject area.
· When students have a more detailed understanding of what is expected of them, student performance improves!
· When a task is assessed using a rubric, students get more specific feedback acknowledging the aspects of the task they did well on and giving guidance for how
to reach the next level.
· Criterion-based assessment guides teachers in designing lessons that focus on what is essential for students to know and to be able to do.
· Criterion-based assessment also guides teachers in designing lessons that take into account all aspects of student learning and true understanding, which goes
beyond just knowing facts and skills.
· Criterion-based assessment acknowledges that learning is a dynamic ongoing process and that grades should acknowledge what students know, understand and
do at that specific point in time.
How Does the Assessment System Work?
| Step 1 | When a teacher gives an assignment, he or she will let the students know on which criteria the assignment will be assessed. For example, a research paper in Humanities might be assessed on Knowledge, Concepts and Organization and Presentation. It is also possible that an assignment or task will be assessed on only one criterion. |
| Step 2 | The teacher will gather many scores for each criterion, look at patterns in homework and class work and reflect on the student’s class and group participation. |
| Step3 | The teacher will then arrive at a final score for each criterion. This score IS NOT an average of all the scores but an analysis of the trend. The score tells us where the student is now in his/her learning, not where he or she started. |
| Step 4 | The teacher will add the scores for each criterion to get a final total. In Humanities, the total possible point is 38. |
| Step5 | Using the table provided, the teacher will convert that total to a 1-7 mark. What does the system look like in action? |
What does the system look like in action?
Example: Humanities
Each subject area has a number of different criteria that teachers will assess. Each criterion has a maximum number of points. The number of criteria and the point value of
each criterion vary from subject to subject. Using Humanities as an example, the students will be assessed in four different areas: Knowledge, Concepts, Skills, and
Organization and Presentation. The total possible points is 38
Example 1: John had a rocky start, but then he consistently performed at the higher levels. His active class participation and ability to discuss and
justify his work supported the higher levels in each criterion.
Criterion A 8
Criterion B 7
Criterion C 8
Criterion D 7 Total Points: 30 Final Grade 6
Example 2: Jane’s performance was not as consistent and the trend was more difficult to identify. In the beginning she worked with her tutor and
earned higher scores. However, when she worked on her own, either at home or in class, her scores were not as high. She was not able to discuss
her work in conferences and she had difficulty following class and group discussions.
Criterion A 4
Criterion B 3
Criterion C 4
Criterion D 2 Total Points: 13 Final Grade 3
Click on the pictures to see more MYP Resources | |
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| MYP Subject Area Grade Boundaries | MYP General Grade Descriptors |
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