Understanding Assessment

Assessment and Evaluation in Ontario Classrooms:

An Explanation for Parents

Education has changed so much since we were in school. As teachers, we have been immersed in the educational changes throughout the past decade or more but as parents, many of you are looking at some of these newer practices with fresh eyes. I wrote this informal document for you, in hopes that it can help clarify how we assess and evaluate students today in Ontario classrooms.

Assessment is an ongoing process and happens on a continuous basis at school. One of the main purposes of assessment is to help improve student skills and understanding. Assessment informs and guides teaching and learning. It helps us work with students to set learning goals. It helps teachers understand who needs more support and who is ready for the next challenge. Assessment and feedback on learning can also help motivate students to keep up their hard work, especially when a teacher takes opportunities to praise personal achievement and improvement over final grades. Finally and crucially, assessment helps communicate how a student is progressing towards achieving grade level expectations in the Ontario Curriculum. Grades on report cards give parents, principals and schools information about a student’s academics, learning skills, and work habits.

There are a few different types of assessment:

• • Diagnostic assessment occurs prior to teaching and is used to determine what students already know and understand. It is usually informal and it may occur during a lesson with a quick task, a class discussion/activity, or a show of hands.

  • Formative assessment occurs throughout teaching and learning and allows teachers to guide their instruction according to students needs. Formative assessment may be formal (ex. quizzes, student-teacher conferences, self-assessments, assignments) or informal (ex. teacher observation, photo/video documentation, anecdotal notes, evidence from student notebooks, evidence from student participation in activities and class discussions, student feedback).

  • Summative assessment is typically formal (ex. Unit tests, performance tasks, student-teacher conferences, standardized or benchmark testing). It occurs at the end of a unit when students demonstrate what they’ve learned and understand. Summative assessment often focuses on reflecting how a student has demonstrated an understanding of the big ideas (overall expectations) in the curriculum.

Final grades are determined by the teacher’s professional judgment and are based on the student's most recent and most consistent level of achievement.  All three types of assessment inform teachers when they evaluate students on their report cards.

In primary grades (K-3), students are just developing their ability to read and write, and curriculum expectations are broader and fewer. A greater emphasis is often placed on performance tasks, teacher observation, and oral assessments.  In junior elementary grades (grades 4-6), students are more proficient in reading and writing, and expectations are much more extensive. A shift occurs where there is a greater need for students to communicate their understanding “on paper,” especially in Language and Mathematics. Junior students are highly encouraged to be involved in all aspects of the assessment process and reflect on how they can improve.

Students with special education needs that are identified on an individual education plan (IEP) may have a variety of accommodations and/or modifications in place during assessments. When students have an IEP that includes modified and/or alternative expectations to the curriculum, student grades reflect their progress towards these individual goals.

It is also important to note that not every assignment is graded. Many assignments are intended for practice and teachers give descriptive feedback to help students as they progress in their learning. One example of descriptive feedback could be notes from a teacher in the margins of a writing assignment or a verbal conversation with the student about what they did well on and what they could improve. Descriptive feedback is a powerful tool to improve student learning and engagement. It can also help a student reflect, assess their own work and understand their progress towards achievement levels.

In September 2010, The Ministry of Education published “Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting in Ontario Schools.”  The document describes assessment, evaluation and reporting practices in Ontario schools. This publication is available on the Ministry of Education’s website, at http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/growsuccess.pdf

In Ontario, the Ministry of Education provides documents called the Ontario Curriculum. The Ontario Curriculum documents outline the knowledge and skills that students are expected to demonstrate in each subject at each grade level by the end of the school year. Teachers use the documents to develop plans in each subject at each grade level. The achievement charts found in them, help teachers assess students across the categories of Knowledge and Understanding, Thinking, Communication and Application. The Ontario Curriculum Documents are available on the Ministry of Education’s website, at http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/teachers/curriculum.html.

In today’s classrooms, rubrics are often used as a tool to help students and teachers assess and evaluate learning.  A rubric is a document that articulates the expectations for an assignment by listing the criteria and describing levels of achievement from excellent to limited. Teachers (or students and teachers working together), frequently create student friendly rubrics that communicate the specific expectations of an assignment. Teacher and student created rubrics are typically used for larger assignments and summative assessments. All rubrics are based on the levels of achievement and descriptors found in the achievement charts in the Ontario Curriculum documents.

There are four achievement levels described in the Ontario Curriculum documents. Growth in achievement at each level indicates a considerable improvement in understanding. Rubrics in Ontario usually use the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 to indicate levels. At Level 4, students have demonstrated a high or deeper degree of understanding and are performing at or above grade level expectations. At Level 3, students have demonstrated effective evidence of understanding and their performance meets grade level expectations. At Level 2, students have demonstrated some understanding and they are approaching grade level expectations. At Level 1, students have not demonstrated sufficient evidence that they understand a concept. They are performing below grade level expectations. These levels correlate to A, B, C and D grades on report cards. If a student receives an R on a report card, that means that they need extensive remediation and that they are performing significantly below grade level expectations. Teachers determine which level a student achieves by looking at the criteria in the rubric and asking if the work demonstrates an understanding of the concept.

Here is an example of how teachers assess student work using a rubric: