MYP
What is the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP)?
The IB Middle Years Programme:
• addresses holistically students’ intellectual, social, emotional and physical well-being
• provides students opportunities to develop the knowledge, attitudes and skills they need in order to manage complexity and take responsible action for the future
• ensures breadth and depth of understanding through study in eight subject groups
• requires the study of at least two languages (language of instruction and additional language of choice) to support students in understanding their own cultures and those of others
• empowers students to participate in service within the community
• helps to prepare students for further education, the workplace and a lifetime of learning
Assessments in the MYP
In the MYP, teachers make decisions about student achievement using their professional judgment, guided by mandated criteria that are public, known in advance and precise, ensuring that assessment is transparent. Across a variety of assessment tasks (authentic performances of understanding), teachers use descriptors to identify students’ achievement levels against established assessment criteria. MYP internal (school-based) assessment uses a “best-fit” approach in which teachers work together to establish common standards against which they evaluate each student’s achievement holistically.
Assessment for learning
Assessment in the MYP aims to:
support and encourage student learning by providing feedback on the learning process
inform, enhance and improve the teaching process
provide opportunity for students to exhibit transfer of skills across disciplines, such as in the personal project and interdisciplinary unit assessments
promote positive student attitudes towards learning
promote a deep understanding of subject content by supporting students in their inquiries set in real- world contexts
promote the development of critical- and creative-thinking skills
reflect the international-mindedness of the programme by allowing assessments to be set in a variety of cultural and linguistic contexts
support the holistic nature of the programme by including in its model principles that take account of the development of the whole student.
The aim of MYP assessment is to support and encourage student learning. The MYP places an emphasis on assessment processes that involve the gathering and analysis of information about student performance and that provide timely feedback to students on their performance. MYP assessment plays a significant role in the development of ATL skills, especially skills that are closely related to subject-group objectives. The MYP approach to assessment recognizes the importance of assessing not only the products, but also the process, of learning.
Achievement levels
Each criterion is divided into various achievement levels (numerical values) that appear in bands, and each band contains general, qualitative value statements called level descriptors. The levels 1 and 2 appear as the first band, levels 3 and 4 as the second band, and so on. Level 0 is available for work that is not described by the band descriptor for levels 1 and 2. All criteria have four bands and a maximum of eight achievement levels. All MYP subject groups have four assessment criteria divided into four bands, each of which represents two achievement levels. MYP criteria are equally weighted. The level descriptors for each band describe a range of student performance in the various strands of each objective. At the lowest levels, student achievement in each of the strands will be minimal. As the numerical levels increase, the level descriptors describe greater achievement levels in each of the strands.
Source: MYP: From principles into practice
