Expectation Based Assesment

What is Expectation Based Assessment (EBA) ? 

Expectation Based Assessment uses a course's overall expectations as the guide by which their assessments are categorized and recorded.  For example, in SNC1W instead of using Knowledge, Inquiry/Thinking, Communication and Application as the categories for documenting assessments you would use the 3 overall expectations (OE's) for each strand (Inquiry (only 2 OE), Chemistry, Biology, Electricity, Space). 

How to get started with EBA? 

Our experience, while implementing EBA in our grade 9 and other courses, is it is easiest to start by summarizing the specific expectations for each of the overall expectations and putting them into student friendly language.  It can also be helpful to determine at the beginning of the course, what your mark weightings will be, for each overall expectation, before getting started.  If you aren't sure where to start with the weightings, one easy starting point may be to start with estimating how much time you send on each overall expectation and use that as a guide to determine weightings.  

Why Expectation Based Assessment? 

Recording student learning this way allows the teacher and the students to easily pinpoint what expectations they have demonstrated a high level of understanding and which expectations they would like to improve their understanding.  This supports the Growing Success Principle that assessments are "are ongoing, varied in nature, and administered over a period of time to provide multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate the full range of their learning;"