Grading & Assessment

The purpose of this webpage is to inform you of our assessment and grading policy. At the beginning of a unit of instruction we explicitly define the movement skills, knowledge, and social/emotional skills that students will develop and how well they must demonstrate that learning at the conclusion of the unit. At the end of the unit, we determine the extent to which students have achieved the desired results through a final (summative) assessment.

At the end of the term all of these assessment results or pieces of evidence that reveal student learning are combined to identify a grade for movement skill, understanding of concepts and demonstration of responsible personal and social behavior. Pieces of evidence can include a dance performance, movement skill performance, a sequence of gymnastics movements, observation of student conduct, scores from a quiz on student understanding of movement and fitness concepts, and so forth. The students most recent and consistent level of performance represents the student’s achievement at the end of a marking period.

Glossary of educational assessment terms

Grading: This is the process of assigning a symbol (e.g., A, B, C, S, 2) reflects the extent to which a student achieved the learning targets from a given term.

Educational assessment: The educational assessment process begins with the teacher clarifying learning goals and success criteria to students. During and after a unit of instruction, the teacher collects a variety of evidence of student attainment of the learning goals. Next, the teacher makes judgments on the degree to which each student has achieved the learning goals (comparing and contrasting evidence of student learning to success criteria) are made. The information that results from judgments are used to create or revise lesson plans, adapt instruction, and provide feedback and guidance to learners. Assessment can take place before (diagnostic, pre-assessment), during (assessment for learning), and after (summative assessment) instruction.

Assessment task: This is task that is planned to elicit student behavior that represents the achievement of a student learning goal. Participation in an assessment task is what the student will do to demonstrate that learning has occurred.

Diagnostic (pre) assessment: This type of assessment is done before instruction begins. Teachers can implement informal or formal diagnostic assessment tasks that require students to demonstrate the skills and understanding that are planned for the unit, observe performance, identify strengths and weaknesses, and place the student at an appropriate starting point in relation to unit goals. Diagnostic or pre-assessment helps the teacher answer the following questions:

· What can the students already do (skills) relative to the unit goals?

· What do the students know and understand (cognitive goals) relative to the unit goals?

· Where should instruction begin for this class or group of students?

When these questions are answered we can use the results to set goals that are at an appropriate level above present levels of skill and understanding. Diagnostic assessment results can help identify performance deficiencies or reasons why a student is having repeated difficulty learning. It can be a way to identify readiness for instruction, content misconceptions, performance level, strengths and weaknesses, prior knowledge, and identify strengths and special talents in students.

Formative assessment (assessment for learning): An assessment functions formatively to the degree that evidence of student performance is elicited, evaluated, and used by teachers, students, or their peers to make decisions about the next steps in instruction so that the learner can adjust and improve the performance and move closer to achieving a learning target. During assessment for learning physical education teachers may detect and correct movement skill errors and omissions. The results of a formative assessment inform teaching and learning. Assessment for learning is a short cycle that includes identifying a learning target to students; application of understanding and skill; monitoring and comparing performance to criteria; providing specific, timely, and useful feedback and guidance to the learner; and performance adjustment and improvement. Students should learn to become active participants in formative assessment so that they can understand what they are learning (where they are going), where they are (or how they are going), and how to close the gap between present performance level and the desired performance level. A good formative assessment is usually not recognized as an assessment (i.e., a test) by a student. It is simply a part of what the student does to learn and improve performance.

Summative assessment: A summative assessment is used to collect evidence of student achievement of the knowledge, skill, and understanding for a unit or course. Summative assessment results serve as evidence on the extent to which unit/course goals have been achieved at the end of instruction. A summative assessment occurs after students have had sufficient time to develop the skills and knowledge that will be tested. A summative assessment can include selected response items, constructed response tasks, performance-based tasks, an attitude survey, or an oral examination (teacher communication with the student).