Overview

Surrey Schools is the largest school district in British Columbia with over 120 schools, serving students who speak 195 different languages including 3,300 students of Indigenous Ancestry. Their vision is to prepare learners to think creatively and critically, communicate skillfully and demonstrate care for self and others. Their robust learning model, called Learning by Design, focuses on truth and reconciliation, a foundation in inclusive learning, focusing on evidence of learning and anchoring in priority practices including student voice and choice and social emotional learning. You can read more about Surrey Schools here.

Technology Tools Used for Assessment and Reporting

Surrey Schools uses SpacesEDU by myBlueprint with learners in grades K-7 to document assessment, curate evidence of learning in ePortfolios, and for reporting. They also uses SpacesEDU with learners in grades 8-12 for documenting assessment portfolios, but reporting at those grade levels happens in the provincial Student Information System, MyEdBC.

SpacesEDU is a learner-centered digital portfolio and proficiency-based assessment platform built to support personalized, competency-based education. You can read more about how SpacesEDU supports assessment and reporting in British Columbia here.

Outcomes: What is assessed?

There are two types of outcomes used at Surrey Schools.

The first are discipline-specific outcomes, which are the standards identified by British Columbia for reading, writing, and numeracy. These are called Curricular Competencies and are grade-level and discipline-specific outcomes.

Sample of ELA Grade 2 Learning Standards for Comprehend and connect (reading, listening, viewing):

• Use sources of information and prior knowledge to make meaning

• Use developmentally appropriate reading, listening, and viewing strategies to make meaning

• Recognize how different text structures reflect different purposes.

• Engage actively as listeners, viewers, and readers, as appropriate, to develop an understanding of self, identity, and community

You can find all of the grade-level Curricular Competencies for British Columbia by discipline here.

In addition, they have a set of Core Competencies, also defined by the Ministry of Education of British Columbia, which are interdisciplinary skills that learners develop in all disciplines. Each Core Competency has 2-3 sub-competencies that further define that skill.

You can watch a video introducing the competencies here.

The curriculum at Surrey Schools comes from the British Columbia Redesigned Curriculum that incorporates the Curricular Competencies and Core Competencies along with content goals to support student learning in all subject areas. You can read more about it here.

Levels of Proficiency: How is Progress Marked?

A 4-level proficiency scale is used to describe proficiency on each standard.

The 4 levels are:

• Emerging

• Developing

• Proficient

• Extending

Below are more details about the 4 levels and how they are defined:

Reporting: How is Progress Documented?

Educators have a choice in how they communicate student learning to families at Surrey Schools:

• Option 1 - Student Progress Template – educators provide 2 learning updates (at the end of term 1 and term 2) and then a summary of learning in June (term 3 and overall summary comment) that includes proficiency levels for Curricular Competencies. Students also complete a Core Competency reflection at the end of each term (3 reflections in the school year).

• Option 2 – Digital Portfolio using SpacesEDU – educators provide ongoing updates throughout the year using quality posts that include descriptive feedback and proficiency indicators, which parents can access at any time. Educators then provide a summary of learning at the end of the year in June. Students also complete a Core Competency reflection at the end of each term (3 reflections in the school year).

Core Competency Portfolios

All learners in Surrey Schools K-7 are provided an opportunity to reflect on the Core Competencies at least 3 times per year. This may be through SpacesEDU where learners can attach digital evidence and reflections or may be with the more traditional pen and paper approach. This guide provides details for educators on the core competencies and tools for learners to reflect on those competencies.

In SpacesEDU learners document their self-reflections and evidence of learning towards the Core Competencies. They curate these self-reflections into a digital portfolio that families have real-time access to. Educators can also add verbal or written feedback in comments to support the documentation process.

Educators are provided this guide on what quality reflections and portfolio posts look like to support them in implementation with learners.

How Curricular Competencies are Assessed and Proficiencies on the Report are Determined

Surrey Schools encourages educators to “triangulate evidence of learning”  to ensure that multiple sources are informing an educator’s final determination of a student’s proficiency level on the report. This includes looking at student products of learning, observations of students and processes, and conversations with learners. This framework expands the idea of “assessment” by broadening the definition to any evidence of student learning and proficiency on the learning outcomes.

Educators regularly assess student artifacts and evidence of learning (which could be products, conversations or observations) in the SpacesEDU platform. In addition to proficiency indicators, they can provide additional formative feedback in comments.

In SpacesEDU, educators identify a proficiency in relation to the learning standard based on that piece of student evidence.

Throughout the term, educators can easily bookmark evidence of growth in SpacesEDU that they would like to include in the reporting space which is visible to families. This becomes a version of a portfolio where families can see specific evidence of work tied to proficiencies on the report.

Finally, educators determine final proficiencies for the report by looking at all of the evidence they can see in SpacesEDU and using their professional judgment.

In addition to proficiency indicators, educators write robust and descriptive narratives following this guide provided by the district.

Sharing with Families

Families have real time access to portfolios and feedback on the Curricular Competencies in the SpacesEDU platform. They also receive a Summary of Learning in June. Educators who do not leverage the digital portfolio, provide families with 2 Learning Updates throughout the year and a Summary of Learning in June.

Crediting, Promotion and Admission to Secondary/Post-Secondary

Students in grades K-7 do not receive traditional transcripts and there is no translation to grades.

Learn more about Learner-Centered Collaborative's approach to partnerships here