Southwest High School believes that assessments are an integral part of our IB Programmes. They are not merely a tool used to record and report student performance, but rather they are holistic and authentic in nature and offer opportunities for the ongoing measurement of student academic progress and are used as indicators of success.

Statements of Philosophy

1. Purpose of assessment

   1. To measure student achievement of IBMYP, IBDP, and IBCP criteria.

   2. To measure student achievement on ACT College Readiness Standards and MN State Standards.

   3. To provide data used to identify student learning needs to inform future instruction.

   4. To guide teachers in the design and implementation of purposeful teaching techniques to meet the needs of all learners.

2. Assessment design

   1. Assessments are aligned to MYP, DP, CP criteria, and well as ACT College Readiness Standards and MN State Standards and are aligned vertically and horizontally across grade levels to ensure progression of content and skill complexity.

   2. Assessments provide opportunities for all learners, including those with individual education programs (IEPs) and diverse linguistic needs, to demonstrate achievement of course objectives.

   3. Assessments incorporate globally minded, real-world applications.

   4. Assessment include a variety of strategies and techniques and are formative and summative in nature (to include, but not limited to daily homework practice, projects, performance tasks, portfolios, exams, essays, research papers, and investigations)

   5. Formative assessments will provide ungraded feedback, drive instruction and learning, foster intellectual growth, and be aligned to Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills.

   6. Summative assessments will provide students the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. Assessment criteria will be transparent and provide multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning and understanding.

3. Communication and feedback

   1. Students know and are able to articulate the what, how, when and why of formative and summative assessments and their criteria.

   2.  Feedback on assessments is specific, regular, and timely to both students and parents and provides opportunities for student improvement.

   3. Feedback is tied directly to assessment criteria.

4. Assessment as collaboration

   1. Assessment is a collaborative effort between grade-level and content teachers and results in the development and implementation of common, and sometimes interdisciplinary, assessments that demonstrate an understanding of MYP, DP, and CP assessment criteria. 

   2. Teachers review student work in course teams to achieve standardization of assessments.

   3. Students are involved in the reflective assessment of their own work.

Assessment Practices

Southwest High School’s Assessment Policy is communicated to both students and parents at the beginning of each year during grade-level orientation meetings and is reiterated throughout the year during parent conferences. Students and parents also have access to the full policy, along with assessment criteria for each course, in the student handbook and also via the school website.

1. Assessment procedures and practices will be consistent, transparent, and equitable.

2. Assessment will be ongoing and take into account process as well as product.

3. Assessment reporting will be communicated in a variety of ways, to include conferences, midterm grade reports and end-of-term report cards. Teachers will incorporate multiple forms of assessment that are adapted to the learning objectives for each subject.

4. Authentic assessments will be used in conjunction with other forms of assessment such as standardized tests in order to assess student performance and basic skill levels.

5. Academic integrity is paramount to accurately measure student achievement. 

All students are expected to adhere to the standards of the Academic Integrity Policy when completing their work and if students engaging any type of academic misconduct will be held accountable and face one or more consequences and outlined in the Academic Honesty Policy.