Assessment and Evaluation Overview

At the heart of all good teaching, and meaningful learning are assessment and evaluation practices. With evolving research into teaching and learning, there has also been significant developments into the understanding of assessment and evaluation practices. Today, we understand that assessment needs to be a continual process that needs to inform our teaching. It is wonderful to have beautiful lesson plans and unit outlines but if your students are not ready to learn the material, your teaching will not be effective. If you are new to teaching, I would highly recommend obtaining a copy of Damian Cooper's - Talk About Assessment: Strategies and Tools to Improve Student Learning, It clearly outlines all of the current assessment methods and provides vivid examples of how they can be applied in classroom scenarios. The included DVD is worth watching as well, and the CD contains many useful Blackline Masters.

It is important to clearly differentiate between assessment and evaluation before continuing. Although they are related and often discussed as one, they are separate concepts that should not be confused.

Assessment is the collection of data and information about student learning, and can be broken down into three distinct purposes - Assessment for Learning, Assessment of Learning, and Assessment as Learning. For a more detailed discussion of assessment methods and tools, please click here or on the left hand tool bar "Assessment".

Evaluation is the process of using multiple pieces of student work and assessment data to make professional judgments based on a set of criteria, and assigning a specific level of achievement. In Ontario, Achievements Charts from the Curriculum Documents are utilized where the following categories of skills are examined when teachers are evaluating students: Knowledge and Understanding, Thinking Skills, Communication, and Application. For a more detailed discussion of evaluation methods and the achievement chart categories please click here or on the left hand tool bar "Evaluation".