How We Assess

In Prairie Spirit, assessment is about gathering information in order to plan instruction to best meet the needs of students. (Grading, on the other hand, is about determining a level of achievement. For more information on this, see the "How We Report" page.) There are a number of ways this is accomplished. Read below for more details.

Starting Point: Curricular Outcomes and Indicators

In Saskatchewan, curriculum documents list the things that a child should know and be able to do by the end of any course. As noted on the home page of this site, outcomes and indicators are the statements within a curriculum that detail what the expected learnings for a course are.

Students are assessed in relation to these outcomes - they are not assessed in relation to each other. This means that all students can be successful so long as they meet the criteria for an outcome. For example, if the curricular outcome asks students to be able to add and subtract numbers to 10, any student who can demonstrate this through the evidence they provide can achieve a high level of proficiency.

In short, the outcomes and indicators of each curriculum guide teachers in determining the learning that a student will undertake.

Destination, Current State, Next Steps

Part of the goal in educating our students is to help them become lifelong learners capable of navigating their own learning. In order to be a successful navigator (to plot a course), students need two pieces of information: the desired destination and their current starting point. With this information, students can determine their next steps to reach the destination. Assessment is about providing students with a learning target (a destination), their current state, and then helping them figure out their next steps (both of which are accomplished through providing feedback).

To do this, teachers are intentional about defining both learning targets for students and success criteria. A learning target is what students are expected to know and/or be able to do following a lesson or unit. Success criteria are statements, written in student friendly language, that students can use to determine for themselves whether or not they have hit the learning target. To help explain these terms, below is an example of a learning target and associated success criteria.

Learning Target: Represent and solve addition and subtraction word problems by using different representations.

Success Criteria:

• Explain what each number in the problem means

• Explain why you chose to add or subtract

• Explain how your representation shows adding or subtracting

Triangulated Evidence

In PSSD, students have opportunities to provide evidence of learning through the conversations they engage in, by the observations teachers make, and through the products (things like exams, assignments, displays, projects, etc.) that students submit. These three formats (conversations, observations, products) are categorized as triangulated evidence. Outcomes in the Saskatchewan curriculum are written in such a way that evidence can often be collected through triangulated evidence.

Traditional assessment practices have relied heavily on products as a way for students to demonstrate what they know and can do, but it is important that students get the opportunity to share evidence of their learning through conversations and observations as well; there are two main reasons for this:

1. Many curricular outcomes are written in such a way that evidence is better collected through an observation or a conversation instead of a product.

2. Because the outcomes are written in a way where evidence can be in a variety of formats, we want to give students the chance to show evidence of meeting the outcome in the best way possible for their strengths.

There may still be times when a product is the most appropriate (or even required) format to collect evidence. Collecting triangulated evidence does not mean that student will never have to write anything to be handed in! But ultimately teachers want their students to be successful, so when the outcome allows for flexibility in the type of evidence to be submitted, ensuring that evidence is triangulated gives students the best chance of finding that success.

Finally, collected triangulated evidence also helps with validity. When evidence is collected through different formats and the level of achievement is consistent, teachers can feel confident that the score/grade awarded is valid.

Formative Before Summative

Both formative and summative evidence is defined on the home page, but in brief, formative assessment is assessment that is primarily about moving learning forward - this is often in the form of comments. Summative assessment is about determining the level of achievement at a specific moment in time - this is often in the form of grades/scores.

In PSSD, we believe that growth happens through trial and error. Learners will make mistakes as they stretch to try new things and learn new skills. The most helpful form of assessment when learners are growing is formative assessment. This is why teachers in PSSD are asked to ensure students get opportunities for formative assessment before receiving summative assessment.

Aside from the fact that feedback helps us grow more than scores, it has also been noted that when scores are given on assignments, students have a tendency to play it safe and avoid trying to stretch or grow for fear of making a mistake. If students fear that their mark will suffer they avoid growth, which is not our hope for our students. While eventually scoring student achievement is a necessity to ensure efficient reporting, providing formative assessment opportunities before summative ones removes the fear of some students that their mark will suffer when they are engaged in learning new knowledge and skills.

Ongoing Communication

Teachers in PSSD are committed to providing ongoing communication with parents and guardians regarding student progress. There are many ways this is accomplished which may include, but are not limited to, any of the following:

• progress reports

• student-involved conferences

• phone calls

• emails

• online parent portals (ex: Edsby)

• portfolios

• personal contact

In addition, parents are welcome to initiate contact with their child's teacher to communicate about the learning journey of their child.

Academic Achievement in Levels

Grade 1-9 teachers in PSSD assess students academic achievement using a four level scale of proficiency, with two levels that indicate if a student has not met any part of the outcome or was not assessed on the outcome. More information on this system can be found on both the "Why We Assess This Way" and "How We Report" pages of this site.

Separating Academic Achievement and Learning Behaviours

In all grades in PSSD students are assessed separately on their academic achievement and their learning behaviours. Academic achievement is always assessed in relation to the outcomes of a course, whereas learning behaviours are assessed using different criteria at different grade levels.

Full details on why these areas are reported separately can be found on the "Why We Assess This Way" page.

Full details on what learning behaviours are reported in PSSD can be found on the "How We Report" page.