Grading and Assessment Practices

Assessment is an ongoing process of collecting and analyzing information about each students’ achievements, identifying learning needs, and providing feedback on progress and learning. Assessment is a continuous process and includes a range and variety of feedback. Assessment can be formative and summative. Formative and summative assessments at AXIS measure the impact of learning on the learner.

AXIS recognizes and implements different types of qualitative and quantitative criteria on assessments, which connect and support all learners:

• Assessment FOR Learning

• Inform teaching and promote learning

• Often, a formative type of assessment informs teaching and promotes learning. The assessment enables students to use feedback to improve their understanding and identifies what they know and still need to learn. It provides teachers with knowledge of what students have learned and needs to be further taught and reinforced.

• Assessment OF Learning

• Certify and report on learning progress

• Often, a summative assessment certifies and reports on learning progress. It provides evidence of learning following a unit of instruction.

• Assessment AS Learning

• Supports students in becoming self-regulated lifelong learners

• Often deployed as a formative assessment, this type of assessment supports students in becoming self-regulated lifelong learners. Students learn about themselves as learners.

The focus is for students to show what they have learned.

Inclusive

Students receive the assessment accommodation they deserve.

Student Involvement

Students are actively engaged in monitoring and adjusting their approach to learning through self-regulation.

Ongoing

Multiple opportunities are provided for feedback on formative and/or summative assessments to help them develop as learners.

Timely

Feedback is timely, enabling students to make adjustments to their learning; feedback and grades, including formative and summative assessments, are updated weekly on the grading portal.

Authentic and Meaningful

Feedback mechanisms are aligned with learning targets and learning experiences

Strands of Inquiry, Standards and Learning Targets

Feedback mechanisms are aligned with course standards, learning targets and statements of inquiry (PYP)

Approaches to Learning (ATL)

ATL skills are explicitly taught and included in the written curriculum but do not factor into grades in measuring the attainment of learning objectives.

Diverse Strategies

A wide range of strategies, learning experiences and assessment tasks are used to develop and demonstrate skills, knowledge and understanding. Authentic learning tasks may include projects, oral presentations, multimedia presentations, tests, interviews, lab reports, performances, investigations, written papers, and essays.

Provide Information to Parents

Parents are informed about their child’s progress towards learning objectives and allows for open communication between the school and the family to support students’ learning.

Standardization

When more than one teacher is teaching a course or class, internal standardization for grading assessment tasks is required to ensure that there is a shared understanding of the following: the expectations for the work, the marking criteria and achievement level descriptors. This will allow for consistent and fair application of the marking criteria. Effective moderation improves the reliability of assessment data about student learning.

Pre-Assessment

Pre-assessment occurs before embarking on a new unit or new learning to identify prior knowledge and experiences. This informs the teacher in the planning, teaching, and learning, and assessment planning. It also identifies the individual needs of learners.

Formative Assessments

Formative assessments are critical for the promotion of student understanding, goal setting and to guide instruction. They can be formal or informal and are a tool for teachers to give students feedback that informs progress without determining their final grade in the course. The results of formative assessments allow teachers to adjust their teaching. For students, formative assessments provide areas for improvement and opportunities for reflection on their progress toward learning goals. Formative assessment feedback can be verbal or written with comments and suggestions for improvement. Marks can be provided separately, if necessary. If a formative assessment or feedback is missing, it is to be recorded as “missing” until submitted. Students should not have a summative assessment if they have not had a formative assessment first and received feedback. Feedback is given within three days of a formative assessment.

Summative Assessments

Summative assessments are clearly aligned to statements of inquiry and unit standards and provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the unit’s inquiry. Summative assessments are less frequent than formative assessments and are used throughout the year. They provide evidence of learning following a unit of instruction. Final grades are informed and determined by the outcome of summative assessments. Criteria for summative assessments are introduced at the start of each unit and grades are determined according to the assessment criteria in conjunction with the grade descriptors.

Assessment Variety

Teachers are responsible for developing authentic assessments according to the published subject standard. A wide variety of assessment tasks are used, such as projects, oral presentations and performances, investigations, written papers, and essays. Assessment strategies used by teachers combine teacher-led assessments, group and/or peer evaluations, and student self-assessments.

Assessment Timing

Summative assessments are scheduled and announced to students at least one week in advance. Teachers will collaborate by balancing the timing of assessments across classes and ensure that students have no more than two summative assessments on any given day. A summative assessment is not to be scheduled within the first three days after returning from a break. Feedback and grades are generally given within ten days unless additional time is needed for individual conferencing, student absences, or retakes. Grade level and subject teams will determine if and when revisions or retakes are appropriate. Ongoing concerns about missed deadlines and other indications of poor time management should be communicated directly to students and parents in a timely manner

Standards-based Grading & Reporting (SBGR) communicates how students are performing on a set of clearly defined learning targets called standards. The standards are grouped into strands for reporting. The purpose of standards-based grading is to identify what a student knows, or is able to do, in relation to pre-established learning targets, as opposed to simply averaging grades/scores over the course of a grading period, which can mask what a student has learned, or not learned, in a specific course.

A standards-based grading and reporting model is a system where students are graded based on their performance according to a clear set of standards. The purpose of standards-based grading is to identify what a student knows, or is able to do, in relation to their mastery of grade level standards. At the end of a year, teachers will determine the overall proficiency by looking at the student’s evidence of learning, the most consistent work over a specified period of time, and the most recent work.

Standards-based reports separate academic performance from work habits as described by the ATLs. The grade (in-progress or final) will be calculated based on proficiency of learning targets and standards, which are determined mostly by the most recent and most consistent evidence of learning. The proficiency standard rubrics are provided in this handbook.

Benefits

Student Benefits

• Students are partners in their own learning.

• Students monitor their own progress toward the achievement of standards and strands.

• Standards are clearly defined.

• Expectations and purpose of learning experiences are clearly explained.

• Assessments are clearly aligned to the standards.

• Students are offered multiple opportunities and ways through which to demonstrate mastery.

• Students can achieve to their highest potential.

Parent Benefits

• Parents can monitor their student's progress.

• Parents know what standards and strands their child may need more support and encouragement to pursue greater mastery.

• In seeking colleges, parents and students have a better idea of the student's true academic ability.

Teacher Benefits

• In the same way that expectations for students are clearer, expectations for teachers are clearer as well.

• Teachers know exactly where students stand in their progress toward standards and what supports to provide.

• Assessment results help teachers determine when students need extra help and when they need more challenging work.

The role of assessment is to provide feedback on student progress and the learning process. Assessments are designed to reflect the particular standards and learning outcomes to be reported on. A range of strategies for assessing student work takes into consideration the diverse ways individual students understand their learning experiences. Student and teacher self-assessment and reflection are key components.

The assessment strategies and tools – rubrics, exemplars, anecdotal records, checklists, continuums, portfolios of work – are designed to accommodate a variety of intelligence and ways of learning and knowing. Knowledge, concepts, skills, attitudes, and actions are assessed. Teachers continuously monitor, document, and reflect on students’ progress and help them move toward their individual learning goals. Students’ responses and performances are recorded in real-life situations that present real problems to solve. Assessments address students’ understanding of the key knowledge and concepts, as well as the skills developed during the unit. Students have clear success criteria. They are provided with timely feedback.

Conferences

The purpose of conferences is to set goals, share progress, and share information amongst teachers, students, and parents.

• Teacher-Student Conference

These are informal conferences designed to give students feedback so they can reflect on their work and further refine and develop their skills to meet the learning targets. Individual conferences support and encourage the student’s learning and teacher planning. These conferences are ongoing.

Teacher-Teacher Conference

• These conferences are designed to give teachers the opportunity to discuss a student’s progress, areas of success, areas of growth, and effective strategies to assist student’s learning and development. These conferences are ongoing.

Parent-Student-Teacher Conference

• These conferences are designed to come together as a support group to support and discuss student learning. It is an opportunity for parents and teachers to partner to support the students. It also gives the parents information about the student’s progress development and needs and the school’s program. Teachers should take this opportunity to gather background information, answer the parents’ questions, address their concerns, and help define their role in the learning process. The parents should take the opportunity to provide the teacher with the cultural context of the student’s learning.

Student-Led Conferences

These conferences involve the student and the parent. The students are responsible for leading the conference, and take responsibility for their learning by sharing the process with their parents. It may involve students demonstrating their understanding through a variety of different learning situations. There may be several conferences taking place simultaneously. The conference will involve the students discussing and reflecting upon samples of work that they have previously chosen to share with their parents. These samples have been previously selected with guidance and support from the teacher and could be part of the student’s portfolio. The student identifies strengths and areas for improvement. It enables parents to gain a clear insight into the kind of work their child is doing and offers an opportunity for them to discuss it with their child. The conferences must be carefully prepared, and time must be set-aside for the students to practice their presentations. The format of this conference will depend on the student's age, and all the participants must understand the format and their roles prior to the conference.