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Assessment and Evaluation

Introduction

This Assessment and Grading section is focussed on interpreting and using evidence based on summative assessment – assessment of learning – to determine grades for the provincial report card, with a focus on early and middle years mathematics further below.


Assessment with Purpose in Mind

Summative assessment for grading is one purpose of assessment that involves interpreting evidence of learning at the end of a cycle of learning. Teachers are reminded that the most frequent purpose of assessment woven into classrooms incorporates formative assessment or assessment for and as learning, with a focus on supporting learning, including:

  • practice,
  • descriptive feedback to students without judgement, marks or grades,
  • goal-setting, and
  • self-assessment.

The Report Card

The first purpose of report cards is to clearly communicate with parents about their children’s achievement, and, in this context, are part of an ongoing conversation with parents that takes place routinely and in many modes.

Report Card Grades as Data

Meanwhile, grades appearing on report cards are also data that can be viewed and interpreted outside of the context of the teacher-parent conversation – for example, summarized at the school, divisional or provincial level. Consideration must be given, therefore, to the consistency of teachers’ professional judgement in terms of students’ academic achievement.

Sophisticated data collection and analysis systems afford the opportunity to manipulate, associate and summarize data. There is a need to ensure that such analyses are meaningful and supportive of learning and for greater articulation of, for example, what a grade of ‘3’ or 78% “looks like”. This is done through ‘achievement profiles’ provided below as drafts for use, review and feedback from teachers.

The Provincial Report Card Academic Achievement Scale

Provincial curricula articulate end-of-year learning goals that serve as the basis for grading.  Assessing performance also entails consideration of broader subject learning goals presented in, for example, the introductory pages of curriculum documents that describe philosophy, foundations, broad goals, processes, and instructional focus.

The provincial report card templates and the policy and guideline document broadly describe the academic achievement grading scale in terms common to many report cards used across the province in the past, and widely used today. In the following sections, achievement profiles are provided to supplement this. The profiles elaborate on the report card grade scale descriptions according to the degree of competence demonstrated.  These are drafts which will be revised based on input.

Assessment and Grading

Policies, principles and guidelines for grading can be found in the following documents: