Assessment and Evaluation of Student Achievement

Program Planning and Assessment, 2000 outlines the requirement for assessment and evaluation and reporting of student progress in all subjects under OSS. The main purpose of assessment and evaluation is to improve student learning. Information gathered helps teachers identify students’ strengths and those areas needing improvement, as well as program areas of strength and those needing improvement.

Assessment is the process of gathering information from a variety of sources, including assignments, demonstrations, projects, performances and tests. This information should demonstrate how well students are achieving the curriculum expectations. As part of assessment, teachers, peers, and individual students provide descriptive feedback that guides efforts for improvement. Assessment is ongoing and supportive. Evaluation is the process of judging the quality of a student’s work on the basis of established achievement criteria and assigning a value to represent that quality. It reflects a student’s level of achievement of provincial curriculum expectations at a given time.

In order to ensure that assessment and evaluation are valid and reliable and that they lead to the improvement of student learning, teachers use a variety of assessment and evaluation strategies that:

• address both what the students learn and how well they learn;
• are based both on the categories of knowledge and skills and on the achievement level descriptions given in the achievement chart that appears in the curriculum policy documents for each discipline;
• are varied in nature, administered over a period of time, and designed to provide opportunities for students to demonstrate the full range of their learning;
• are appropriate for the learning activities used, the purposes of instruction, and the needs and experiences of the students;
• are fair to all students;
• accommodate the needs of exceptional students, consistent with the strategies outlined in their Individual Education Plans (IEPs);
• ensure that each student is given clear directions for improvement;
• promote students’ abilities to assess their own and each other’s learning, and to set specific goals; include the use of samples of students’ work that provide evidence of their achievement;
• are communicated clearly to students and parents at the beginning of the course and at other appropriate points throughout the course.