Assessment
Assessment in our standards-based academic and dispositional framework is the gathering and analysis of evidence about student knowledge and performance. It is vital that assessment be seen as integral to all teaching and learning and is not viewed as an isolated activity. Effective assessment can improve and encourage student learning, provide significant information about student achievement, and help to monitor the effectiveness of the academic program.
AIS/D’s Assessment Policy provides clarity about the evidence of student knowledge and skills. It outlines common understandings of the purpose and practice of student assessment across the school.
The ongoing assessment of each student is essential to the school’s mission of providing an education appropriate to each child. Systematic collection, interpretation, and application of assessment data are necessary to ensure quality improvement of student achievement and accountability for teaching and learning.
Consistent with the mission of AIS/D, the top priority of its assessment practice is on the individual student and evidence of student learning.
Effective Assessment
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Is ongoing and promotes continual learning
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Improves student learning
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Has criteria that are known and understood by students in advance
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Recognizes learning differences
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Measures what is essential to be learned
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Influences student motivation and learning
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Allows and encourages the student to demonstrate personal (individual) development of understanding, knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and processes
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Is authentic (as much as possible has a real-life application that can lead to other questions to ask or problems to solve)
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Promotes reflection, as well as self and peer evaluation
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Promotes independent learning
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Is communicated in a timely and clear manner
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Involves students in their own assessment
Benefits of Effective Assessment
Will allow Students to:
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Demonstrate opportunities of what they know and can do
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Understand their own progress and ability to plan the next stages of their own learning
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Understand learning goals and criteria for success
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Share reflections with peers
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Be confident and build self-esteem
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Be motivated to set and achieve realistic goals
Will provide Parents with:
- An opportunity to be partners in the learning process
- Evidence of their children’s progress
- Information on their children’s strengths and areas in need of support
- Information to assist their children in planning for the future
Will provide Teachers with:
- The ability to determine students’ prior knowledge before connecting new learning
- The insight into students’ learning differences and learning styles
- The evidence to adjust curriculum, teaching and assessment practices
- The evidence of student knowledge and performance progress
Will provide Administrators, Registrars, Team/Subject Leaders with:
- The evidence necessary for effective curriculum evaluation and revision
- The data for the school profile
- The information necessary for student admission, grade level or course placement decisions
- Flexible placement of students within a learning continuum
- The information needed for students’ school transfers
Essential Practices of Assessment
I. Collecting Evidence
Diagnostic Assessments include specialized tests (e.g. ESL fluency tests and learning style inventories) to identify students’ talents. In-class diagnostic assessments serve to note a child’s learning level and progress. (e.g., continuous records in reading and level testing in math). Specialized diagnostic assessments (e.g., WISC) are administered by outside of school professionals.
Formative Assessments occur regularly during a unit to provide feedback on student understanding, improve student work and measure achievement.
Summative Assessments give students opportunities to demonstrate what has been learned. The most effective summative assessments are authentic and meaningful, having real world application.
II. Assessment Types
Internal
Teachers will assess student performance and understanding in relation to standards and benchmarks that apply to their subject or course. They will collect evidence of student understanding by administering a balanced variety of assessments. These assessments fall under the following seven categories:
Selected Response
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Pre-determined responses provide evidence of students’ knowledge and skills.
Constructed Response
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A brief written response that provides evidence of basic knowledge and skills.
Essay
A written response to an academic prompt that assesses understanding or reasoning by using knowledge and/or skills. It involves the use of process links to other concepts, the use of evidence, and the assessment of several standards and benchmarks.
- Development of an argument
- Literary analysis: journal/reading/writing log
- Graphic organizers/mind maps, Sequence
School Related Product or Performance
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A task where a student makes or does something for an audience at school. It assesses multiple skills or knowledge within a context to evidence big understandings.
Contextual Product or Performance
A task where a student makes or does something for a particular audience and purpose beyond school. The task is authentic and meaningful, having real world application and assesses knowledge of big understandings.
- Editorial for local paper
- Model for special audience
- Speech for specific community organization (e.g., School Board, CARE, Red Cross)
Observation/Anecdotal Records
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The deliberate act of looking at individual actions or behavior to assess student work, processes, dispositions or other ongoing tasks. It includes the use of criteria and documentation tools.
Self/Peer Assessment
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Students reflecting on their own learning or the learning of their peers, with the use of criteria and documentation tools.
External
This form of independent assessment is done by an organization other than the one that is teaching or training the student. It doesn’t have to take the form of a traditional written exam, though that is the most common.
International Schools Assessment (ISA)
All students in grades 3-9 take the International Schools’ Assessment (ISA), developed and scored by the Australian Council of Educational Research (ACER), once a year. It is aligned with internationally endorsed reading and mathematical literacy frameworks developed by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Programme of International Student Achievement (PISA). The ISA addresses a broad cultural base and measures student performance in the areas of mathematical literacy, reading literacy and writing. An individual student report is provided to parents. A copy is kept in the student’s file.
AIS/D also receives a complete school report consisting of a record of individual results by grade level and sub-group. The school uses this feedback to address curriculum and improve instruction.
Advanced Placement (AP)
The College Board and the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey have developed the Advanced Placement (AP) Exams to be taken in May after completion of specifically designed coursework. There is a fee for each exam. The exams are externally assessed using a grading scale of 1-5. A student must usually earn a 3 or higher in order to qualify for college credit. Students in Grades 11 or 12 may take the exams and scores are sent from New Jersey in July.
International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB Diploma)
Students take the individual IB Exams in May after their two-year course of study in Grades 11 and 12. There is a fee for each exam. These assessments are externally assessed and moderated which means there is a greater degree of objectivity and reliability provided by the standard examination environment. The grading scale of 1-7 is criterion-based (results are determined by performance against set standards, not by each student’s position in the overall rank order). The score of 7 is considered "excellent"?
Requirements for a full IB Diploma include a minimum passing score of 24 out of 45. This represents an average of "4"? in six courses, plus (0-3) bonus points for the Theory of Knowledge class, and the Extended Essay. The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) provides exam results in early July. Students may complete individual IB courses and receive an IB Certificate with a score of 3 or above. IB courses are often recognized for college credit in the selective colleges and universities.
Preliminary Scholastic Achievement Test (PSAT)
The Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) is given in October. Students register in advance for this Saturday exam that is designed to help Grade 10 and 11 students prepare for the SAT Reasoning Test. There is a fee for this exam. In grade 11, U.S. students the PSAT results can be used by to qualify for National Merit Scholarships.
Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT and SAT II)
The Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) is administered to 11th and 12th grade students. There is a fee for this exam, which requires advance registration.
It is a measure of the critical thinking skills needed for academic success in college. The SAT assesses how well a student can analyze and solve problems. The exam includes a Critical Reading, Mathematics and a Writing section, with a specific number of questions related to content. Each section of the SAT is scored on a scale of 200—800, with two writing sub-scores for multiple-choice and the essay. The SAT II exam is an additional subject specific assessment sometimes required for college admission applications.
American College Test (ACT)
The ACT is a college entrance exam. It assesses Grade 11 or 12 students' general educational development and their ability to complete college-level work. There is a fee for this exam, which requires advance registration. The multiple-choice tests cover four areas: English, mathematics, reading, and science. The Writing Test, which is optional, measures skill in planning and writing a short essay.
ACT identifies the number of correct answers on each test and converts that number to a scale score. Scale scores have the same meaning for all the different versions of the ACT Assessments even though they may be administered on different test dates. A student’s Composite Score and each Test Score (English, Math, Reading, Science) ranges from 1 (low) to 36 (high). The Composite Score is the average of the four Test Scores, rounded to the nearest whole number.
ACT/ Plan
The ACT/Plan test is administered to students in Grade 10 as a career planning and achievement assessment tool. It is also designed to prepare students for the ACT college admissions test. The results from the career inventories are used to help students develop a career planning portfolio on the ACT Discover career planning website. It also gives a comprehensive career/interest inventory that is useful in helping students with college planning.
III. Evaluating Evidence
The evaluation of students’ learning is specific to each division and can be found in the respective school and/or faculty handbook. Essentially, a student’s evaluation is based upon evidence of:
learning of unit/curriculum big understandings, essential questions, knowledge and skills
meeting requirements of specific standards and benchmarks
demonstrating appropriate dispositions
IV. Recording Evidence
The Elementary School keeps student progress reports in the student’s cumulative file. The teacher keeps a work file for each student during his/her elementary school experiences at AIS/D. The file contents demonstrate the progress of student work over time, based on agreed-upon collected evidence. In addition, each year every student creates a portfolio of his/her work.
Middle and High School teachers place student grades and term comments on the web-based Power School Program, which is accessible to both students and parents. Power School is a tool to communicate and store information related to student performance. Print records are created and stored in Middle School and High School cumulative files.
Additional files are kept for students receiving support in ESL or Special Services. Each individual’s file contains developmental testing results and suggested personal instructional strategies.
V. Communicating Evidence
Information is shared with students and parents to understand the student’s strengths and needs. The school will employ a variety of means to communicate information regarding student academic performance and work habits. Those means may include:
- parent-teacher conferences
- phone calls, emails, notes
- student-involved and student-led conferences
- class discussions and teacher comments/feedback
- student work has marks and comments, returned in a timely manner
- external assessment results
VI. Monitoring Practices
The progress of students meeting the academic standards, benchmarks, and dispositions will be reviewed at regular intervals. Teachers adhere to division specific assessment agreements and ensure that there is a balance of assessment types presented in each marking period.
