MYP Programme - Assessment

Rationale

Students at Discovery College are encouraged to view formative and summative assessment activities as part of an integrated approach to learning. In the early years of the MYP it is important that students develop attitudes towards assessment that encourage students to give their best efforts to the task and set goals for the future. Towards this end there may be times where teachers may show some flexibility towards aspects of assessment tasks, such as assessment deadlines and resubmission of tasks if their students are demonstrating commitment to achievement in the task.

Students in the final two years of the MYP will be expected to manage their assessment and other deadlines carefully. Cultivating discipline in observing deadlines will be essential for managing the workloads associated with the IB Diploma.

This policy recognises the importance of both formative and summative assessment in the teaching and learning process. This policy provides some specific guidance in the delivery of summative tasks aimed at the whole cohort in a subject. Assessments in the MYP are based on subject group objectives and are criterion-related.

Purpose

The purpose of this Assessment Policy is to set out the responsibilities of students, teachers and parents, and the College's expectations regarding assessment tasks. Assessment processes must be equitable, transparent, valid, reliable and fair. Assessment tasks are an important part of the learning process and should not be seen as distinct from, or outside of, other learning experiences. Assessment should aim to help the students understand what they know and understand at different stages of the learning process.

Assessment for learning should aim to:

• Be integrated into a range of continuous learning activities
• Support and encourage student learning by providing feedback
• Promote student self-responsibility – working to deadlines, recording tasks, timely submission of work, recording tasks and acting on feedback
• Affirm student success and progress
• Inform and enhance teaching practice
• Promote positive attitudes towards student learning
• Promote a deep understanding of the content
• Where appropriate, support student inquiries using the Areas of Interaction as a authentic, real-world context
• Where appropriate respond meaningfully to the MYP Unit Question
• Promote the development of higher order thinking skills
• Support the MYP's Fundamental concepts of Communication, Holistic Learning and Intercultural understanding
• Provide opportunities for self-reflection (and self-assessment) in support of the Approaches to Learning (ATL) Area of Interaction.

Assessment for learning guidelines

Assessment of student's learning should be ongoing and should make use of a variety of forms, including:

• Pen and paper tests
• Verbal responses
• Presentations
• Project-style work including individual and group work projects
• Class discussions
• Group-work participation
• Compositions
• Performances
• Peer assessment
• Self assessment
• The creation of solutions to problems
• The creation of short films
• The creation of podcasts
• Presentations
• Teacher questions
• Checklists of essential skills

A balance of assessment activities is expected, as no one style of assessment will properly cover all the objectives of an MYP subject or appeal to the range of learning styles in a classroom.

The following guidelines govern the assembly, implementation, marking and provision of feedback.

1. Roles of formative and summative assessment activities

In the spirit of building healthy student attitudes towards assessment for learning, a range of purposeful formative assessment activities should always be used to develop student's skills, knowledge and understanding, leading into summative assessment tasks. Both are an integral part of information gathering. An emphasis of one over the other may confuse the reality of student achievement

Effective formative assessment is part of the instructional process and provides the timely information needed to adjust teaching programmes. Effective formative assessment actively involves students in the process, as they learn to self-assess, peer-assess and set goals based on their teacher's feedback. As part of this process teachers should provide:

• Exemplars of student work
• Scaffolded samples
• Key terms
• Key skills
• Questions that uncover and expand student learning
• Sample rubrics. A purposeful programme of formative assessment activities should effectively support students prior to summative assessment tasks.

Summative assessment tasks are given periodically to assess a student's knowledge and understanding, usually against a fixed set of standards. They should be developed and assessed with reference to the relevant MYP subject guides and the MYP's Interim objectives.

Apart from assessing student achievement, summative assessment results should also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of programmes, alignment of curriculum to MYP Subject Guide's objectives, and subject or school improvement goals.

2. Formal assessment of MYP assessment criteria

Subject teachers determine the number of assessment tasks for their subject. It is expected that during the course of the academic year all MYP assessment criteria should be assessed formally at least twice.It is highly recommended that MYP assessment criteria also be used for some formative assessment tasks in order to:

• Enhance student understanding of the nature and workings of the MYP's subject objectives and assessment criteria
• Assist in building a foundation of understanding leading to summative assessment
• Provide additional data when considering awarding MYP grades for reports

3. Adapted criteria (Grade-appropriate) for each subject group

For the purposes of internal assessment, the nature of MYP criteria may be adapted. MYP levels of achievement's descriptors must be modified to be developmentally appropriate for younger students. Modified criteria must align the various strands of the subject's objectives with the descriptors of each achievement level. Copies of modified criteria for Years 1-5 can be found in Appendix 3 subject specific rubrics.

Some MYP subject's Objectives and Assessment Criteria are weighted more heavily than others. This reflects the nature of the subject and emphasis on certain skills. The relative emphasis of each objective can be determined by the maximum level achievable. The relative weighting of these criteria is preserved in every year of the programme. As all subject guides are subject to a 7-year cycle, teachers, subject coordinators and the MYP coordinator are responsible for ensuring modified assessment criteria reflect the current subject guide.

These modified criteria may be consistent for Years 1-2 and reflect developmental progression in Year 3. Final year descriptors, as described in subject guides, are to be applied to student's work in Years 4 and 5 of the programme. Teachers in subject groups must work together on a regular basis, such as internal moderation of tasks, to continually develop a common understanding of the statements within the descriptions of Levels of Achievement in each year of the programme.

4. Assessment rubrics

Assessment rubrics should be developed and applied to all summative assessment tasks. These rubrics should link the Assessment Criteria's level of achievement descriptors with task-specific clarifications, i.e. redrafting the value statements in the levels of achievement in specific reference to the work being assessed.

A well-constructed rubric should:

• Support learning by providing clear guidance
• Used with sample materials to deepen understanding
• Provide transparency to the process for students, their families and teachers
• Provide clear, measurable evidence of learning
• Be useful in curriculum review, in helping identify what content has been taught
• Link generic descriptors to task-specific clarifications

There is great value in teachers and students co-constructing task-specific clarifications. As an exercise this empowers students by familiarising them with the expectations of the task, teaches them how to read the expectations of the task, set goals and plan according to task requirements, and demystifies the workings of MYP assessment criteria.

The use of assessment rubrics should not be used exclusively with summative assessment activities. There is much value in using rubrics in formative assessment, encouraging students to see assessment as part of the process of continuous, ongoing learning, as well as helping students to associate rubrics exclusively with high-stakes summative assessment.

5. Written notice to students

At the commencement of any new unit of work, teachers will post an overview of the unit on the school's MYP curriculum web page. This overview must include:

• The unit's indicative time in weeks
• The AOI focus and Unit Question
• An indication of the form of summative assessment
• MYP Assessment criteria
• Links to any additional resources and date of entry

Students should be given notification, either in writing or by email, of summative assessment activities. Notification should include the following features:

• Indication of task content and conceptual understandings
• Form of the task, e.g. an essay, report, power point presentation, podcasts sound file etc
• The MYP Criteria to be assessed
• An assessment rubric, including generic descriptors and task-specific clarifications
• Duration of the task
• Task's due date

The recommended minimum number of days for this notification is one week for a in-class task and two weeks for a hand-in task. The cover page of the notifications (giving activity description, due date and assessable criteria) should be included in this notice. See Appendix 3 for Assessment notification form.

6. Submission of assessment activities

It is the decision of the teacher setting an assessment activity how work should be submitted. Submission of work either electronically or in hard copy must be made clear in the Assessment notification form (Appendix 3).

Students are always strongly advised to save their work in both hard and soft copies as they progress through their tasks. Computer and other technical difficulties will not be accepted as a reason for lateness. When oral presentations are to be assessed over a period of time (i.e. more than one lesson block's worth), all students may be required to submit a copy of their transcripts, a soft copy of the presentation or notes on the day oral presentations are to commence.

7. Resubmission of assessment activities

For students in MYP Years 1-3 individual faculties will determine their own guidelines governing the decision to allow students to resubmit summative assessment work. This is because different subjects areas have different strategies for monitoring, intervening and providing feedback on learning activities leading to the completion and submission of summative assessment activities.

Following faculty guidelines on resubmission processes, additional time may be granted to students to ensure they are given the opportunity to reach grade-appropriate skill levels in each assessment activity.

For students in MYP Years 4-5 wanting to resubmit a piece of work should first discuss this with their teacher. If it is felt that resubmission would benefit the student's learning, then the student is required to apply for this in writing by completing the request form (Appendix 4). Students need to then submit this form to the relevant Curriculum Leader who will advise the student of the new due date.

8. Extensions and resitting of in-class assessments

Students must realise that, like them, teachers work to deadlines too and that flexibility with deadlines and resitting of in-class assessments will only be granted for good reason. As with the resubmission of assessment tasks, individual faculties will determine their own guidelines for the granting of extensions for students in MYP Years 1-3.

Students in MYP Years 4 & 5 who know that they may need an extension on a hand-in assessment task date should indicate this to their teacher in as far advance as possible and work with their teacher to agree upon an absolute extended deadline. Students should compete the request form (Appendix 4). Students then need to then submit this form to the relevant Curriculum Leader who will advise the student of the new due date.

Students in MYP Years 4 & 5 who have missed in-class assessments due to illness will need to produce a medical certificate and a note from their parents requesting an alternative time to sit the assessment task.

Unless the circumstances are exceptional, students will not be granted extensions or the opportunity to re-sit assessments because of family holidays.

9. Authenticity declaration

Students submitting hand-in pieces of work that represent their own research and efforts should complete and attach an authenticity declaration. The authenticity declaration is the student's affirmation:

• That the work they have completed is their own.
• That they have not allowed other students to unduly copy their work.

The authenticity declaration should be used to encourage students to take responsibility to correctly reference their work and to act with integrity with their own, and others, work. See Appendix 2 for Authenticity declaration form.

10. Feedback to students and parents

Students should receive meaningful feedback on all tasks. Feedback can take numerous forms including:

• Annotated written work.
• Verbal feedback.
• Written and/or verbal feedback linked to assessment criteria.

When linked to MYP assessment criteria, this should be with close reference to the skills, objectives and content described in the assessment's notification and rubric. It should explicitly outline the areas a student ought to focus upon, as well as affirm the aspects of learning which are successful. Feedback should be timely and be sufficiently individual to allow students to see which areas of their work they need to address in order to improve further. Students should also complete the self-reflections on tasks that make use of the rubrics which use modified MYP assessment criteria. See Appendix 4 for subject-specific generic rubrics with task-specific clarifications and student reflection section.

The Gateway will be used to provide online reporting of results of summative assessment activities to students and parents. Reporting using the Gateway will include:

• The assessment rubric's task-specific clarifications, addressed to the student.
• The level of achievement achieved by the student in each of the MYP criterion assessed.
• An effort and conduct profile for the unit of work the summative task represents the culmination of.
• A comment indicating the student's 'next steps'.

It is the decision of individual curriculum areas as to whether summative comments, task- specific feedback (such as annotations) are also directly included on the student's responses to the assessment activity. However, curriculum areas must decide which reporting conventions best suits their disciplines purpose and consistently use these conventions.

Teachers should provide students with the opportunity to take hard copies of their assessment responses home to discuss with their parents in conjunction with the data available on the Gateway. It is recommended that parents sign completed assessment tasks and then students return these to their teachers for record keeping purposes.

11. Storage of student's assessment work and recording assessment data

Once assessed work has been returned with the student's and their parent's signatures, teachers should store these securely. Students should be able to access to these at anytime, such as for student-led conferences, goal setting activities and any other reasonable purpose.

Teachers must keep soft copy records of the results of summative and formative assessments securely on the school server. All summative assessment data must be recorded on the Gateway.

12. Determining final grades for reports

Final grades are determined by the application of MYP Assessment criteria. Teachers should use their professional judgements in assigning the final grades, using a combination of summative and formative data. The MYP: From principles into practice guide (IB 2008: 54) all state that teachers make their final grade judgement based upon:

• Patterns in the data, such as an increasing level of performance.
• Anomalous or unexpected achievement levels.
• Other influencing factors.

Where more than one teacher teaches a course, teachers must regularly work together to internally moderate student work so that a shared understanding of the application of assessment criteria is achieved and a shared understanding of the meaning of the assessment criteria is established.

13. Absences

If a student is absent for an in-class assessment task, or the day a hand-in task is due, it is the responsibility of the student and their family to provide written evidence of illness or misadventure. Documentation (a signed letter from a parent and/or a medical certificate) must be presented to the subject teacher upon the student's return to school. If appropriate, arrangements will be made for an alternative completion date or task.

If the absence from school is prolonged, the Vice-Principal of the Secondary school should be consulted. The Vice-Principal will gather information from class teachers on the impact the absence. The completion of tasks may be waived and student achievement on the relevant criterion will be estimated, based upon other evidence.

Parents and students should note that:

• It is the responsibility of the student who has been absent from class(es) to find out from their teacher(s) what work has been missed, including the details of assessment tasks.
• Parents and students with prior knowledge of absence of a proposed task must notify the school in writing and the student must consult with their subject teachers in order to discuss and put into place alternative arrangements for the task completion.
• Students are expected to attend school during school time. Parents who wish to take their children out of school during term for any reason must apply/request in writing to the Head of Secondary School. It is the responsibility of the student to find out and complete the work they will/have miss(ed).
• Students leaving school early, such as for a holiday, will not receive any consideration for missed tasks.

14. Academic honesty

For procedural guidelines in the handling of instances of academic dishonesty refer to the Discovery College Academic Honesty Policy.

15. Non-serious attempts and other behaviours of concern

Students must make every effort to serious engage with all assessment tasks. Non-serious attempts, are responses that include, but are not limited to:

• Mock the task.
• Are intentionally offensive.
• Are deliberately frivolous.
• Show a demonstrable lack of commitment.

Students who demonstrate a non-serious attempt may, at the discretion of the teacher, be required to re-submit the task, or complete a new task. This task will be used to fulfil subject requirements and feedback provided. However, criteria scores for the work will not be use for summative assessment and reporting purposes, i.e. the calculation of MYP Grades. Parents are to be informed of this consequence by the MYP Coordinator.

Other behaviours towards assessment activities that teachers feel need to be brought to the attention of the child's parents should be done so by email or by phone. In the case of persistent (i.e. more than twice) behaviour of concern teachers may chose to send home a letter of concern. See appendix 5 for letter of concern template.

16. Consequences for late and non-submission of hand-in tasks

One of the many learning opportunities assessment presents to students is to learn to be responsible for managing deadlines and completing their work on time. At an age where the building of positive attitudes towards assessment for learning is of greatest priority, teachers should feel to use their discretion to provide additional time to submit work, especially if they feel students are working to their full capacity and the learning outcomes would be maximised by providing additional time.

Teachers should feel free to exercise reasonable judgement when accepting late work, especially in cases where a student has demonstrated a high degree of commitment to the task, with demonstrable learning outcomes genuine learning.

Teachers should also feel free to request students to attend additional lessons or support sessions outside the regular timetable to receive additional support in completing their assessment tasks

However, students must also learn to manage deadlines and their commitments. The following consequences for lateness of submission of hand-in tasks (without an acceptable excuse) apply to MYP Years 1, 2 and 3:

MYP Subjects that have an assessment criterion which assess personal engagement or organisation and presentation will reduce these scores by a level of achievement for each day a task is late, up to a maximum penalty of 3 levels. Refer to table 1 for consequences for work submitted more than 3 days late. In the case of persistent (i.e. more than twice) behaviour of concern teachers may chose to send home a letter of concern. See appendix 5 for letter of concern template.

Records of responsibility reminders issued will be used to track and plan interventions for students experiencing difficulty meeting assessment deadlines.

17. Determining final grades for reports

Final grades for reports are determined by the application of MYP Assessment criteria. Teachers should use their professional judgements in assigning the final grades, using a combination of summative and formative data. In the case of determining overall subject grades, it is the responsibility of the MYP Coordinator to provide all MYP teachers with their subject's grade boundaries.