Assessment and Evaluation Overview
This information is also found in the Frontenac Secondary School Student Agenda
ASSESSMENT, EVALUATION & REPORTING
WHAT IS ASSESSMENT?
Asessment is the process of collecting and interpreting information about your progress with respect to learning skills and to the overall expectations of each course as they are described by the Ministry of Education (each course has overall expectations that are listed on your course outline). Teachers use assessment to give feedback by describing your next steps as a learner so that you know how to improve your work. The three types of assessment are described below.
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HAPPENS..... |
IT IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT..... |
Diagnostic Assessment |
at the beginning of a learning cycle or unit. |
helps to determine what you already know to assist teachers in planning what you need to learn. |
Formative Assessment |
throughout a learning cycle or unit. |
doesn't factor into grade determination
prepares you for summative assessment
may not include a grade, but takes the form of specific feedback offering next steps related to determine your grade |
Summative Assessment |
at the end of a learning cycle or unit. |
is used to determine your grade
provides feedback on your level of achievement of the course's overall expectations. |
Think of it this way:
- Diagnostic assessment tasks let both you and the teacher know where you are and what you need to learn next. You can use the information that these tasks generate to determine your next steps for learning.
- Formative assessment tasks give you a chance to get feedback to help you do well on the summative assessment task. Not doing the work would be like arriving at a championship game or a musical recital without practising beforehand. The most important part is the feedback; grades are not necessarily assigned to these tasks; they do not contribute to your final grade because they focus on learning and less on achievement.
- Summative Assessment tasks are used to confirm what you know or are able to do at the end of a unit of study. A summative assessment task consolidates your learning in that unit of study. The formative assessments will have helped you prepare for the summative assessment tasks. The rubrics or checklists that the teachers give you will help you to see exactly what you need to know how to do well on the task. Feedback offered on summative tasks helps you to be successful on summative assessment tasks that you'll complete later in the semester, including the final summative assessment task.
WHAT IS EVALUATION?
Evaluation is the process of judging the quality of your learning skills and academic achievement of the overall expectations of the course, and assigning a value to reflect that quality.
Think of it this way:
After you have experienced opportunities through formative assessment, you then have the opportunity to complete an assessment task that allows you to demonstrate what it is you know and can do. When your teacher assigns a grade to the assessment, this is referred to as evaluation as it is the information that teachers use to determine your final grade.
WHAT IS REPORTING?
Reporting is the communication to you as well as to your parent/guardians of your most consistent level of achievement across the overall expectations and of the five learning skills. The grade you get will indicate the most consistent level of achievement at the time of the report. Teachers will evaluate your work in relation to the provincial standard (Level 3). Your teacher will give consideration to the most consistent evidence if achievement across the expectations, and will take into consideration growth in your demonstrated achievement. Your academic achievement is reported in the form of a numerical grade while the learning skills are reported as a letter grade: E (excellent), G (good), S (satisfactory), or N (needs improvement).
When Does Reporting Occur?
Reporting happens at least twice per semester. Mid-term and final reporting are done on the provincial report card, which is kep in your Ontario Student Record (OSR). Early Reports are provided to Grade 9 and 10 students early on in each semester. The Early Report focuses on the learning skills and the teacher's first impressions of your work in the course.
What is Full Disclosure?
Failing grades at the junior level (grades 9 and 10) will not appear on your transcript. At the senior level (grades 11 and 12), failing or low grades will not be included if you withdraw from a specific course within five days after the mid-semester reporting period. If the withdrawal occurs after this time, the grade will remain on the transcript. This policy is provincially mandated and is referred to as "full disclosure."
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
Your academic achievement is decided by your performance on your term work, as well as on your final summative assessment task(s).
Term Work:
70% of your grade will be based on summative assessment conducted throughout the course. It is critical that you complete summative assessment tasks to ensure that your teachers have adequate evidence of your learning for grading purposes. Teachers assign a limited number of them, so it is imperative that you complete all of them to demonstrate to your teacher what you have learned. Refer to your course outline for a tentative list of summative tasks in each of your subjects.
Deadlines for Term Work:
Deadlines are designed to help ensure that you are successful and that you complete all course requirements. It is your responsibility to plan ahead. Your success in this area will be reflected in the learning skills section of the report card. In cases of illness or religious holiday, deadlines will be adjusted to meet your needs. In cases where you are aware that you may have difficulties meeting a deadline, it is expected that you speak to the teacher in advance of the day that the assignment is due to discuss alternative submission options.
If you do not submit your summative assignment task on the due date, the teacher shall select one of the following options:
- complete immediately the summative assessment during class time or the school day in a location designated by the teacher/administration;
- serve academic detentions to complete the work prior to the summative assessment being returned to class;
- demonstrate your understanding of these missed overall expectations in another way.
Your teacher will also phone your parents/guardians to let them know that you are having some trouble completing work on time.
Missing a summative assessment is a serious issue. If you fail to submit work after the above has been implemented, a referral to the Vice-Principal for appropriate disciplinary action will happen and possible removal from the course may occur.
Think of it this way:
There are times when circumstances in your life will create challenges for meeting deadlines. If such a circumstance were to arise, communication with your teacher is important so that s/he knows why the deadline is posing a problem. If you don't talk to your teacher about solutions, thens/he may assume that there isn't a reasonable excuse for you not to meet the deadline. On your course outline there is a list of summative assignments so that you are able to anticipate the demands of each course and plan accordingly. Your teachers need evidence of what you have learned to grant the credit and the credit can't be granted until such evidence is provided.
Final Summative Assessment Task(s):
30% of your grade will be based on final summative assessment task(s), in the form of an examination, culminating activity and/or any other method of assessment suitable to the course's overall expectations and delivery. These will be administered towards the end of the semester.
Completion of Final Summative Assessment Task(s):
You must write examinations and/or complete all final summative assessment tasks at the scheduled times. The only exceptions will be conflicts in the schedule, medical reasons or a court order. If you miss a final summative assessment for medical reasons, you will need to see an administrator. You must not make any plans, including travel, that conflict with your final summative assessment schedule. You are informed at the beginning of the school year of the exact dates of the examination period. In the case of exceptional circumstances, parents should contact the principal. Plans for holidays or employment are not acceptable reasons for missing a final summative assessment.
Accommodations:
All students require support from teachers, classmates, family and friends to achieve success in their course work. Some students receive supports beyond these typically provided in the school setting. These needs may be met through accomodations. Accomodations are set out in Individual Education Plans (IEPs) to meet the needs of exceptional students. There are three types of accommodations:
- Instructional accommodations are changes in teaching strategies, like presentation styles, organized methods, and technology use, that support student learning and success.
- Environmental accommodations are changes in the classroom setting, like preferential seating, or special lighting, that support student learning and success.
- Assessment accommodations are changes in the way that student work is assessed, like allowing extra time for students to complete work, and permitting students to offer oral responses to test questions, to support learning and success.
Accommodations allow all students to achieve their full potential in their course work.
WHAT ARE LEARNING SKILLS?
Learning skills are assessed and evaluated separately from your academic achievement. You will be assessed frequently on your level of achievement of the following five learning skills (through conferences with your teacher, observation during class activities, and through completion of assignments where specific learning skills are addressed), and evaluated at mid-term and again at the end of the semester with a letter grade (E = excellent, G = good, S = satisfactory, N = needs improvement):
- Works Independently (eg. accepts responsibility for completing tasks, follows instructions, completes assignments on time and with care, uses time effectively
- Teamwork (eg works willingly and cooperatively with others, is sensitive to the needs of others, takes responsibility for sharing the work, shows respect for the ideas and opinions of others)
- Organization (eg. organizes work, creates a plan to complete tasks, demonstrates ability to organize and manage information)
- Work Habits/Homework (eg puts forth consistent effort, completes homework)
- Initiative (eg. responds positively to challenges and to new learning opportunities, seeks out opportunities for learning, identifies problems to solve, seeks additional information, generates questions for inquiry)
Think of it this way:
Learning skills are important skills to develop. First, well-developed learning skills often help to improve your academic achievement. If you think about them every day, this will help you feel involved in your studies. Remember, school is not happening to you; rather, you are in charge of your success. Second, learning skills help to focus on good habits to help with success beyond school. For instance, your learning skills achievement will be of interest to employers who are considering you as a potential employee.
WHAT ABOUT ATTENDANCE AND PUNCTUALITY?
Your grades are determined by your most consistent level of achievement across the overall expectations of the provincial curricula. Your learning skills are important because they support your academic achievement of these expectations. In much the same way, attending regularly and arriving punctually are important for success in your course work. Your teachers will expect you to attend regularly.
Think of it this way:
Your teachers want you to do your best. Arriving on time and attending regularly show your teachers that you're interested in doing your best. Remember that your report card captures all measures of achievement; attending your classes and arriving on time are included as part of these measures in your report card to communicate the importance of these in terms of your success at school.
ACADEMIC HONESTY POLICY
Academic honesty is a core value in our school. If you submit work or parts of work that are not your own, you have not shown that you can demonstrate the curriculum expectations. Plagiarism is the theft of intellectual property and is treated with the utmost seriousness. To avoid this, your teachers will help you plan your work. If you find that you require assistance in order to complete the assignment properly, see your teacher well in advance of the due date. Your teacher can help you to establish a reasonable timeline to complete an assignment and/or strategies to do your research and write your final submission. Remember when you do research, that you must cite all sources. See the information at the end of this section for citation rules and methods.
Plagiarism:
In a case where a teacher suspects plagiarism, the teacher will first discuss it with you and then shall report the matter to the Administration. A meeting, organized by the Administration, may include all or some of the following parties: you, your parent or guardian, the teacher, a Department Head, a Student Services representative and an administrator. The following procedures will apply:
- For a first offence, an in-school suspension of one day will be assigned. During this time, you will complete, under supervision, an assignment based on the overall expectations addressed in the original assignment. You will also have to complete an additional paper on the subject of academic ethics and honesty. A record of your plagiarism will be kept in the Main Office until you leave the school permanently.
- A second or subsequent offence will result in a longer out-of-school suspension and/or removal from the course.
Unauthorized sharing of work:
Providing work to another student for the purposes of academic dishonesty is a violation of our code of behaviour.
If you allow another student to use your work and present it as his or her own, you will be referred to administration to serve an academic detention where a paper on academic ethics will be assigned.
If you use another students work and present it as your own, you will be required to:
- demonstrate the expectations covered by the test or assignment, in another format, to be determined by the teacher
- serve an in-school suspension where a paper on academic ethics will be written.
A record will be kept in the Main Office and consequences will be more severe for subsequent infractions. These may include a longer out-of-school suspension and/or removal from the course.
Proper Citation Rules: What is a citation?
A citation is a brief reference to someone else’s work embedded in the body of your paper that acknowledges and gives credit for sources of information that you have used. You must cite another person’s ideas or opinions (whether they are quoted directly or paraphrased), as well as any fact, statistic, illustration, image, graph, or information that is not common knowledge.
Think of it this way:
If you do not mention where you got your information, you are giving the impression that you are the source of the information. If you do not say where you got something and it is not yours, you are in effect stealing ideas, concepts, pictures or data. Research is the act of gathering and presenting information in a new way. This is what you are learning to do in high school. Sometimes you will create or present new ideas but if you are using existing information from other sources you must identify these sources.
Your teacher will require you to follow a specific format and will refer you to one of the two formats below, depending on the course.
Referencing using the Modern Language Association (MLA) Format
Referencing Using the Modern Language Association.pdf
Referencing using the American Psychological Association (APA) Format - for the Sciences
Referencing Using the American Psychological Association.pdf
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