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ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION

POLICY

BELIEFS IN ASSESSMENT

  • Assessment is an important part of teaching and learning.
  • What students know, understand and are capable of undertaking at various stages of the learning process is identified through assessment.  It helps teachers and students take action through collecting evidence and reflection.
  • Assessment involves teachers and students cooperating to monitor, document, measure, report on and adjust learning.
  • Assessment is designed to be both backward and forward.
  • Students, teachers and parents and guardians are given feedback in the form of the results recorded and reports prepared after assessment.
  • The assessment policy is regularly evaluated with the participation of teachers and the school administration and developments are reflected on the functioning of the programme.
  • The entire school community displays a shared understanding of and uses a shared language for assessment practices.
  • Those learners who are capable of self-management participate in assessment more actively.

PURPOSES OF ASSESSMENT

    • To identify what students know, understand, are capable of doing and how they feel about the learning process,
    • To provide feedback to students, teachers, parents and guardians,
    • To keep records of and report on student performance,
    • To establish the degree of adoption of learner profiles, approaches to learning and concepts,
    • To differentiate learning and assessment tools in line with personal needs,
    • To allow students opportunities to assess their own learning process,
    • To strengthen our learning process and practices as the community of teachers,
    • To continually improve the programme,
    • To form learning goals and success criteria all together,

    To help students set targets for their learning by reflecting on their development.

THE PRINCIPLES OF ASSESSMENT

The formative and summative assessment practices in our school:

FOR LEARNERS

  • Assessment should provide opportunities for reflection, sharing, displaying skills and discovering own learning processes,
  • Assessment should be a strong means for supporting students in being self-regulated learners,
  • Learners who carry out self-assessment should engage in self-adjusting by changing and improving their learning using the feedback they are given,
  • Assessment should provide opportunities for the use of differentiated (by learning style, interest and readiness) assessment tools.

FOR TEACHERS

  • Assessment should provide opportunities to collect evidence, make plans, set criteria, reflect, act and prepare reports regarding the teaching and learning process,
  • Should use varied and balanced strategies and tools and keep different learning styles and levels of development in sight,
  • Assessment criterias should be shared beforehand,
  • Should support students in gaining assessment abilities,
  • Should ensure reflection on whether learning experiences, targets or learning aims have been realised.

FOR PARENTS AND GUARDIANS

  • Assessment should provide evidence of student learning and development and provide opportunities to support the student,
  • Should inform parents and guardians about assessment criteria for work they participate in.

ASSESSMENT PRACTICES

  • Varied, authentic and balanced assessment tools are used. 
  • Students are included in the assessment design and active cooperation between the teacher and students as well as among students is ensured.
  • Planning is carried out with the outcomes of formative and summative assessment.
  • Prospective information about future learning is provided through feedback on assessment results. 
  • Students are supported to establish their own targets in line with their own development, using the assessment results. 

TOOLS AND STRATERGIES USED IN ASSESSMENT

TOOLS

Rubrics: A series of criteria formed to assess students in every field.

Standard setting student work (samples): Samples of student work. 

Checklists: Lists of required information, data, qualities and elements.

Anectodal records: Short written notes based on observations of students. These records should be brought together and systematically organised.

Continuums: These represent the stages of development of learning visually. They may show the progress of success or the point the student is at within the process.

STRATERGIES

  • Waiting time: Drawing connections and ensuring that students can move beyond simple facts to discuss deeper understandings by making use of the waiting period strategy while students answer questions. 
  • Concept maps: Encouraging students to use and make additions to concept maps to show connections and relationships between concepts.
  • Exit card: Using the exit card strategy with students to list their understanding of concepts and possible questions which may linger in their minds.
  • Bus stop strategy: While students move around “bus stops”, they use symbols and words individually or in cooperation to record, challenge and develop their ideas and make additions to them. 
  • Think in pairs or small groups: Allowing students opportunities to think in pairs or small groups to encourage deeper discussion. 
  • Observations: Teachers observe students in various ways including whole class observation, observation of a single student or activity, observing without taking part and observing as a participant. 
  • Performance assessment: The assessment of goal-oriented tasks in line with previously determined criteria. 
  • Formative-focused assessment: Observation of students during the process and recording of observations.
  • Selected answers: Single time, one dimensional activities (tests, quizzes, etc.)
  • Open ended questions: Students are given a stimulant and are expected to respond to it originally. The response may be in the form of a short written answer, a drawing, a graph or solution.

REPORTING

TEACHER-PARENT MEETINGS

These meetings are carried out to inform parents and guardians regarding the development and needs of students and to get information from parents and guardians. The time and duration of the meeting is set according to the schedule of the teacher and the parents or guardians.

PARENT MEETINGS

These meetings are carried out to share information on issues which concern all parents, informing parents about the programme, sharing fields in which support for the learning of students is possible and taking joint decisions.                     

 

STUDENT LED CONFERENCES  

Students share their portfolios, which contain products of their work throughout the school terms, with their parents and guardians twice a year using the SEESAW application.
 
This way, parents and guardians get an idea of the work and development of their children and get the opportunity to talk about and assess their children’s work with them.

 

PYP TRANSDISCIPLINARY LEARNING REPORT

At the end of a unit of inquiry, the PYP Transdisciplinary Learning Report is prepared.  In this report, the learner profile traits of students which we find important for students to become life-long learning individuals, their learning approaches and development in all subjects are assessed. Students’ development throughout the process is displayed using a four item assessment scale.

The report includes feedback and feedforward about students in the teacher’s opinions section. In order to ensure that students take on responsibility for their own learning, the report contains sections where they can reflect and where parents can share their observations.

PYP EXHIBITION 

The exhibition is a culminating and unifying learning experience or research-inquiry project in which students share their understanding of an issue they selected and researched individually or as a group, with the support of a mentor.

The exhibition allows students to put their interests, transdisciplinary thinking, knowledge, conceptual understanding, skills and learner profiles  into action.

The exhibition process begins in the first week of the second term and continues for six weeks. The week after the six-week period students present to the entire school community, and the week after that to parents and guardians of 4th grade students to complete the exhibition process.

The first assessment of exhibition presentations is carried out after the presentations to the school community. Each presentation is assessed by the student and teacher group listening. The feedback from assessment provide a good opportunity for students to reflect in the week until the presentation to parents. During that week, students carry out the necessary changes to their presentations and the final preparations for the presentation to parents.

After the end of the presentation to parents and guardians, parents and guardians assess the presentations. Once all assessment is complete, the results are reviewed along with students and the exhibition process is complete.