Assessment

IB Philosophy of Assessment

The main purpose of assessment is to improve and support student learning. Assessment is used to determine student understanding, knowledge, and skills at the time of the assessment, and helps students and teachers plan how best to proceed in order to further develop student learning.  It drives teacher planning and teaching strategies to get students where they need to be to meet BC curricular standards, as well as the MYP aims and objectives. Assessment provides insight for students, teachers, and parents into student progress in the different subject areas.

Assessment in the MYP aims to:

support and encourage student learning by providing feedback on the learning process
inform, enhance and improve the teaching process
provide opportunity for students to exhibit transfer of skills across disciplines, such as in the personal project and interdisciplinary unit assessments
promote positive student attitudes towards learning
promote a deep understanding of subject content by supporting students in their inquiries set in real- world contexts
promote the development of critical and creative-thinking skills
reflect the international-mindedness of the programme by allowing assessments to be set in a variety of cultural and linguistic contexts
support the holistic nature of the programme by including in its model principles that take account of the development of the whole student.”[1]

The above video, produced by Diane Smith at Le Jardin Academy, help explain MYP Assessment.

Reporting and Grading

Students receive five reports per school year as required by the Ministry of Education, consisting of three official report cards and two interim reports.   Marks are cumulative.

MYP Criterion

Grades 8, 9 and 10 students will receive an MYP report card that reports out the level achieved for each criterion for each course.  Students will be awarded a level 0 – 8 on each of the four criteria. Grades 8, 9 and 10 will not receive letter grades or percentages.  In order to meet the requirements of a course (achieve a passing grade), students must receive a minimum level of ‘2’ on all four criteria for that course.

Parents will be provided with the following general chart in order to clarify the Criterion levels and what they mean with respect to overall performance in each course.

Understanding what each level means. . .

Level 0	Work is not meeting expectations or has not been handed in. Student has an “I” for in-progress.
Level 1	Work is not yet meeting expectations. Students has an “I” for in-progress
Level 2	Produces work of limited quality that is minimally meeting expectations. Often expresses misunderstandings or significant gaps in understanding. The student often has difficulty applying knowledge and skills.
Level 3/4	Produces work of acceptable quality and communicates basic understanding of many concepts and contexts. May demonstrate critical and creative thinking but requires support. Student can sometimes apply knowledge and skills in familiar situations.
Level 5/6	Produces high-quality work. Communicates a full understanding of concepts and contexts. Demonstrates critical and creative thinking, sometimes with sophistication. Uses and applies knowledge and skills in familiar real-world situations.
Level 7/8	Produces high quality work that exceeds expectations. Communicates an excellent understanding of concepts and contexts. Consistently demonstrates sophisticated critical and creative thinking. Can transfer knowledge and skills to unfamiliar real-world situations.

Level 0-1: Student is not passing at this time

Level 2: Student is on the borderline

Level 3-4: Student is meeting expectations

Level 5-6: Student is fully meeting expectations

Level 7-8: Student is exceeding expectations

The number of assessment criteria and maximum levels for each of these criteria are consistent across all subjects.

Each subject is assessed using 4 criteria based rubrics with a maximum 8 levels in these assessment criteria. (See the school website for a more detailed look at the assessment rubrics.)
This type of assessment identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each individual student, and provides an overview of student achievement in the various aspects of all subjects.

Assessment - Arts (see attached Art descriptor below)

Criterion A	Knowledge and Understanding	0-8
Criterion B	Developing Skills	0-8
Criterion C	Thinking Creatively	0-8
Criterion D	Responding	0-8

Assessment - Design (see attached Design descriptor below)

Criterion A	Inquiring and Analysing	0-8
Criterion B	Developing Ideas	0-8
Criterion C	Creating the Solution	0-8
Criterion D	Evaluating	0-8

Assessment - Language and Literature (see attached Language and Literature descriptor below)

Criterion A	Analyzing	0-8
Criterion B	Organizing	0-8
Criterion C	Producing Text	0-8
Criterion D	Using Language	0-8

Assessment - Language Acquisition (see attached Language Acquisition descriptor below)

Criterion A	Comprehending spoken and visual text	0-8
Criterion B	Comprehending written and visual text	0-8
Criterion C	Communicating in response to spoken/written/visual text	0-8
Criterion D	Using language in spoken/written form.	0-8

Assessment - Mathematics (see attached Mathematics descriptor below)

Criterion A	Knowledge and understanding	0-8
Criterion B	Investigating patterns	0-8
Criterion C	Communicating	0-8
Criterion D	Applying mathematics in real-life contexts	0-8

Assessment - Physical and Health Education (see attached Physical and Education descriptor below)

Criterion A	Knowing and understanding	0-8
Criterion B	Planning for performance	0-8
Criterion C	Applying and performing	0-8
Criterion D	Reflecting and improving performance	0-8

Assessment - Sciences (see attached Sciences descriptor below)

Criterion A	Knowing and understanding	0-8
Criterion B	Inquiring and designing	0-8
Criterion C	Processing and evaluating	0-8
Criterion D	Reflecting on the impacts of science	0-8

Assessment - Individuals and Societies (see attached Individuals and Societies descriptor below)

Criterion A	Knowing and understanding	0-8
Criterion B	Investigating	0-8
Criterion C	Communicating	0-8
Criterion D	Thinking critically	0-8

At the completion of a term and at the completion of a course student report cards will feature MYP criterion levels for each subject area. There will also be an Overall Level of Achievement out of 8. Please refer to the attached OLA Guide document below for further explanation regarding how to interpret the Overall Level of Achievement on MYP report cards. 