Assessing student learning is one of the biggest challenges facing digital education moving forward. Thorhild Central School Teachers have been discussing how we adequately and fairly assess student learning in a digital environment.
TCS has developed guidelines to assist teachers with assessing learning. I encourage teachers, parents and students to discuss what assessment will look like within individual classrooms. Teachers are encouraged to be flexible and open minded regarding assessment, so please share your thoughts and concerns with us. I believe working together we can create fair assessments that allow students to demonstrate learning in a digital learning environment.
- Teachers are responsible for assessing a student’s progress, reporting on progress and assigning a final grade. Students will receive a final report card. Alberta Education has also indicated that all students will be able to progress to the next year.
- The primary focus should be on student learning and providing quality feedback to improve student learning. Quality feedback will help students and parents improve each day to can achieve learning outcomes. There are two forms of assessment that we focus on. There is still room for both formative and summative assessment in our new reality.
- Formative Assessment is designed to improve student learning by providing feedback on completed work. Students can then use the feedback to improve future submissions. Teachers use formative assessment to help determine how to proceed with their instruction. This will be the focus of assessment as we move forward. Please note that it often does not come with a mark, rather comments on how to improve. The key to learning is focusing on how to improve.
- Summative Assessment is designed to assess what students have learned. These are typically traditional quizzes and tests that occur at the end of sections to assess learning. Tests and quizzes will be more challenging to deliver in the digital environment, but our teachers will do their best to make them fair and equitable. Summative assessments generally come with a numerical grade.
- Teachers are encouraged to try a variety of assessment forms to assess student learning. Alternative forms may include projects, discussions, video/audio submissions, conversations, written reflections and interviews. We are looking to be flexible in how students demonstrate their learning.
- At the end of the year, the teacher’s professional judgement will be used to determine a final grade. This judgement will be based off all the evidence they have collected throughout the year. Due to the challenge of producing fair tests/quizzes, most of the evidence collected in the online environment will be formative.
- Do not hesitate to contact teachers to discuss assessment within their new digital classrooms. Teachers are always willing to discuss how they will be assessing within their digital classrooms. A grade one teacher will have very different assessments and expectations from grade 12 teachers, so please inquire with your classroom teacher for full details.