Assessment Policy

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Assessment Policy

Rationale

To ensure that the assessment of all work aligns with IBO and CIE requirements, is clear and has set procedures to promote good practice and deal with malpractice. Aims

• To ensure the quality of all assessment and reporting for all programmes. • To support academic honesty and good practice by providing clear guidelines for all staff and students. • To provide a cohesive guideline for all staff and students in relation to assessment and reporting. • To provide timely, ongoing and appropriate recording and reporting of student progress that aligns with the assessment philosophy for each programme of study.

Guidelines

• The school communicates its assessment philosophy, policy and procedures to the school community through: • Parent & Student Handbook

• An IBDP guidebook, which is supplied to all IBDP students. • A CIE guidebook, which is supplied to all CIE students. • Information sessions with parents – at the start of the academic year Secondary Information Session and also at the Information

Evenings for IGCSE and IBDP.

Assessment Principles and Practice

Assessment is multi-dimensional and on-going. It encapsulates both formal and informal components (formative and summative) in order to consider the whole person. Whilst the main purpose of assessment is to give necessary feedback so that students and all other stakeholders can measure the knowledge, strengths and weaknesses of the student, it is primarily to reveal attainment and progress. A second important aspect of this is to show students a clear pathway to improving attainment and growing progress through motivation.

Assessment goes hand in hand with teaching and learning. The three are inextricably bound and therefore each component is deemed to be interdependent. What is important is that the student, their needs, skills and learning styles are at the centre of everything. The process informs teachers, students and parents of each student’s strengths and requirements so that future planning and teaching can be tailored to student needs.

Teachers need to be mindful of the following: • Assessment of learning – what we have learned.

• Assessment for learning – how we have learned. • Assessment as learning – what helps us learn.

Our Practice is to…

Monitor the progress of student learning and achievement, ensuring that the following are considered: • The cultural background of each student and the inherent needs relating to this, such as the acquisition of the English language in a school where English is the language of instruction, are in fact catered for – refer guidelines on English Language Support (ELS). • The diverse learning styles of each student that need to be catered for in the teaching and learning process through appropriate differentiation.

• The special educational needs of students are daily taken into account - refer to guidelines in Special Educational Needs & Inclusion Policy. • Timely and ongoing feedback that is constructive and helpful in order to improve student work and promote positive attitudes to learning. • Incorporation of both summative and formative assessment in order to progress the students’ learning. • Provides accessible and logical feedback for parents and students using formal and regular reporting through interim and full reports coupled with ManageBac where parents can view student progress and attendance on demand. • Regular evaluation of all programmes of learning in order to remain current with IBO and CIE curricula as well as with ever-changing teaching practice to implement them.

What is considered important about assessment is that students recognise their strengths and weaknesses and have ongoing knowledge about how to improve. Clear guidelines are essential, as is the importance of honest and timely teacher feedback. However, not all feedback should be generated from the teacher. Peer assessment, working and assessing in groups, as well as self- assessment are equally as valid and important to the learning process. In general, assessment should be a positive tool used as part of the learning process that not only gives students feedback but also informs the teacher in relation to their practice and possible ways to improve.

Supporting Assessment

ACG School Jakarta’s Expectations and Guidelines for Teachers: The student can expect the teacher to: • Clearly identify the requirements for each piece of work, providing students with appropriate assessment for the task. • Provide adequate time for students to complete each assessment task. • Provide adequate access to materials for the successful completion of each assessment task. • Assess all work appropriately and return it to students in good time, normally within a week. • Fully explain the guidelines, penalties and appeals to all students. All students are supplied with a guide for every subject that details deadlines, teaching activities and other important assessment information.

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• Explain to students how assessment is graded, making a clear links with the published mark scheme. • Ensure that students are aware of and following their signing of an Academic Honesty Declaration agreement, and abide by the terms of the Academic Honesty Policy. • Provide CIE students with examples of marking schedules/marking rubrics

Internal and External Assessment

Assessment is a continuous process throughout education. The process informs teachers, students and parents of each student’s strengths and requirements so that future planning and teaching can be tailored to student needs. The school uses a range of strategies and tools to assess students’ learning – both formative and summative. Both are essential and linked. Teachers must have an understanding of summative assessment expectations in their subject in order to aid progress in formative assessment.

Formative assessment (diagnostic) – the teacher gathers, analyses, interprets and uses evidence to improve student learning, and through this, works with individual students to help them improve.

• A range of different techniques must be used. Diagnostic assessment provides information for teachers on what or how students are achieving at a particular time. • Diagnostic tools give detailed information about students’ learning need and prompt reflection on appropriate teaching strategies to meet these.

• Diagnostic assessment should inform future programme planning, and give valuable information to teachers on how they may differentiate to scaffold the learning to meet the individual needs of students.

‘Formative assessment refers to all those assessment activities undertaken by teachers, and by the students themselves, which provide information, to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged. Such assessments become formative when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching to meet the needs of students.’ (Black & William, 1998.) • Internal assessment should be formative and comprise a range of formal and informal assessment procedures used by teachers during the learning process in order to modify teaching and learning activities to improve student attainment.

Summative assessment - the teacher will measure student performance based on the assessment criteria.

• Summative assessment summarises the development of learners at a particular time, Eg. after a unit of work. The learner sits a test and the teacher assigns a mark/grade. The test aims to summarise learning up to that point. • Summative assessment measures the outcome of an educational programme for the students who participated in that programme; that is, what skills and knowledge, relevant to the programme, they have at the conclusion of the programme.

Although it is desirable to use the results to inform further learning, for example, results from end-of-year assessment are used to inform programmes for the following year, it is typically the results of the assessment themselves that are the primary focus of attention.

• Summative assessment is typically used for credentialing (awarding of qualifications), selection (for jobs or university places, for example), or as accountability measures for educational providers. Because all of these purposes involve outcomes with, to a greater or lesser degree, high stakes for individuals or providers, the fairness of the assessment process is a very important concern. • Because summative assessments often have high stakes, they can have a blowback effect on teaching and learning; there can be pressure on the educator to narrow the focus of teaching to ensure good performance in the assessment. Students can similarly narrow their focus, or lose intrinsic, curiosity-driven motivation as they become concerned about the consequences of a poor assessment outcome. http://assessment.tki.org.nz/ • Whilst formative assessment should be ongoing and regular, summative assessment should be at timely intervals, Eg, tests at the conclusion of a unit or internal school examinations.

• At ACG School Jakarta, the IBDP and CIE IGCSEs complete both formative and summative assessments. • Internal and external assessment is a feature of the school, and external assessment involves the school sending student work to IBO and CIE examiners for assessment and moderation.

Links between Documents

This document is written with consideration to other policies and procedures. Specifically, this document links directly to the Academic Honesty Policy, Language Policy and guidelines for Special Educational Needs (SEN) & Inclusion and English Language Support (ELS).

Recording and Reporting

Guidelines exist for processes and protocols related to monitoring, recording of data and advising on progress. Implementation • The IBDP Coordinator, in collaboration with school leaders and subject coordinators, will be responsible for the implementation of this

Assessment Policy. • The implementation process will involve regular information sessions and meetings with teachers, students and parents. The Assessment

Policy document will be published for teachers in the ACG School Jakarta Staff Handbook. The document will be published for students and parents in the Parent & Student Handbook and will be electronically located on the ACG School Jakarta website and via ManageBac. • The School holds a thorough programme of induction where new staff receive instruction on the philosophy, principles and practices of the school including all forms of assessment for all programmes. • It is expected that staff new to teaching the IBDP will attend category 1 training as soon as is practicable and in line with IBO expectations and requirements. • Whilst teachers of CIE are not required to attend training prior to the commencement of teaching the programmes, they are encouraged to attend CIE workshops available. • There is ongoing mentoring of new staff by senior management and subject coordinators.

Evaluation and Review:

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Quality Control

• The IBDP Coordinator oversees the assessment calendar.

• The IBDP Coordinator and CIE Examinations Officer oversee the collection of all assignments and projects which contribute to final grades. • The IBDP Coordinator and CIE Examinations Officer arbitrate over late work and extensions.

• The Principal arbitrates over appeals against any decisions regarding late work, collusion or plagiarism as per the Academic

Honesty Policy. • The IBDP Coordinator and Principal oversee the special conditions and compassionate considerations. • The IBDP students receive a guidebook pertaining specifically to the IBDP, Year 10 and 11 students receive the CIE guidebook. • All work received for IBDP internal assessment electronically will include a report showing it has been submitted to turnitin for verification of academic honesty procedures. At times, teachers may use turnitin to check ongoing work. • The Academic Honesty Policy will be shared with all IBDP and CIE students at the start of their courses and students will be reminded of it throughout the programmes. • At the beginning of the programme, IBDP students will be required to sign a declaration stating that all work that they submit for assessment, including class assignments, homework and work for internal assessment will be their own authentic work. • Staff results of assessment will be stored on ManageBac so that these marks can be overseen by the IBDP Coordinator and the Principal. • All appeals are documented and stored for future reference. • Reports are proofread for accuracy and kept on file within ManageBac. • Forecast and predicted grades are kept securely until the closure of the examination session for both CIE and IBDP.