Assessment & Evaluation

The mechanics of assessing and evaluating student performance at The York School is guided by the principles set out below. Our policy is informed by the Ministry of Education’s Growing Success document, and by relevant IB guidelines. 

Frequent and Meaningful Feedback 

Student performance is assessed on a frequent basis and receives meaningful feedback in order that students can make appropriate adjustments to their learning and performance behaviours. 

Assessment for Learning 

Students are given the opportunity to attempt new skills and demonstrate recent learning on a trial basis without fear of their first attempts affecting their overall grade at the end of the year. 

Assessment as Learning 

Students will be guided to independence as learners by helping them develop their ability to set goals and assess their own performance and the performance of others. 

Assessment of Learning 

Once a student has had opportunities to demonstrate their learning and has received feedback, they are then assessed, and the results of that assessment are recorded for final evaluative purposes. 

Variety of Assessment Tools 

Students are subject to a wide range of assessment types that are engineered to test students’ knowledge and understanding of a subject, as well as their abilities to think, inquire, communicate, and apply their knowledge. Such assessments are appropriate to the specific skills and content of the subject area, but also give students the opportunity to utilize the wide range of intelligences that they bring to the subject.

Criteria-Based Evaluations 

Student performance is evaluated in terms of criteria that is presented to the students ahead of time, and is based on the achievement level descriptions set out in the Ministry of Education documents, and where appropriate, on the descriptions set out in IB guidelines.  

Evaluation: Current Measure of a Student’s Potential based on Consistent Performance 

Evaluation is the process of judging the quality of student learning on the basis of established criteria and assigning a value to represent that quality. Evaluation is based on assessments of learning that provide data on student achievement at strategic times throughout the grade/subject/course, often at the end of a period of learning (Growing Success). Thus, the mark a student receives at the end of the year is based on evidence of past performance, with due regard being given to both consistency and the most recent achievement levels attained. 

Evaluation: Expectations vs. Learning Skills 

Student grades represent a student’s ability to perform with respect to expectations specified in subject-specific guidelines published by the Ministry of Education, and where appropriate, by the IB. A student’s demonstration of learning skills not forming part of such expectations are evaluated separately as “learning skills” and do not influence a student’s overall grade.

Assessment Scales

The following scales will be used in evaluating student work: 

Ontario Ministry of Education Scale:

Ontario/MYP Equivalency Scale

IB Diploma Scale and IBSO Ontario Table of Equivalency

Late, Incomplete or Unsubmitted Assessments

Students are given due dates for assignments and set fixed dates for performances and tests. In setting due dates teachers make reference to a shared assessment calendar and are guided to choose dates that avoid giving students unmanageable work schedules.

Students are guided on how to calendarize their due dates and are expected to abide by all due dates, performance dates, and test dates. Where students encounter difficulties in managing their schedules, they are encouraged to speak with their advisor or the Learning Strategist. Students may communicate with a teacher to seek an extension of a due date where circumstances arise that are outside the student’s control and that make it impossible for the student to adhere to the published deadline. The decision to allow an extension of an assignment due date is at the teacher’s discretion in Grades 9 and 10. At Grades 11 and 12 the extension must be approved by the Principal. Except where a student is ill, no alternative dates will be granted to a student facing a performance or test date, except as may be allowed by the Principal. 

Teachers will be guided by the following when faced with unexcused late, incomplete or unsubmitted summative assignments:

  1. Where the assignment is not submitted the teacher shall assign either a zero or ‘no mark’, and in the determination of interim grades, may downgrade the assessment of the student’s overall achievement to account for the missing evidence, and in the determination of final grades, may exercise their professional judgement as to whether the missing evidence results in

    • a fail based on the student’s inability to demonstrate achievement of overall expectations, 

    • a lower final mark, 

    • or where the overall expectation(s) being assessed in the unsubmitted assessment has or have been assessed at another time, no mark penalty.

  2. Where a summative assignment has been partially completed the teacher may assess the completed portion, and either register a resulting grade for the entire assessment or assess certain criteria and consider other criteria unsubmitted.

  3. Where a summative assignment has not been handed in on time, the teacher would record a Late or Unsubmitted Assignment Infraction in York Net. This will notify the student and their parents of the unsubmitted work.

  4. In Grades 9, where a summative assignment has not been handed in on time, the student will be required to attend the York Workspace (in the Leigh Centre for Wellbeing) at the end of the school day for one hour x 3 days, or until the assignment is complete and has been submitted to the teacher. Where a student is required to attend Workspace they may not attend any co-curricular activities during their Workspace time.

  5. Grade 10, 11 and 12: Where a summative assignment has not been handed in by 8:30am on the day it is due, the student (and their parent) will be sent an email indicating that the student is to attend Workspace the following day from 8:00am until 5:00pm in order to complete the assignment Students may resume classes once they submit the assignment. Students who have not completed the assignment by 5:00pm will have until 8:30am the next day to complete and submit the assignment.

Specific Guidelines for the Assessment of Grade 11 and 12 Work

Assessment tools

Teachers will base all formal assessments on IB DP tasks. Examples of IB DP tasks include portfolios, lab reports, orals and past examination papers. 

Non-IB (Ontario) tasks may be useful in assisting student learning, but this will be restricted to assessment for learning or may be given lesser weight in determining a final report card mark or predicted grade.

Grading

Students will be assigned an IB grade for each piece of formally-assessed IB work. This grade will be on the 1-7 scale for tests, and will use the appropriate subject-specific rubric(s). Internal Assessment work may be graded on a different scale depending upon the subject-specific rubrics used. Teachers may indicate where in the grade level the student work falls (low/mid/high), but will not award a specific Ontario percentage to a single piece of work. 

Determination of mid-term grades (DP1 only)

From September through December of the Grade 11 year, a variety of non-IB assessment tasks may be used to assist student learning. When midterm grades are determined for report cards during this period, student marks may therefore be based on a combination of IB and non-IB assessment tasks. The table of equivalences may be used for any assessments that are IB tasks. The determination of a percentage mark for non-IB assessment tasks is left to the individual teacher’s professional judgement. 

Determination of final/interim grades

Interim/final grades for IB students are determined in June of the Grade 11 year and at various points throughout the Grade 12 year. At these times, teachers will determine an appropriate IB Grade (1-7) on the basis of past performance, with particular regard being given to IB tasks and to most recent and most consistent performance. An equivalent Ontario percentage will be determined using the table of equivalences. In determining the final report card mark for Grade 12, the final IB results will represent 30% of the total, and the 70% will be derived from the student’s performance on summative tasks during the year.

Guidelines for Offering Re-tests and Re-Dos

In forming their professional judgement with respect to whether and how a re-test or re-do is to be offered, the teacher will be guided by the following considerations. 

  1. If a teacher is considering offering a re-test or re-do for a portion or all of the class for reasons not relating to personal circumstances of individuals in the cohort, they must first speak with their course partners and agree as to whether a re-test or re-do is to be done, and how it should be done. 

  2. Where a re-test or re-do is offered to some for non-personal reasons, it should be offered to all. 

  3. Where any re-test or re-do situation occurs, there must be a plan for re-learning; that plan may differ according to the learning needs of the individual student, and the plan for relearning should be set out in a TRAIL mail. 

  4. When a student decides to do a re-test or re-do, their result on the later attempt should replace the result in the earlier attempt. 

  5. A re-test should be held within a week of the first attempt. 

  6. Whether the re-test occurs within or outside the class time will be at the discretion of the teacher. 

  7. It will be at the discretion of the teacher as to what portions of a test or assignment are redone and whether a different form of assessment is used in the second attempt. 

  8. Personal circumstances that are relevant to consider in an application by an individual for a re-test should extend only to matters outside of the student’s control.