Page 47 - THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 11 AND 12 | Cooperative Education

Evaluation
Evaluation refers to the process of judging the quality of student learning on the basis
of established performance standards and assigning a value to represent that quality. Evaluation accurately summarizes and communicates to parents, other teachers, employers, institutions of further education, and students themselves what students know and can do with respect to the overall curriculum expectations. Evaluation is based on assessment of learning that provides evidence of student achievement at strategic times throughout the course, often at the end of a period of learning (Growing Success, p. 38).
Cooperative education teachers use the information gathered through conversation, observation, and assessment of student products, along with comments, responses, and/or constructive criticism provided by the cooperative education placement supervisor, to inform their professional judgement in determining a grade. Gathering evidence of student learning from multiple and varied sources ensures that the evaluation will be both valid and reliable and will most accurately reflect the learning that has occurred in the cooperative education course. As stated earlier, the cooperative education teacher is solely responsible for evaluating students’ achievement and for assigning student grades. Teachers evaluate student achievement of the expectations set out in the cooperative education curriculum, using the success criteria in the Student’s Cooperative Education Learning Plan (see pages 24–26) and the performance standards set out in the achievement chart provided on pages 52–53.
All curriculum expectations must be accounted for in instruction and assessment,
but evaluation focuses on students’ achievement of the overall expectations. Each student’s achievement of the overall expectations is evaluated on the basis of the student’s achievement of related specific expectations. The overall expectations are broad in nature, and the specific expectations define the particular content or scope of the knowledge and skills referred to in the overall expectations. Teachers will use their professional judgement to determine which specific expectations should be used to evaluate achievement of the overall expectations, and which ones will be accounted for in instruction and assessment but not necessarily evaluated.
In the case of Cooperative Education Linked to a Related Course (or Courses), when the course is linked to more than one related course, evaluation takes into account achievement connected with learning in the selected expectations from each related course (see strand B of the cooperative education course, where the specific expectations refer to the application, refinement, and extension of learning connected with selected expectations from the related course or courses). The teacher’s evaluation of the student’s achievement of the overall expectations of the cooperative education course will include evaluation of the application, refinement, and extension of learning connected with each related course, and
the teacher will arrive at a final percentage mark in connection with each related course
(see also “Reporting Student Achievement”, pages 48–49).
In this way, evaluation of Cooperative Education Linked to a Related Course (or Courses) is unique. It is an exception to the rule stated in Growing Success (p. 41) that “for Grades 9 to 12, a final grade (percentage mark) is recorded for every course”. The student in a multiple-credit cooperative education course linked to more than one related course achieves the expectations outlined for the cooperative education course through more than one lens, or area of focus – that is, the learning connected with each related course. (Cooperative Education Linked to a Related Course [or Courses] may thus be understood to resemble
ASSESSMENT, EVALUATION, AND REPORTING OF STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
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