Page 150 - Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools. First Edition, Covering Grades 1 to 12. 2010

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GROWING SUCCESS | assessment, evaluation, and reporting in Ontario schools
learning goals and the success criteria. Assessment as learning focuses on the role of the student as the critical connector between assessment and learning. (Adapted from Western and Northern Canadian Protocol for Collaboration in Education, 2006, p. 41.)
• assessment for learning. The ongoing process of gathering and interpreting evidence about student learning for the purpose of determining where students are in their learning, where they need to go, and how best to get there. The information gathered is used by teachers to provide feedback and adjust instruction and by students to focus their learning. Assessment for learning is a high-yield instructional strategy that takes place while the student is still learning and serves to promote learning. (Adapted from Assessment Reform Group, 2002.)
• assessment of learning. The process of collecting and interpreting evidence for the purpose of summarizing learning at a given point in time, to make judgements about the quality of student learning on the basis of established criteria, and to assign a value to represent that quality.
The information gathered may be used to communicate the student’s achievement to parents, other teachers, students themselves, and others. It occurs at or near the end of a cycle of learning.
assignment for evaluation. An assignment for evaluation is used to evaluate student learning. Most assignments for evaluation are rich performance tasks, demonstrations, projects, or essays. Assignments for evaluation do not include ongoing homework that students do to practise skills, consolidate knowledge and skills, and/or prepare for the next class.
categories of knowledge and skills. Four broad areas of knowledge and skills within which subject/course expectations are organized. The categories are to be considered interrelated, reflecting the wholeness and interconnectedness of learning. The four categories are: (1) Knowledge and Understanding, (2) Thinking (Thinking and Investigation, for Science), (3) Communication,
and (4) Application.
community involvement requirement. The requirement that each secondary school student must complete at least forty hours of community involvement in order to graduate. The requirement is intended to help students develop an awareness and understanding of civic responsibility.
compulsory credit. A credit earned for successful completion of a course that is a requirement for graduation. Students must earn a total of eighteen compulsory credits in order to obtain the Ontario Secondary School Diploma. Fifteen of the credits are similar for all students, while the additional three credits are chosen by the student, one credit for each of three distinct groupings of courses.
content standards. Standards that describe what students should know and be able to do. The content standards in the Ontario curriculum are the curriculum expectations identified for every subject
and discipline, which describe the knowledge and skills that students are expected to develop and demonstrate in their class work, on tests, and in various other activities on which their achievement is assessed and evaluated.
GLOSSARY