Page 23 - Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools. First Edition, Covering Grades 1 to 12. 2010

CHAPTER 3 | performance standards – the achievement chart
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PERFORMANCE STANDARDS – THE ACHIEVEMENT CHART
Categories of Knowledge and Skills
The achievement chart identifies four categories of knowledge and skills that are common to both the elementary and secondary panels and to all subject areas and disciplines. The categories, defined by clear criteria, represent four broad areas of knowledge and skills within which the expectations for any given subject/course can be organized. The four categories should be considered as interrelated, reflecting the wholeness and interconnectedness of learning. The categories help teachers to focus not only on students’ acquisition of knowledge but also on their development of the skills of thinking, communication, and application.
The categories of knowledge and skills are as follows:
• Knowledge and Understanding: Subject-specific content acquired in each grade/course (knowledge), and the comprehension of its meaning and significance (understanding)
• Thinking: The use of critical and creative thinking skills and/or processes
• Communication: The conveying of meaning through various forms
• Application: The use of knowledge and skills to make connections within and between various contexts
In all subjects and courses, students should be given numerous and varied opportunities to demonstrate the full extent of their achievement of the curriculum expectations (content standards) across all four categories of knowledge and skills.
Teachers will ensure that student learning is assessed and evaluated in a balanced manner with respect to the four categories, and that achievement of particular expectations is considered within the appropriate categories. The emphasis on “balance” reflects the fact that all categories of the achievement chart are important and need to be a part of the process of instruction, learning, assessment, and evaluation in all subjects and courses. However, it also indicates that for different subjects and courses, the relative importance of each of the categories may vary. The importance accorded to each of the four categories in assessment and evaluation should reflect the emphasis accorded to them in the curriculum expectations for the subject or course, and in instructional practice.
To further guide teachers in their assessment and evaluation of student learning, the achievement chart provides “criteria” and “descriptors”. The criteria are the subsets of knowledge and skills that define each category. They identify the aspects of student performance that are assessed and/or evaluated, and serve as a guide to what teachers look for. For example, in the English curriculum in the Knowledge and Understanding category, the criteria are “knowledge of content” and
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