Page 44 - Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools. First Edition, Covering Grades 1 to 12. 2010

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EVALUATION
EVALUATION
POLICY
The primary purpose of assessment and evaluation is to improve student learning.
Chapter 4 provided policy and context related to assessment for learning and as learning. This chapter focuses on evaluation. Evaluation refers to the process of judging the quality of student learning on the basis of established performance standards (see Chapter 3) 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 grade/course, often at the end of a period of learning.2
For Grades 1 to 12, all curriculum expectations must be accounted for in instruction and assessment, but evaluation focuses on students’ achievement of the overall expectations. A student’s achievement of the overall expectations is evaluated on the basis of his or her 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.
For students with special education needs and English language learners who may require accommodations but who do not require modified expectations, evaluation of achievement will
be based on the appropriate subject/grade/course curriculum expectations and the achievement levels, as described in Chapter 3. For students who require modified or alternative expectations, evaluation of achievement will be based on the modified or alternative expectations rather than the regular subject/grade/course curriculum expectations. (See Chapters 7 and 8 for detailed information about students with special education needs and English language learners, respectively; see pp. 61–66 for information specific to reporting for these students.)
2. This chapter is about evaluation of student learning conducted by teachers at the classroom level. Ontario students also participate in large-scale standardized assessments of their learning. Appendix 1 provides an overview of these provincial, national, and international large-scale assessments.