Page 9 - Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools. First Edition, Covering Grades 1 to 12. 2010

INTRODUCTION
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INTRODUCTION
Policies and procedures for assessment, evaluation, and reporting need to develop over time, as we learn more about how students learn. The policies outlined in this document reflect the current state of our evolving knowledge about the learning experience. New approaches to assessment provide both opportunities and challenges to all educators, for the benefit of all students.
The Organization of This Document
The first chapter of this document lays out the fundamental principles that form the foundation of all policy outlined in the remaining chapters. Chapter 2 focuses on learning skills and work habits. It comes immediately after the discussion of fundamental principles to reflect the importance of these skills and habits, in the view of all education stakeholders in Ontario, for the education and success of our students. Chapter 3 presents policies related to performance standards, as represented in the Achievement Chart and described in current Ontario curriculum policy documents.
Chapter 4 represents new understandings and policy related to the role that assessment can play in the improvement of student learning, and clarifies the differences between assessment for learning, assessment as learning, and assessment of learning (or evaluation).
Chapters 5 through 8 update, clarify, consolidate, and coordinate policies for evaluating and reporting student achievement. These chapters address key issues such as gathering evidence of student learning; dealing with late and missed assignments; and using the code “R” and percentage marks below 50 per cent, as well as the code “I”, in the evaluation and reporting of student achievement. They also present guidelines for school boards to develop some of their own policies pertaining to issues such as late and missed assignments and plagiarism, explain the use of the new fall Elementary Progress Report Cards, and discuss policies pertaining to students with special education needs and students who are learning English.
The remaining two chapters present policies related to assessing, evaluating, and reporting student achievement as they pertain to e-learning and credit recovery.
Each of the ten chapters in this document is organized in two parts. The first part outlines the policy, and the second part discusses the context for the policy or additional considerations related to the policy. It is anticipated that the context sections will provide educators with a deeper appreciation of the policies – of their intent, the theories of current educational experts that inform them, and the ways in which they will benefit student learning – and that they may serve to support professional learning.