Page 53 - Mathematics GRADE 9, DE-STREAMED (MTH1W)

Major aspects of assessment, evaluation, and reporting policy are summarized in the main “Assessment and Evaluation” section. The key tool for assessment and evaluation in mathematics – the achievement chart – is provided below.
Culturally Responsive and Relevant Assessment and Evaluation in Mathematics
Culturally Responsive and Relevant Pedagogy (CRRP) reflects and affirms students’ racial and social identities, languages, and family structures. It involves careful acknowledgement, respect, and understanding of the similarities and differences among students, and between students and teachers, in order to respond effectively to student thinking and promote student learning.
Engaging in assessment from a CRRP stance requires that teachers gain awareness of and interrogate their own beliefs about who a mathematical learner is and what they can achieve (see the questions for consideration provided below). In this process, teachers engage in continual self-reflection – and the critical analysis of various data – to understand and address the ways in which power and privilege affect the assessment and evaluation of student learning. Assessment from a CRRP stance starts with having a deep knowledge of every student and understanding of how they learn best. Teachers seek to build authentic, trusting relationships with students, and with their families and community, as they seek opportunities to build new understanding and support equitable outcomes for all students.
Assessment from a CRRP stance, by its nature, encompasses a wide variety of assessment approaches. It is designed to reflect, affirm, and enhance the multiple ways of knowing and being that students bring to the classroom while maintaining appropriate and high academic expectations for all students. The primary purpose of assessment is to improve student learning. Assessment for learning creates opportunities for teachers to intentionally learn about each student and their sociocultural and linguistic background in order to gather a variety of evidence about their learning in an anti-racist, anti- discriminatory environment, in a way that is reflective of and responsive to each student’s strengths, experiences, interests, and cultural ways of knowing. Ongoing descriptive feedback and responsive coaching for improvement is essential for improving student learning.
Teachers engage in assessment as learning by creating ongoing opportunities for all students to develop their capacity to be confident, independent, autonomous learners who set individual goals, monitor their own progress, determine next steps, and reflect on their thinking and learning in relation to learning goals and curriculum expectations. Teachers engage in culturally responsive and relevant practices by supporting students in the development of these skills by holding positive and affirming views of their students and of their ability to learn and achieve academic success. One way in which teachers differentiate assessment is by providing tasks that allow multiple entry points for all students to engage and that enable all students to access complex mathematics.
Assessment of learning is used by the teacher to summarize learning at a given point in time. This summary is used to make judgements about the quality of student learning on the basis of established criteria, to assign a value to represent that quality, and to support the communication of information about achievement to each student, parents, teachers, and others. Teachers engage in culturally
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