Assessment Policy

IB Assessment Policy for Casimir Pulaski High School

Philosophy

Pulaski High School, an International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) Candidate, believes quality assessment is at the heart of teaching and learning. The goal of our school is to create a learning environment whereby students attain world class academic, cultural and career proficiencies. Through a rigorous, globally focused education, our students will understand their unique talents and have the necessary skills to take their places as exemplary citizens in our local, national, and international societies.

The purpose of assessments and grades is to serve as a transparent communication of student progress for all stakeholders. The high academic and rigorous standards set forth in the MYP.   Summative assessment is the culminating assessment for a unit, term or course of study, designed to provide information on the student’s achievement level against specific objectives. Formative Assessment is the ongoing assessment aimed at providing information to guide teaching and improve student outcomes.

Standards Based Grading

The Milwaukee Public Schools’ policy on Standards Based Grading (SBG) is as follows:

Standards-based grading measures your student’s mastery of the essential standards and skills for a class, or how well your student understands and performs with the material in class. At the beginning of every unit, the teacher will break down the standards for the unit into smaller objectives and criteria using a detailed rubric. During the unit, the student is assessed to see if they truly know the material using a variety of assessments, such as traditional pencil-and-paper tests, projects, discussions, or reports. The class grade will be based on all of the evidence the teacher collects demonstrating mastery of the essential standard.

The goal of this approach is to provide the teacher, student, and parent as accurate a picture as possible of the student’s learning and to encourage a dialogue about how the student can master the material for the class. In particular, because learning is a process that takes place over time, each assessment will provide feedback for the student about what to focus on next, and the student will be allowed to retake assessments. If the new assessment shows a higher level of mastery, that new score replaces the old.

Evidence

Any product or performance of learning that can be measured against standards/assessment criteria for the purposes of determining the current level of mastery a student has reached for a particular standard/assessment criteria.

Practice

Learning activities, including homework, that allow students to apply new knowledge and explore skills before assessment, without negatively affecting their grades. There are times when teachers may use their professional judgement to use practice as evidence of learning, as long as it does not punitively affect a student’s grade.

Performance-Based Assessment

An assessment task that requires students to use high-level thinking to perform, create, or produce something with transferable real-world application.

GRASPS is one of the preferred forms of performance based assessment used in IB assessment.

The acronym stands for: GOAL Provide a statement of the task (the Statement of Inquiry for the unit the GRASPS is assessing). Establish the goal, problem, challenge, or obstacle in the task. ROLE Define the role of the students in the task. State the job of the students for the task. AUDIENCE Identify the target audience within the context of the scenario, making sure the audience is as authentic as possible.  SITUATION Set the context of the scenario. Explain the situation. PERFORMANCE/PRODUCT Clarify what the students will create and why they will create it. STANDARDS and CRITERIA Provides students with a clear picture of success, by identifying which subject-group criteria will be assessed along with an aligned rubric.

In addition, lab reports, essays, traditional tests, document-based questions, formative assessments and others are acceptable.  Assessments based on criteria need to happen multiple times within each unit.

Assessment Criteria

Criteria against which a student’s performance is measured as evidenced by work produced. Assessment criteria, identified below and in subject guides, are to be used for final assessments for each subject.

Subject	A	B	C	D
Language and literature	Analyzing	Organizing	Producing text	Using language
Language acquisition	Comprehending spoken and visual text	Comprehending written and visual text	Communicating	Using language
Individuals and societies	Knowing and understanding	Investigating	Communicating	Thinking critically
Sciences	Knowing and understanding	Inquiring and designing	Processing and evaluating	Reflecting on the impacts of science
Mathematics	Knowing and understanding	Investigating patterns	Communicating	Applying mathematics in real-world contexts
Arts	Knowing and understanding	Developing skills	Thinking creatively	Responding
Physical and health education	Knowing and understanding	Planning for performance	Applying and performing	Reflecting and improving performance
Design	Inquiring and analysing	Developing ideas	Creating the solution	Evaluating
MYP projects	Investigating	Planning	Taking action	Reflecting
Interdisciplinary	Disciplinary grounding	Synthesizing	Communicating	Reflecting

Assessment Reporting

Teachers will use Infinite Campus to report out assessment data per subject group, using the following conversion from IB MYP rubric scores to Milwaukee Public Schools’ Standards Based Grading proficiency scale:

IB Rubric Score	MPS SBG Proficiency Scale
8- Produces exceptional-quality, ever innovative work. Communicates at the highest level, comprehensive and expansive, nuanced understanding of concepts and contexts.  Always demonstrates sophisticated critical and creative thinking.  Always transfers knowledge and skills with independence and expertise in a variety of complex classroom and real-world situations. 7-Produces high-quality, frequently innovative work. Communicates comprehensive, nuanced understanding of concepts and contexts. Consistently demonstrates sophisticated critical and creative thinking. Frequently transfers knowledge and skills with independence and expertise in a variety of complex classroom and real-world situations.	Advanced
6-Produces high-quality, occasionally innovative work. Communicates extensive understanding of concepts and contexts. Demonstrates critical and creative thinking, frequently with sophistication. Uses knowledge and skills in familiar and unfamiliar classroom and real-world situations, often with independence. 5-Produces generally high-quality work. Communicates secure understanding of concepts and contexts. Demonstrates critical and creative thinking, sometimes with sophistication. Uses knowledge and skills in familiar classroom and real-world situations and, with support, some unfamiliar real-world situations.	Proficient
4-Produces good-quality work. Communicates basic understanding of most concepts and contexts with few misunderstandings and minor gaps. Often demonstrates basic critical and creative thinking. Uses knowledge and skills with some flexibility in familiar classroom situations, but requires support in unfamiliar situations. 3-Produces work of an acceptable quality. Communicates basic understanding of many concepts and contexts, with occasionally significant misunderstandings or gaps. Begins to demonstrate some basic critical and creative thinking. Is often inflexible in the use of knowledge and skills, requiring support even in familiar classroom situations.	Basic
2-Produces work of limited quality. Expresses misunderstandings or significant gaps in understanding for many concepts and contexts. Infrequently demonstrates critical or creative thinking. Generally inflexible in the use of knowledge and skills, infrequently applying knowledge and skills 1-Produces work of very limited quality. Conveys many significant misunderstandings or lacks understanding of most concepts and contexts. Very rarely demonstrates critical or creative thinking. Very inflexible, rarely using knowledge or skills.	Minimal

Learning Diversity and Inclusion

It is the belief of IB and Pulaski High School that MYP is for all students.  With this in mind, attention must be paid to fully include students from all ability levels, all English proficiency levels, and those with both learning challenges and gifted and talented students.

For more information about students with special needs, students enrolled in the bilingual program, and students with the designation of English Language Learner (ELL), see the Special Education Policy and the Language Policy.

Standardized Assessments

All students will participate in a range of external assessments, mandates by the Department of Public Instruction and Milwaukee Public Schools, as well as determined by our individual school needs. Some of these external assessments include the ACT, ACT Aspire, STAR, Forward, and ACCESS for ELLs.

Responsibilities for the following stakeholders:

Educators will:

• Assess students on material that has been covered in the curriculum after engaging students in instruction, learning activities, and practice that allow students to practice the skills on which they will be assessed  

• Assess students in a variety of ways, using a range of assessment strategies/tasks, such as:

  • DBQs, Labs, Essays, On-Demand Writing, Process Journals, Portfolios, Constructed-Response, GRASPS, Presentations, Multiple-Choice tests, etc.  (See also the document under Language Policy titled “Nine Types of Assessment

Adaptation.”)

• Follow the guidelines of Standards Based Grading (SBG, outlined in this document and as required by mandate of Milwaukee School Board Policy) and all IB Assessment Criterion

• Make students aware of their responsibilities for learning and assessment, as outlined in this policy and within the context of individual courses

• Provide timely feedback

Students will:

• Attend class regularly, on time, and engage actively in learning activities and instruction

• Advocate for themselves when struggling with course work by seeking help from the teacher during class and/or attending tutoring outside of class

• Be invested, self-regulated learners who regularly self-monitor

Leadership will:

• Support teachers, scholars, and parents/families to help them meet their responsibilities outlined in the assessment policy

• Have knowledge of the external assessments required by Department of Public Instruction and State/National mandates, and disseminate this information to the staff/students in a timely manner to allow for proper planning and preparation

Parents/Families will:

• Stay in communication with students’ teachers, including attending parent/teacher conferences and accessing Infinite Campus in order to monitor assessment achievement

• Support students at home by establishing a supportive environment for learning and growing personally and intellectually

Works Cited  

International Baccalaureate Organization, Programme Standards and Practices, Geneva Switzerland, 2010. (https://ibpublishing.ibo.org/server2/rest/app/tsm.xql?doc=m_0_mypxx_guu_1409_1_e&part=8&chapter=1)

Milwaukee Public Schools Grading Reform file:///C:/Users/Robin/Documents/Grading-Reform-in-Milwaukee-Public-Schools.pdf

Rick Wormeli