IB Middle Years Programme – Assessment Policy

I. Philosophy

At Ranchview High School and Barbara Bush Middle School, we recognize that teaching, learning and assessment are fundamentally interdependent.

• Assessment is designed to improve student learning and helps to measure effectiveness of teaching strategies and materials.
• Assessment is anchored in authentic tasks.
• Assessment utilizes a balanced range of strategies for formative and summative tasks.
• Timely, specific and supportive feedback is central to all learning and teaching.
• Students should have wide variety of assessment opportunities (written tasks, oral presentations, field work, practical work, exhibitions, lab reports, performances, examinations, research papers, etc.)
• Students should have an active role in peer and self-assessment.
• Reflection is an essential process within assessment and indicates understanding over time.

II. Assessment Practices

Assessment tasks should reflect the objectives and assessment criteria of the Middle Years Program and may take a variety of forms.

Formative Assessment

Assessment should be formative (for learning) to assist students in building understanding, skills and knowledge. Through a variety of methods, ongoing and regular assessment will be used during the teaching and learning process to inform teacher and students about how the is developing. Formative assessment and teaching are directly linked and provide feedback that is responsive to student needs and informs teaching practice.

Summative Assessment

Assessment should also be summative (of learning) to assess what students understand, know and are able to do. Summative assessment happens at the end of the teaching and learning process or experience but is planned at the beginning of the unit. The assessment is designed so that students can demonstrate their learning in authentic contexts and apply it in new ways.

III. Additional Requirements

Local school policy requires that, per progress reporting period, students be given three formative assessments which count for 25% of the student’s grade and one summative assessment which counts for 75% of the student’s grade. If a student scores below a 70 on the summative assessment, then the student must attend tutorials in order to repeat the summative task. Parents are notified in writing of their student’s progress.

Students in the RHS-BBMS partnership take all state and locally mandated tests. This includes common unit assessments in core subjects as provided by the local school district. These assessments are not graded with the MYP criteria because they do not meet the requirements of an MYP assessment.
The State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) occurs annually in grades 6-8 in reading, writing, math, science and social studies. The STAAR End of Course (EOC) examinations are taken by 9th
graders for Algebra I, English I, and Biology.

Grading in the Middle Years Program

The MYP criteria for each specific subject will be described in the course overview/syllabus and discussed with parents and students at the beginning of the school year. Students will be assesses on each criteria at least twice during the course of the year, thereby allowing them the opportunity to achieve at the highest levels of the descriptors. Continual student progress toward these criteria will be recorded when particular MYP tasks are assessed. (This will be done in tandem with the assigning of traditional percentage grades (1-100%) for assignments to accommodate state and local requirements.) Teachers can then collaborate to determine student growth and development in each MYP subject. The sum of these final achievement levels, as determined by current MYP grade boundaries, establishes the student’s final MYP grade for the course. MYP grades will be reported to students and parents through an official grade report at the end of each semester (January and June).
Additionally, MYP progress can be reported through whole school parent-student-teacher conferences that occur twice a year (November and March). Grade equivalents will be as follows:

Additional policies:

Students who have Special Needs and/or have Language needs will be assessed to the most appropriate level of criteria, taking into consideration their Individualized Education Plan and their level of academic English. Students shall be assessed in multiple ways as appropriate to document their achievement of local standards and IB expectations.

Review of Assessment Policy

This policy shall be reviewed by all stakeholders each year to ensure continued alignment with IB and local district expectations. Newly hired teachers shall be trained about required assessment practices in throughout the first semester of their teaching contract. Parents and students shall be made aware of this policy through normal communication channels at the beginning of each semester.