Blog Post #2

Blog Post 2

            My assessment and evaluation philosophy is that the primary role of assessment is to promote student learning. Growing Success has definitely impacted my assessment practices and pedagogy to this point in my teaching career. There have been a number of changes to assessment and evaluation practices in the past 15 years where assessment and evaluation have moved the focus from ranking students to supporting student success. Assessment AS, FOR and OF learning are key concepts in this initiative. This assessment course has opened my eyes to a number of new ministry documents but also to a number of new surprises and controversies.

Firstly, according to the Ontario Ministry of Education’s policy document ‘Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools’ “the evaluation of learning skills and work habits, apart from any that maybe included as part of curriculum expectation in a subject or course, should not be considered in the determination of student grades (Growing Success, 2010).” What this means in practice is that students may not receive poor grades for lateness, misbehavior, skipping, late assignments, laziness or inability to work with others. While these learning skills may be ‘assessed’ on a specific section of the report card, they may not be ‘evaluated.’ The rationale that it is more important for students to think critically and understand the subject matter has some importance. I do believe that learning the course content is an important goal, however, teaching students about teamwork, punctuality lateness is equally important in my eyes.

Rewarding participation, teamwork and a positive attitude fosters the habits all students will need in their adult lives and careers, while deterring lateness and skipping extinguishes poor habits. I personally believe that ‘Growing Success’ has incorporated a number of important aspects and has hit many of the important learning skills and work habits that students need for daily and future success, but I think this ministry document is missing important habits that students need to master in order to be success in and out of school. Certainly, any effective school system should grade learning skills as well as knowledge of course content. But I believe, punctuality, a positive attitude and a strong work ethic are just as important as fulfilling course expectations. 

Furthermore, growing Success has also taught me that the ministry does not prohibit giving zeros for missed assignments, but it does discourage it, stating “ Many experts in the field of assessment and evaluation discourage deducting marks or giving zeros for late and missed assessment, arguing that such measures do not make students change their behavior or help them succeed in the long run. (Growing Success, 2010).” I personally believe that this is not teaching students to be punctual, reliable or timely which are extremely important skills for future success. 

The ministry also advocates a ‘most-recent, more-consistent’ approach to assessment and evaluation, stating “ Grades should reflect the student’s most consistent level of achievement, with special consideration given to more recent evidence (Growing Success, 2010).” This simply means that a student who earned a 50 percent for the first half of the year could be given a mark of 90, while a student who did the reverse could only earn a 50 dependent on their work consistency. I think the goal of evaluating how much a student has learned by the end of the year makes some sense to me, but it stands no relation to how student are graded in University or how they could be evaluated in the workplace.

When I think about life, success or failure is determined by one’s efforts in life, not simply how one has performed in the past. As a future educator I think the sooner students learn this, the more successful they will be. I think the ministry’s approach to assessment and evaluation is positive and commending, but I think it is not fully touching on all aspects and work habits that it should be. Skills like meeting deadlines, showing up on time, and working hard truly matter in the real work and I personally believe they should be emphasized more in school too. While the Ontario government is committed to enabling all students to reach their potential and to success, the ministry should take into consideration learning skills and work habits like meeting deadlines, punctuality and working hard for future success of all students.