EAS Assessment Policy

The European Azerbaijan School (EAS) Mission is: "To provide each student a diverse education in a safe, supportive environment that promotes self-discipline, motivation and excellence in learning so that they are able to flourish in the global economy and are empowered to contribute meaningfully to their community." EAS will prepare its students for the next stage of their education through a high quality, well-balanced educational program. EAS will deliver its program according to the universally recognized educational principles, practices and beliefs of the International Baccalaureate.

Philosophy and principles
What is assessment?
Assessment is the gathering and analysis of information about student performance. It identifies what students know, understand, can feel, and can do at different stages in the learning process. Effective assessment concerns itself not only with the acquisition of knowledge but also with the depth of student understanding and the ability to apply that knowledge. Assessment guides instruction and provides data on student achievement and school performance. It is imperative that students, teachers, parents, and administrators have a clear understanding of the purposes and methods of assessment and the criteria used for measuring a student's success.

Why do we assess?
Assessment at EAS meets the following purposes:

Assessment is primarily a planning, teaching and learning tool.
Assessment is a measure of an individual's performance against either the International Baccalaureate (IB) standards or the Azerbaijani national standards.
Assessment is used as an indicator for subject and university selection and the continued suitability of course levels within the diploma program.
Assessment is used to enable university applications.
Assessment is used for continued professional growth and appraisal of teachers.
Assessment is used to enable school transfer.

Collecting Assessment Data

Assessment at EAS is continuous, providing regular opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning, and giving a snapshot of what an individual knows and can do at that moment. EAS teachers employ a wide variety of assessment strategies designed to address different learning styles and help students best present their learning.

Methods of assessment
Teachers at EAS employ a variety of assessment tasks designed for students to demonstrate their learning. Among these are:

Compositions-musical, physical, artistic
Creations of solutions or products in response to problems
Essays
Examinations
Investigations
Research
Performances
Presentations-verbal (oral or written), graphic-through various media
Unit tests and quizzes (IBO 2014, 80)

Assessment Strategies and Tools

EAS teachers use a range of formative and summative assessment strategies and tools to ensure students have varied opportunities to demonstrate their learning. These include:

Observations
Anecdotal records
Checklists
Selected response - quizzes and tests
Open-ended tasks
Performances
Process journals
Reflections
Exemplars
Portfolio assessment
Rubrics
Self and peer assessment

Types of Assessment

Diagnostic/Pre-Assessment
Diagnostic or pre-assessment is used prior to teaching to assist in determining previously acquired knowledge and skills.

Formative Assessment
Formative assessment is ongoing assessment aimed at providing information to guide teaching and improve student performance; it plays an integral role in assessment at EAS. Through effective formative assessment, teachers gather, analyze, interpret, and use a variety of evidence to improve student learning and to help students achieve their potential. Student, peer, and self-assessment can be important elements of formative assessment plans. (IBO, 2014, 79).

Summative Assessment
Summative assessment is a measure of student success or achievement at the end of a learning period, typically a unit of work, or key section of the course. It is primarily concerned with supporting learning and contributing to the determination of an achievement level or grade (IBO 2008, 42).

In Azerbaijan, the term "micro-summative" is used to refer to assessments like unit tests and the term "summative" or "macro-summative" is used to describe semester exams. However, all of these items are forms of summative assessment and therefore should only be referred to as "summative assessments". Any other assignment that fits the educational definition of "summative assessment", such as a project or final essay, is also referred to a summative assessment.

The Primary Years Program (PYP)

Essential Elements of Assessment
The five essential elements of the PYP are knowledge, skills, concepts, attitudes, and action. They are assessed through units of inquiry and are recorded on the planner for each unit.

Knowledge is assessed through summative assessments and reflects an understanding of the central idea of the unit.
Skills, concepts, and attitudes are assessed through reflections on growth as recorded in planners and on self-assessments done by the students.
Actions that are initiated by the student which are beyond the scope of the unit are recorded in the unit planner.

Learning in the PYP culminates in an exhibition during the final year of the program. Students are expected to develop and present their own collaborative unit of inquiry that showcases the five essential elements. This is an also opportunity for students to exhibit attributes of the learner profile.

Portfolios
A portfolio is a record of a student's involvement in learning which is designed to demonstrate success, growth, high-order thinking, creativity, assessment strategies and reflection. It also encourages students and teachers to see learning as a continuous process. Teachers will be provided with a portfolio rubric that will be used with students and parents during conferences.

A student's portfolio travels with the student from the start to the end of their PYP journey. The portfolio is kept in the student's classroom and is accessible by the student or family at any time during the school year. It is the property of the student and goes with the child upon leaving EAS or graduating from the program.

End of Unit Reporting
At the end of each unit of inquiry, students and teachers select work to be placed in the student's portfolio. All work not included in the portfolio is sent home. The units are formally reported on in the semester report as delineated in the PYP criteria.

Progress Reports
At the end of each quarter, as established by the school calendar, parents will receive a progress report that indicates how their child is developing with regards to a set of academic skills and behaviour. No numerical grades are recorded.

Semester Reports

At the end of each semester, as established by the school calendar, teachers will complete a written report card.
In PreK through 1st grade, students are assessed on developmental criteria but do not receive a number grade.
In grades 2-4, report cards contain numerical and percentage grades for students in all curricular areas in accordance with Azerbaijan's Ministry of Education guidelines.
o Parents are also provided with written comments and additional information regarding subject specific skills, attitudes, and behaviour delineated by PYP guidelines.

Meetings
Should concerns arise about a student's performance, either teachers or parents can request a formal meeting to discuss the progress, or lack thereof, of a student. These meetings will generally occur during regular school hours. Both homeroom and English language teachers may need to be present as well as other relevant members of the primary staff.

Parent-Teacher Meetings
This type of meeting is designed to build relationships among the parent, student, and teacher and is established on the school calendar. Its purpose is to discuss and identify social, emotional, and academic strengths or areas for improvement. Goals will be written including steps to determine how all involved parties can support the achievement of these goals.

Student-Led Meetings
This meeting, which occurs once a year, is a formal conference between students and parents. Students, with the support and guidance of the teacher, will select work from their portfolios to be discussed. They will reflect on their progress and share with their parents the areas in which they intend to improve. The meeting will take place in the spring and will be established on the school calendar.

Grades 5-9

Homework - is regarded as being an essential part of the learning program at EAS. In the Secondary School, homework has value by playing a long-term role in student achievement, motivation, and skill development, which will help students to become independent learners. Homework should be assigned when the task contributes to the learning process, not simply given as busy-work. Some subjects benefit more from daily assignments whereas others profit from one assignment that requires many days to complete.

The average minutes of homework for each grade level is as follows:

Classes Minutes per day (total) Minutes per subject per week
Grades 5-6 60-80 60-70
Grades 7-8 90-120 80-90
Grade 9 100-120 100-110

*The role of formative and summative assessment in grading, for the 2015-2016 school year, is currently under review by the administration. When a final decision is made, the sections for Recording and Reporting Assessment data will be modified to reflect the new policy. The information listed is what currently occurs.

Recording Assessment Data
Teachers are expected to record all summative assessments. These grades are shared individually with students and parents.

Checklists, anecdotal notes, or simple grading scales (for example, +, ✓, --) can be used to record formative assessment; however, this feedback is used for teaching and learning and not for generating final grades.

Reporting Assessment Data
A semester grade must take into consideration all valid summative assessments from the learning period.

Percent scores for all valid summative assessments in a semester will be averaged to attain an overall percentage for that learning period. This averaged score is 40% of the final semester grade.

All students in grades 5-9 will take exams at the end of each semester. These exams are 60% of the final semester grade in accordance with the policies of the Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan.

After weighting the semester average with the exam score, a final percent grade will be reported.

A conversion chart will be provided on reports relating the percent scores to the grading scale published by the Azerbaijani government. Azerbaijani Government Scale:

Percent Score Scaled Value
0 - 39% 2
40 - 59% 3
60 - 79% 4
80 - 100% 5
Table 1: Summary of report card contents.
Grades 5-9
Q1

A course description that covers the whole year - approximately 100 words
A short comment - approximately 30-50 words
No numerical grades

3-way meeting
Q2

A long comment that focuses on semester performance - approximately 100 words
An explicit exam comment - approximately 50 words
A percent grade that includes the exam grade as part of its makeup

A short comment - approximately 30-50 words
No numerical grades

3-way meeting
Q4

Write a long comment that focuses on semester performance - approximately 100 words
Write an explicit exam comment - approximately 50 words
A percent grade that includes the exam grade as part of its makeup

Meetings
Should concerns arise about a student's performance, either teachers or parents can request a conference to discuss that student's progress or lack thereof. These conferences will occur during regular school hours.
Parent-Teacher-Student (3-way) Meetings
This meeting is designed to build relationships among the parent, student, and teacher and is established on the school calendar. Its purpose is to discuss and identify social, emotional, and academic strengths or areas for improvement. Students will reflect on their progress and, with teacher input, share with their parents the areas in which they intend to improve.

The Diploma Program (DP)

The average minutes of homework for each grade level is as follows:

Classes Minutes per day (total) Minutes per subject per week
DP1-DP2 120+ 120+

Collecting Assessment Data

Formative Assessment
It is important to note that in the DP, formative assessment may not use the prescribed DP criteria or mark schemes, and it does not contribute to the final grade. Teachers at EAS make it clear when an assessment task is formative or summative.

Summative Assessment
In DP classes, summative assessments always use the prescribed DP criteria and/or mark schemes, which are given to students at the beginning of the task. A summative assessment allows all students to reach the highest band or level.
Internal (school-based) summative assessment in the Diploma Program aims to:

design tasks that accurately reflect the component papers or assessment tasks for the course
give students a variety of opportunities to experience all assessed components of the course

Given that these DP tasks are designed for students who have completed the program, appropriate scaffolding must be employed to ensure that students can achieve success throughout the course. It is expected that this is gradually removed as the course progresses. Course design should also play a key component in ensuring the developing challenge of the course.

Assessment tasks marked with criteria are not necessarily summative; if it is not summative, it must not be included in the final grade, but the teacher must make it clear to students which are formative/summative.
Non-exam components which are examined or moderated by the IB are included as summative assessments (e.g. Group 1 written tasks).
The reporting period includes all available summative performances/tasks for the entire course to make a "best-fit" judgment, with an emphasis on the most recently completed work.

In the Diploma Program (DP) it is anticipated that four summative assessments plus the exam grade are used to determine a grade for the semester. This number is given as a guideline with the realization that in some subjects four summative assessments may not be realistically achievable in a semester, while in others, more than four may be possible. These results are derived from a variety of past DP papers and internal assessments relevant to each subject.

A calendar of summative assessments, internal assessments, and examinations is used to inform students, parents and teachers of the distribution of these assessments. It is expected that no more than two deadlines will fall on the same day. In the DP, the deadlines for non-exam components are intentionally distributed throughout the two-year program to ensure that students are in a position to manage their workload effectively.

Examinations in the DP
Examinations are an important aspect of summative assessment. Given the high proportion of the DP grade that is determined by examinations, students are given regular exposure to past examination questions throughout the DP course. Preparation for the final examination experience is by way of end-of-semester examinations in all subjects.
Approaches to Learning
When specific Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills become an explicit focus for teaching and learning, students can begin to take responsibility for their own development. Over time, students can identify themselves and their competence in any learning strategy (IB 2014, 90).

All teaching and learning at EAS should encourage the development of the ATLs - research skills, communication skills, thinking skills, social skills, and self-management skills. The teaching of DP should also be inquiry based, conceptually focused, contextualized, collaborative, differentiated, and informed by assessment.

These ATLs are reported using the following terms: exceeding, consistent, developing, and beginning to meet subject expectations. Descriptors for these are:

Exceeding (E)
The student meets and often exceeds subject expectations for understanding and using this skill in their learning. They are confident and independent in its application.
Consistent (C)
The student consistently meets subject expectations for understanding and using this skill in their learning. They are confident and need little teacher support and guidance in its application.
Developing (D)
The student usually meets subject expectations for understanding and using this skill in their learning. They need occasional teacher support and guidance in its application.
Beginning (B)
The student infrequently meets subject expectations for understanding and using this skill in their learning. Considerable teacher support and guidance is required in its application.
Recording Assessment Data

Teachers are expected to record all summative assessments. These grades are shared individually with students and parents.

Standardization, Reflection, and Moderation
Standardization of assessment is a process that ensures teachers are accurately applying the given criteria. Teachers are expected to internally standardize marking, sharing a sample of assessment tasks, usually within departments, and comparing the results. It is expected that this will happen at frequent intervals throughout the year.

At the end of each unit of work or section of a course, teachers are expected to reflect on their teaching and the success of their students. Teachers should evaluate the validity of each summative assessment task taking into consideration its link to the concept(s) of the unit and whether it allows all students to reach the highest band on the assessment criteria or markscheme.

At EAS, we also use external moderation to ensure our DP assessment practices meet those of the IB.

In DP2, samples of internally assessed student work are sent to the IB for moderation. Assessed exam and task results, along with feedback from the annual examiner's reports, are analyzed each year to improve instruction. At EAS, we also purchase examination comments for post-exam reflection and participate in a "moderation exchange" with other international schools.

Reporting Assessment Data

A grade must take into consideration all valid summative assessments from the learning period. For the DP, this is all summative assessments from the two-year program.

Teachers will make a "best-fit" judgment (IBO 2014, 91) on student achievement at the time of reporting. This means looking at all assessment performances for the individual student and making a decision on current student achievement taking into consideration: