Growing Success Guiding Principles

To ensure that assessment, evaluation, and reporting are valid and reliable, and that they lead to the improvement of learning for all students, teachers use practices and procedures that:

1      are fair, transparent and equitable for all students

2      support all students, including those with special education needs, those who are learning the language of instruction (English or French), and those who are First Nation, Metis or Inuit

3      are carefully planned to relate to the curriculum expectations and learning goals and, as much as possible, to the interests, learning styles and preferences, needs, and experiences of all students        

4      are communicated clearly to students and parents at the beginning of the school year or course and at other appropriate points throughout the school year or course

5      are ongoing, varied in nature, and administered over a period of time to provide multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate the full range of their learning

6      provide ongoing descriptive feedback that is clear, specific, meaningful, and timely to support improved learning and achievement

7      develop students' self-assessment skills to enable them to assess their own learning, set specific goals, and plan next steps for their learning

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/growsuccess.pdf

Citation:

Growing Success Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting in Ontario Schools, First Edition, Covering Grades 1 to 12, 2010, Ministry of Education

Resources - EduGains Videos

Finally, as part of the desired incomes of this assignment, the group found resources that could assist the situation, as seen in the case study, which can be found throughout this site.

One place where most of the professional development has come from in regards to the Growing Success Policy is through the Edugains website.

A useful link to that website and the training and resource videos can be found here:

http://www.edugains.ca/newsite/aer2/aervideo/learninggoals.html

Here is a synopsis of the videos found on this website:

Segment 1: The Foundation of Assessment for Learning 
Learning goals and success criteria are the foundation on which students base their ability to monitor their learning and determine next steps.

Segment 2: Developing Learning Goals 
 Learning goals are brief statements that describe, for students, what they should know and be able to do by the end of a period of instruction

Segment 3: Sharing and Clarifying Learning Goals
By ensuring that students clearly understand learning goals, teachers set the stage for students to be able to focus their efforts on achieving the goals, monitoring their progress, and setting their own goals.

Segment 4: Developing Success Criteria 
Success criteria describe what success “looks like”, and when used to give descriptive feedback when assessing, provide both the teacher and the student information about learning.

Segment 5: Helping Students Understand Criteria 
Success criteria describe, for students, what successful learning ‘looks like’. It is critical to students’ success that they and their teacher have a clear and shared understanding of the criteria.

Segment 6: Co-constructing Success Criteria 
By directly involving students in the development of criteria, teachers help students to develop a common understanding of the criteria by which performance will be judged.
Citation:

Video Library: Learning Goals and Success Criteria. http://www.edugains.ca/newsite/aer2/aervideo/learninggoals.html EduGAINS.ca

Desired Outcomes

Through excellent discussion and use of personal knowledge, the group came up with a specific set of desired outcomes, as follows:

Desired Outcomes:

- investigate types of assessments being used for various exceptionalities.

- work with teachers to determine strategies for teachers to apply "as," "of," and "for" learning assessment and peer/self reflection activities in the alternative classroom setting.

- develop a "working document" which teachers can refer to when selecting assessment activities following the Growing Success Policy of "as," "of," and "for" learning, and peer/self reflection.