Assessment Policy

HCHS Assessment Philosophy

The HCHS community believes that assessment is at the heart of the learning process, that it informs and guides instruction based on what students know, understand, and apply in real life and where they should be heading.  Specifically, it identifies areas of strength and areas for improvement, allowing teachers to adapt instruction to meet student needs,  maximize learning and student potential, and at the same time show learning progression and levels of achievements.  Furthermore, to be effective, assessment has to be transparent, fair, authentic, and varied in strategies.

1. Assessment Principles

The HCHS community and stakeholders adhere to the following principles that embody the core values of assessment and believe in the importance of assessment tools and strategies to promote learning progress and maximize learning. 

1. Assessment as an ongoing Process

Assessment occurs throughout the learning cycle: before, during, and after the learning process.  Teachers develop the unit of inquiry engagement tasks based on what students know, understand, and can do. Students progress through the process of achieving the unit objectives at different rates, and teachers need to adapt the unit of inquiry accordingly, therefore the need to assess throughout the learning process.

2. The Role of Formative Assessment

1. Assessment for Learning: Assessment to identify learning needs

Before starting a unit of inquiry,  teachers use a variety of formative assessment tools to identify gaps in learning and adapt instruction to student learning needs such as the following:

(1) standardized achievement test that the school administers to students to find the school’s, section’s, and  students’ achievement and competency levels

(2) diagnostic assessment that teachers develop to find out student content knowledge and performance levels for a particular unit of inquiry.  This may come in the form of approaches to teaching strategies such as I see, I Think, I wonder;  Think, Puzzle, Explore; or KWL and variations thereof.

Teachers  build on current student knowledge and skills, reviewing and reteaching concepts that they may have missed but are crucial to their learning progress.  In cases where preliminary assessment shows very limited previous knowledge and very low ability to access the regular curriculum, corresponding interventions are recommended to parents.

During the learning process, teachers continue to use formative assessments to find out what students are learning and how they are successful in teaching essential concepts and skills.  This may come in the form of quizzes, entrance and exit tickets of various types, and other informal strategies such as thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs sideways.  These formative assessment strategies allow teachers to inform their instruction, e.g., adapting future activities, clarifying concepts,  reteaching essential concepts, or providing additional practice to further develop skills.

2. Assessment as Learning:  Self-reflection and Self-assessment
3. Self-Reflection

In addition, teachers engage students in metacognitive self-reflection of the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of learning.  They engage in end-of-unit reflection of (1) concepts they have learned and engagements tasks that worked for them, (2)  connections to other disciplines and their own life, (3)  changes in or development of important attributes in the IB MYP student profile of  becoming better Inquirers,  thinkers, communicators, risk-takers,  or becoming more principled, open-minded, caring, balanced,  knowledgeable, and finally  (4)  challenges they still face in their own learning.  

Some disciplines or subjects groups such as Art, Design and P.E. require reflection or self-assessment of eportfolio.  

2. ATL Self-Assessment

Students are provided opportunities to self-assess their own critical  and creative thinking, socio-communicative, and self-management skills.  Students reflect on these skills at strategic points during the process specifically where those skills are focused on in engagement tasks, e.g. collaborative, communicative, and critical thinking self assessment after a collaborative or group activity.  Teachers explicitly teach Approaches to Learning (ATL) strategies that students use to meet engagement tasks and to become lifelong learners in the following five broad categories of 21st Century Skills:

(1) collaborative skills where students need to learn to share, take turns, clarify, take on collaborative roles;

(2) communicative skills such as presenting, explaining, persuading while using various media to support their communication skills; 

(3) critical thinking skills such as comparing, analyzing, respectfully asking for and providing evidence for ideas, evaluating and reflecting on ideas;

(4) creative thinking or transferring skills to new situations, composing literary or artistic works, and producing innovative solutions;

(5) self-management or self-regulation skills such as planning, organizing, and carrying out inquiries, projects, or activities; and affective skills such as persevering, managing stress, and other socio-emotional skills such as growth mindset.  

Students engage in self-reflective skills that assess their own level of achievement in these major categories of Approaches to Learning (ATL) and at the same time think of ways to improve on those skills.

3. Summative Assessment as Evidence of Achievement Levels

c. Assessment of Learning:  Assessment to identify levels of achievement

At the end of an instructional period, teachers administer summative assessments to determine the level of student performance by comparing student performance using a rubric with criteria descriptors in band levels of 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8.  At HCHS, these are defined by the MYP subject objectives and criteria (see Appendix A) and broadly reflect the Department of Education’s standards and competencies. 

Group Summative Assessment

Hope Christian High School values the importance of collaborative skills and provides opportunities to develop these skills in performance of understanding tasks. Some Summative Performance Tasks may require initial group activity such as scientific investigations but should be carefully assessed based on the individual work done by students.  In the case of scientific investigation, the experiment could be done as a group but the presentation, analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of data should be done individually.  This is different from collaborative engagement tasks done in class where students work as a team, whereas the summative assessment performance tasks should be done individually and separately from others.  

In cases where collaborative work is necessary to complete a summative assessment task, delineation of each individual’s part in the whole project is essential to assess the individual student’s level of achievement and assessed against the subject criteria.

B. Recording Assessment Results

HCHS records assessment tasks through its official learning management system that parents and students can access.  These assessment tasks are categorized into three groups:  (1) summative assessment tasks, (2) formative assessment tasks, and (3) self assessments and reflections.  

Under the first category of summative assessments include the following:

1. Summative performance tasks given at the end of each unit of inquiry and are graded according to the criteria published by IB.  At least two judgments of each of the four subject criteria form the sole basis of the MYP grade.  Teachers use the criteria to communicate student levels of achievements in each of the objectives of the subjects.  The MYP grade is given at the end of the school year.
2. Written Works are unit tests or long quizzes based on the concepts and application of concepts taught during a unit of inquiry.
3. Term Tests are given at the end of every term, usually about three months.  These tests can be the second unit of inquiry of every term and are based on concepts and skills or applications of concepts in real-life contexts.  

All of the above categories of assessments constitute the basis of the grade reported to parents and  students at the end of every term. 

Formative Assessments.  These assessment tasks are recorded but not graded.  These may include quizzes, entry and exit tickets, and other assessment tools identified in section one which teachers use to find out student background knowledge and inform instruction.  

Self-Assessment and Reflections.  These tasks are the students’ own assessment of the developmental progress in the learning process.  These may include ATL self-assessments, unit self-reflections, service activities, and self-assessments.  

C. Reporting Achievement Levels

Hope Christian High School uses two scoring systems based on two different grading scales to identify and report the same levels of achievements. 

(1) the  MYP uses a grade scale of 1-7 with well-defined descriptors for each level of achievement.

(2) the Department of Education system of reporting grades with a grade scale of up to 100.  

The MYP final grade is based solely on at least two judgments of summative performance tasks of all four clearly-defined criteria aligned with the disciplinary objectives (see Appendix B).  

Summative performance tasks consolidate the students’ disciplinary and interdisciplinary  knowledge and  understanding of concepts defined in the subject group overviews.  The results of the summative performance task should also reflect the students’ ability to apply these concepts in familiar and unfamiliar real-life and authentic contexts. These summative  performance tasks should reflect the complexity and depth of the content and competency standards of the student’s grade level.

The formative assessments such as quizzes, entrance and exit ticket, reflections and self-assessments of ATL skills and portfolios  are recorded but not graded and are used to support the learning process.  

All assessments are recorded throughout the year, while MYP grades derived from levels of achievements are reported  at the end of the school year.  

IB Validation of MYP Year 5 Grades through eAssessment

In MYP year 5 (grade 10), performance levels can be validated by an optional on-screen assessment of the following subject areas:  Language & Literature, Individuals & Society, Mathematics, Sciences, and Interdisciplinary at the end of year 5 (grade 10) to determine comparison with international standards if the student so chooses. 

Another optional eAssessment are ePortfolios in the following disciplines:  Design, Physical and Health Education, Language Acquisition,  and Art are also externally moderated to validate teacher judgments.  

The Year 5 Personal Project is a mandatory requirement.

The Department of Education requires the reporting of grades based on the summative assessment categories with corresponding weight.  (per DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015).  

Based on the Department of Education guidelines and accreditation level of the school, HCHS reports the computation of the following summative assessment categories every three months.  Descriptions of each category are taken from the Department of Education Assessment Guidelines in DepEd Order No.8.s.2015.

(1)  Summative performance task (50 or 60% depending on subject group See Appendix B) 

Demonstrates and integrates student knowledge, understanding, and skills about  concepts, topics  learned in a specific real-life situation by performing and/or producing evidence of their learning

(2)  Quarterly exams (20%) 

Synthesizes all the learning skills and concepts learned in an entire quarter

(3)  Written works    (20 or 30% depending on subject group.  See Appendix B) 

Assesses learners’ understanding of concepts and application of skills in written form. Per Department of Education assessment guidelines, quizzes are recorded but not graded.

The final grade at the end of the school year is based on the average of the three reported grades at the end of each term.

Both MYP and the Department of Education grading scales are based on summative assessments, and as such support the description of achievement levels described in the following table: 

MYP Grade Scoring 

The table provides a means of converting the criteria totals into a final grade based on a grading scale of 1–7.

To arrive at a criteria level total for each student, teachers add together the student’s final achievement levels in all four criteria of the subject group as shown in Appendix A.

Grade Boundaries for Criteria Totals*	MYPFinal Grade	MYP Levels of AchievementDescriptors
1-5	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.
6-9	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.
10-14	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.
15-18	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.
19-23	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.
24-27	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.
28-32	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.

*Maximum score of 8 for each objective times four objectives equals 32.

Appendix A

The MYP Assessment Criteria Across Subject Groups

Subject Groups	Criterion A	Criterion B	Criterion C	Criterion D
Language and literature	Analyzing	Organizing	Producing text	Using language
Language acquisition	Listening	Reading	Speaking	Writing
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	Investigating	Developing	Creating/ performing	Evaluating
Physical and health education	Knowing and understanding	Planning for performance	Applying and performing	Reflecting and improving performance
Design	Inquiring and analyzing	Developing ideas	Creating the solution	Evaluating
Community project	Investigating	Planning	Taking action	Reflecting
Personal project	Planning	Applying skills	Reflecting
Interdisciplinary	Evaluating	Synthesizing	Reflecting

Note:  The strands and levels of achievements in each of the criteria is defined in this MYP Program document.

Appendix B  

HCHS Weighting of the Department of Education Grading Criteria

	DepEd Summative Assessment Basis of Grade, weighting,  and %
DEPT.	Written Works	Performance Task	Quarterly Exam
Lang & LIt	30	50	20
Ind.& Soc	30	50	20
Science	30	50	20
Math	30	50	20
Design	20	60	20
Art	20	60	20
PE	20	60	20