Assessment Policy

The International Academy of Macomb (IAM) upholds the IB Assessment Policy for all the IAM students. All teachers, administrators, districts, parents, legal guardians, and students are expected to know this policy and uphold it. The International Baccalaureate Assessment Policy can be found at International Baccalaureate Assessment Policy. The IAM School Policies, including the Academic Assessment Policy can be found in the Student Handbook and Curriculum Guide and/or on the IAM website under IAM School Policies-Assessment Policy.

Statement of Belief

The International Academy of Macomb approach to assessment honors the process of student- centered learning through authentic formative and summative evaluations that inform classroom instruction. Assessments are interdisciplinary and offer students the opportunity to take ownership of their learning. Students take risks, receive timely feedback, reflect, and seek improvement throughout the process. This philosophy is based on the International Baccalaureate criteria and state standards for assessment that emphasize critical analysis, synthesis of information, and the importance of a global, responsible, and ethical approach to learning.

Shared Vision

All teachers share an overarching philosophy of assessment and means of communicating student growth through IB criteria multiple times per year through e-mail, meetings, and classroom discussions. Additionally, all teachers have been part of crafting this assessment policy through their work in school improvement committees. With this shared vision, we understand that each discipline is unique in the type of knowledge and ways of demonstrating mastery of skills, and as such, each has its own methodology for measuring student growth, knowledge, and instruction for guiding students toward mastery of skills and concepts. Each discipline will communicate at multiple points throughout the semester its approach to assessment through its syllabi. Specific information about DP Grading, MYP Grading, and Grading Scales have been developed and implemented school wide to provide consistency throughout the IAM.

Rights and Responsibilities

The IAM assessments ask that, as learners, students put forth quality effort in unique and unfamiliar situations which are informed by their individual learning experiences.

Through practicing their skills, use of formative assessments, and receiving informed feedback based on standards-based rubrics, summative assessments ultimately reward improved performance that guide students toward acquiring mastery of skills and concepts.

Common practices for MYP and DP include using assessment rubrics for tasks OR for specific criterion. Good practice consists of the entire school community working together to uphold this policy. We believe the IAM school community should consistently work together to uphold this policy.

Administrators and IB Coordinators have the responsibility to:

·        Provide the IAM Assessment Policy to all stakeholders including staff, students, and parents.

·        Train new teachers on the content of the policy.

·        Provide teachers and students with information about state-wide and national assessments such as:

o   Michigan M-Step Examinations

o   PSAT

o   SAT

o   ACT Work Keys

·        Provide PD time for teachers to discuss IB results and collaborate on to what extent they reflect IB marked assessments.

·        Coordinate for the International Baccalaureate Examinations.

·        To work with the IBO to provide any necessary and required accommodations on IB Internal and/or External Assessments, regarding students with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or 504.

Teachers have the responsibility to:

·        Ensure that teachers within a specific discipline meet and provide common practices for recording and reporting student achievement.

·        Provide students with clear guidelines of grading policies in their syllabi.

·        Provide students with clear expectations and/or rubrics for each assessment.

·        Provide students with adequate formative practice with feedback before each summative assessment.

·        Perform quality checks on mock assessments and/or criteria specific assessments during department meeting time.

·        Provide students with timely feedback.

·        Post scores/grades by using the IAM provided electronic gradebook. Report cards are provided electronically each semester.

·        Evaluate summative assessments on MYP or DP standards-based rubrics, providing students and their guardians with a clear understanding of what skills will be evaluated and what proficiency level is achieved in their skill acquisition.

·        Participate in parent-teacher conferences at times designated by the IAM or upon request.

·        Will not be required to disclose Internal Assessment marks or Predicted Grades to students, parents, or legal guardians.

·        Have autonomy when assigning homework assignments and how they are assessed.

·        Provide English as a Second Language (ESL) students or those students who have an IEP and/or a 504 with accommodations during assessments through the academic year.

Teachers of common subjects have the responsibility to standardize assessment of student work through accepted IB mark schemes to ensure reliability, accuracy, and fidelity to the IB criteria. Standardization will occur regularly with the assessment of student work multiple times per year.

Students have the responsibility to:

·        Be aware of the contents in the IAM Assessment Policy and the IAM Integrity Policy.

·        Know the consequences provided in the IAM Integrity Policy.

·        Know each teacher’s assessment and grading policies.

·        Know the contents of each syllabus, including dates of formative assessments, unit assessments, and summative assessments.

·        Understand numeric grades are converted to International Baccalaureate Standards for summative assessments.

·        Be certain that scores/grades received in class align with electronically recorded results.

·        Ask questions if they do not understand information contained in any IAM policy.

Students have the right to:

·        Adequate formative practice with feedback before each summative assessment.

·        ESL services to those students who qualify.

·        IEP and Section 504 accommodations for students who qualify.

·        Receive these same accommodations during IAM assessments throughout the academic year.

Parents/guardians will:

·        Be provided with a link to the IAM Assessment Policy information online.

·        Have the responsibility of providing the IAM with any document regarding any ESL services, IEP or 504 information regarding classroom expectations and assessments if accommodations are expected.

·        Have the opportunity to attend parent/guardian and teacher conferences which are scheduled twice a year.

·        Consult/meet with teachers as needed or requested.

Types of Assessments

Formative Assessments

Formative assessments are the start of a progress cycle, providing students with opportunities to practice new skills and make mistakes in a safe environment. Teachers provide timely

feedback which supports students' progress in their skill acquisition. This practice is aimed at driving student growth and developing their resilience through problem solving and managing their own learning, in accordance with the IB Approaches to Learning. These forms of assessment may include, but are not limited to, journal entries, worksheets, readings, oral

participation, and Socratic seminars. Through this cycle of practicing skills and receiving feedback, students are well supported to demonstrate their mastery of skills and concepts through their performance.

Summative Assessments

Performance and mastery are evaluated in the IAM summative assessments, which evaluate students on their ability to not only demonstrate these skills in familiar contexts, but also in new environments or situations. This encourages students to transfer and apply their knowledge in authentic and relevant contexts, preparing students to be critical thinkers and adept members

of the wider world.

·        These assessments are evaluated on MYP or DP standards-based rubrics, providing students and their guardians with a clear understanding of what skills they will be evaluated on and what proficiency level is achieved in their skill acquisition.

·        These forms of assessment may include, but are not limited to, tests, labs, quizzes, presentations, projects, and performances.

·        Through feedback on standards-based rubrics, students, guardians, and teachers have a common language for discussing student growth.

Measuring Growth

Our practice of measuring growth is guided by the International Baccalaureate assessment criteria and is not a percentage-based system, but rather is intended to be a reflective process that communicates individual student growth in specified areas. These criterion marks are then used to inform the percentage or letter grade a student earns on an assignment by indicating how they are developing in their skill acquisition over the course. Students need to be made aware that certain numbers in particular subjects do not mean the same in another subject/course. Communicating these criterion marks to students and parents/guardians by course syllabi, both student and parent/guardian meetings and the IAM website will help to empower students in their own learning by allowing them to reflect on their practice of skills, set goals, and work toward achieving them. Additionally, these records will also inform teacher instruction and departmental curriculum decisions to meet the needs of students and support them in their growth.

It is important to point out a very significant conceptual difference in terms of grades between the International Baccalaureate grading system and the U.S. educational systems. The IB grading scale in secondary education is different from the U.S. method because it ranges from 1-7 in the DP and MYP where the American system grades students 0%-100%. IB assessments are based on essays and problem solving and more rarely on multiple choice answers. The elegance, form, reasoning ability and written expression in all subjects are also graded. In addition, there should be a differentiation between a traditional/local grade and an IB grade. Teachers should note this in the gradebook. It is important to note that IB grades should inform local grades.

Moderation/Quality Checks

Teachers of common subjects will standardize assessment of student work through accepted IB mark schemes to ensure reliability, accuracy, and fidelity to the IB criteria. Standardization will occur regularly with the assessment of student work multiple times per year.

Consistency in MYP Grading

All teachers will report MYP grades for students at the end of 9th and 10th grade. Teachers will assess each criterion for their subject area for each student a minimum of two times per year. These scores will be reported using Power School and indicate the standard and level attained. Students’ scores in each criterion will be looked at to see the trend of their score and award a mark that best matches their mastery at the end of the year. The marks students earned in each criterion will then be added together to create a final mark for the course. These marks will then reflect a score of 1-7 on the IB scale, with the following grade band break down indicated below:

With this philosophy of assessment, the IAM staff will

·       Foster student growth and application of skills to meet state and IB standards

·       Aid students in developing

o   Critical thinking and twenty-first century skills, and

o   A unique global perspective, that they will retain well after their high school career as they become reflective, balanced, and principled thinkers and citizens in our global community.

Consistency in DP Grading

The DP uses both internally and externally assessed components to assess student

performance. The marks awarded for each course are awarded based on the extent to which students master basic and advanced academic skills, such as:

·        knowledge and understanding of content and concepts

·        critical thinking, reflective, research and independent learning skills

·        application of standard methods

·        analyzing and presenting information

·        evaluating and constructing arguments

·        creative problem-solving

·        intercultural understanding and international outlook.

The following grade descriptors are a compilation of the characteristics of performance at each grade for DP courses in general and are intended to help explain the academic achievement required to achieve a particular grade. Examiners use the individual subject group descriptors when determining grade boundaries for examination papers and coursework components, and when marking student work.

IB Assessments

IB teachers use a variety of formative and summative assessments to support and encourage student learning. IB assessment is criterion-referenced rather than norm-referenced. This means that student work is marked in relation to clearly defined levels of skill attainment rather than against the work of other students. The levels of skill attainment for each subject are

derived from the aims and objectives of the course and established by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). They are designed to be fair to students all over the world.

The criteria for achievement are explained to students in each course and are the focus of class and homework activities.

Internal Summative Assessment

There are two types of summative IB assessment tools which are used in the determination of final IB grades: internal and external assessments. Detailed IB policies describe the conditions under which these tools must be administered.

IB internal assessments allow teachers to assess some of the students’ work during the IB course. Examples include English individual oral commentary, language presentations, historical investigations, laboratory reports, and math projects. The IAM teachers mark the internal assessments and this grade counts as a percentage of the student’s overall final IB score. The marks for the internal assessments are submitted to the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), along with a representative sample of the work marked by the IAM teacher. This sample is then sent to an IB moderator who evaluates how the teacher has applied the IB grading rubric. IBO may then adjust the marks of the assignment up or down.

IB Internal assessments provide students with opportunities to show mastery of skills outside of final examinations. Students receive significant instruction and practice throughout their courses to effectively prepare for these challenging tasks.

In each IB subject, teachers are given a very specific list of criteria to assess and guidelines about how to mark each criterion. To determine a mark, the teacher chooses the level of achievement that best matches the work being marked. The criteria for achievement are clearly communicated to students well in advance of the internal assessments. IB assessments are graded individually on a rubric and then compiled to achieve a wholistic score on a scale of 1 (low) to 7 (high). If there are two or more teachers in a DP subject administering the same Internal Assessment (IA), these teachers moderate the assessments collectively.

Common School-wide Grading Practices

To obtain consistency across subjects, the following practices are in place:

·        There will be at least five summative assessments per semester.

·        All courses will have a common comprehensive semester exam.

·        Semester exams will constitute exactly 20% of the semester grade.

·        For 9th and 10th grade students, summative assessments will constitute 70% and formative assessments will constitute 30% of the semester grade (excluding the exam).

·        For 11th and 12th grade students, summative assessments will constitute 80% of the grade and the formative assessments will constitute 20% of the semester grade (excluding the exam).

·        Standardization of student work within common subjects will occur regularly throughout the semester.

·        Teachers will moderate the assessment of student work during provided collaborative planning time the hour after school and departmental release time several times per year.

·        Teachers standardize grading so that each student is scored appropriately.

Late and/or Missing Assignments

Missed Summative Assessment Policy

·        All missed summative assessments, regardless of the reason, will be recorded in the gradebook as a zero. Students who miss in-class summative assessments must contact the teacher before the next class meeting either in person or via email to re-schedule the missed assessment. Failure to do so may result in a grade penalty at the teacher's discretion.

·        Missed summative assessments must be made up within one week of returning to school.

Late Assignment Acceptance

·        Students will have the number of days in which they were absent to turn in missing work for full credit.

·        Work beyond the deadline may not be accepted after the summative assessment is given. This policy supports the understanding that the purpose of classwork/homework (formative assessment) is to prepare students for the summative assessment.

·        Multiple zeros in the gradebook are a signpost of behavior that will limit the chances of student success.

Recording and Reporting

Teachers record grades on PowerSchool which provides online, daily access to students, parents/guardians. Grades are updated on PowerSchool regularly. Both written and oral

feedback affirm progress, diagnose needs, evaluate achievement, and assist in accountability. Grades are available on the PowerSchool Parent Portal each semester. Parent/guardian and teacher conferences are scheduled twice a year. As needed, teachers consult with

parents/guardians on an individual basis.

Departmental Grading Practices

Each course will document departmental grading policies in the course syllabus and communicate that information with students.

The Academic Assessment Policy was most recently reviewed by the IB Coordinators, administrators, and teaching staff in the fall of 2023.

External Summative Assessment

IB external assessments are assessments that are completed by students at the IAM while

overseen by the IAM teachers but are sent away to be marked by external IB examiners. Final examinations are the main means of external assessment, but work such as the Extended Essay, Written Assignment papers, TOK essays and Visual Arts exhibitions are also externally assessed.

IAM Assessment Policy Review

The policy is reviewed annually by the IB Coordinators, administrators, subject area teachers and the school improvement team. If this review finds that adjustments to the policy need to be addressed, a subcommittee of the school improvement team will review and make

recommendations for updates. These recommendations will be reviewed by IB Coordinators, administrators, and staff.