Assessment Policy

Carver Middle School

Assessment Policy

The Assessment policy for Carver Middle School is designed to meet the requirements of the Florida Sunshine State Standards and the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program. At Carver Middle School we believe in and value our students’ abilities to be inquirers, risk-takers and thinkers; to communicate knowledge and understanding in real-world contexts as open-minded, reflective, principled and caring learners. Assessments are designed to measure student growth during the teaching and learning process and report a student’s achievement in all curriculum areas studied.

 

Purpose:

At Carver Middle School we understand that authentic assessment supports and encourages effective teaching and learning, which determines the learner’s level of knowledge and understanding, using both formative and summative forms of assessment. The assessment must meet the needs of students at particular ages, stages of development and make appropriate accommodations for 504 plans, ESOL requirements, IEPs, and EPs.

Guiding Principles:

At Carver Middle School we understand that assessment is fundamental to appropriate planning, teaching, and learning. Assessment practices are made clear to all stakeholders of the school community. The assessment takes place in the form of both formative and summative assessments, of which the results are recorded in ProgressBook for student, teacher and parent access. We believe that there should be opportunities for students to reflect on their own learning and that teachers must provide students with quality and timely meaningful written and/or verbal feedback on assessed work. 

At the commencement of a new topic, teachers assess the student’s prior knowledge and experience. The assessment provides students with feedback on their level of achievement on the Florida Standards and/or IB MYP objectives.

Progress Reports and Report Cards are produced quarterly to parents and these contain grades and comments on academic achievement and behavior. Assessment is a shared and collaborative process that allows for parents, students and teachers to gain ongoing access to view grades/feedback via the various formats (Canvas, ProgressBook, Progress Reports and Report Cards).

Assessment practices:

At Carver Middle School, it is an expectation that teachers will use an appropriate variety of assessment strategies and tools to provide honest, unbiased, objective, timely and meaningful feedback on student achievement. As educators, we appreciate that feedback is one of the main influential factors on student achievement. Teachers will report assessments in the form of report cards, ProgressBook, parent-teacher conferences, and anecdotal records. In order to increase student achievement, it is imperative that teachers use assessment data in a meaningful manner to reflect on their own teaching and their impact on student learning.

It is expected that teachers record a minimum of 2 formative assessment grades a per week and at least one summative assessment per unit of instruction in ProgressBook. Teachers will collect, analyze and reflect on quantitative and qualitative assessment results data in PLC forums to improve upon their own teaching and learning strategies.

State Assessments:

The Florida Department of Education Bureau of K-12 Assessment is responsible for all aspects of Florida's K-12 statewide student assessment programs, including developing, administering, scoring, and reporting the results for assessments aligned to the Florida Standards or Next Generation Sunshine State Standards (NGSSS). The primary goal of these assessments is to provide information about student learning in Florida, as required by Florida law (see Section 1008.22, Florida Statutes).

The FLDOE Statewide Assessment Program Information Guide describes the process involved in developing, administering, and scoring the Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) and NGSSS assessments. We encourage parents/guardians and educators to consult this guide to gain a thorough understanding of the statewide assessment program. Students will be given opportunities to review practice tests prior to the administration of statewide assessments.

At Carver Middle School we carry out the following Florida State Assessments:

Florida Standards Assessments: The Florida Standards Assessments, which measure student success with the Florida Standards, include assessments in English Language Arts (grades 3-8), Mathematics (grades 3-8), and End-of-Course (EOC) assessments for Algebra 1 and Geometry.
Statewide Science Assessment: The Statewide Science Assessment measures student success with the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards and includes assessments in grades 5 and 8.
NGSSS EOC Assessments: The NGSSS EOC assessments are computer-based tests designed to measure student achievement of the specified standards for middle- and high-school level courses in Science and Social Studies (Civics and U.S. History). 

At Carver Middle School assessment drives the planning process for instruction in all subjects. The assessment must be aligned with the IB objectives and/or Florida Standards to allow students to achieve the required achievement levels in order to pass their courses and make significant learning gains. 

Assessment Strategies:

Formative assessment enables students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding during the teaching and learning process. Students receive feedback on how/what they need to in order to improve. Teachers will decide how to provide remediation, extension or differentiated teaching and learning strategies based on the assessment data.
Teachers will use a breadth of formative assessment strategies including, but not limited to exit slips, Kahoot, quizzes, short or extended writing responses, Socratic seminars, presentations, Cornell notes, diagrams or infographics and verbal responses.

Summative assessments measure student knowledge and understanding at the end of the teaching and learning process. IB students receive a grade using the IB MYP criteria evaluating their demonstration of mastery on a real-world application of content. Teachers use a variety of summative assessments, including but not limited to short and extended response questions, presentations, portfolios, research projects, process journals, lab reports, debates, and performance.

IB MYP Achievement Level OCPS Percentage Score OCPS Grade
IB Achievement Level** OCPS % Score OCPS Grade
Missing work 50 F
0 55 F
1 60 D
2 65 D
3 70 C
4 75 C
5 80 B
6 90 A
7 95 A
8 100 A

 

*Student grades of A-F are reported quarterly on report cards and progress reports. These reports are available through ProgressBook.
**IB teachers will assess according to IB each subject-specific criterion a minimum of 2 times per academic year. 

The Assessment Policy is reviewed every 2 years by the steering committee and administration team. This policy was written and implemented in December 2018.