As we continue to reflect on our journey of student focused assessment practices at Burnett, we can see clear evidence of the benefits of this journey on our Summary of Learning.  With the 2023-2024 school year now complete, it is a good time to reflect on these benefits to student learning and growth.

• Student learning and growth is ongoing
• Student evaluations should reflect their growth and improvement over time, rather than the averaging of earlier and later tasks
• Timely descriptive feedback on student learning is required for creating opportunities for growth

Grade 8/9 Proficiency Scales

Grade 10-12 Grades

Changing our Practice

Changing our practice is hard, especially when it is related to something as deeply ingrained in our education system as letter grades and percentages. All of our grade 8/9 teachers switched over to proficiency scales and descriptive feedback, providing updates on learning updates, our grade 10-12 teachers also strengthened practice by including descriptive feedback and proficiency strength based language in assessment and reporting practices. Our students and families regularly tell us that they appreciate the feedback received based on the proficiency scale and that it helps them understand how to set goals, improve, and reach higher levels of achievement in all areas! 

Numbers aren't everything. Although we often use numbers and percentages to demonstrate progress, numbers and calculations always carry a bias in representing data.  At a deeper level, our students are receiving qualitative strength based feedback that adds quality to the way they demonstrate their learning. Using descriptive language helps our learners understand their strengths and stretches, which in turn allows our learners to better demonstrate their learning.  Assessment also strengthens by using descriptive feedback as it pulls away from a number with meaning.  

We look forward to observing how our learning continues to grow!