Approach to Assessment

The High School Preparation Course’s Approach to Assessment is based on John Paul College’s Assessment and Reporting Policy which states ‘Assessment’ is an ongoing process of gathering, analysing and reflecting on evidence to make informed and consistent judgements to improve future student learning.

Assessment Structure: Continuous Assessment, Mid-Term and End of Term Testing

The High School Preparation curriculum uses a combination of continuous assessment, summative assessment and external standardised tests to make judgements about student learning.

Continuous assessment includes a variety of in-class work such as Writing on Demand, daily review quizzes, vocabulary and grammar tests, class participation, student reflections and so on. Teachers make judgements about student learning needs and use this feedback to inform their future teaching (Hattie, 2012).

Mid-term Tests and End of Term Tests are summative assessments and are used to measure the achievement of the Learning Outcomes. At mid-term and end of term, students complete tests for all four macro-skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing. The content of the tests consists of any of the Focus of Study and Learning Experiences from the Themes studied prior to the test date. Teachers need to regularly review and revisit teaching and learning to build students’ long-term memory of content covered and to enable students’ success on these summative assessments (Hattie, 2012) (d = 0.71) .

As per the NEAS guidelines, assessment tasks should be checked regularly, by three teaching staff, for validity, reliability, flexibility, fairness and currency. In JPIC, all assessment tasks are endorsed through the Assessment Endorsement Process prior to being given to a student.

Assessment Calendar

Prior to the term commencement, the Assessment Scope and Sequence is collaboratively agreed upon, approved by the JPIC Programme Coordinator (English) and Deputy Head of International Operations and then published in the JPIC Curriculum and Assessment Document.  The Mid-term, End of Term and Prepared Assignment tasks are then listed on the Assessment Calendar and the Assessment Portfolio coversheet for each Class Level is updated with the approved assessment tasks. The Assessment Calendar is published and given to students at the beginning of the term.