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Section Three: Recommendations-New Curriculum Directions

3.8 How should student achievement be assessed and evaluated?

a) Ongoing assessment in classes

We recommend multiple and varied methods of assessment starting early in the year in each course. Students need clear, consistent expectations. Altemative assessment methods, including joumal, open-ended-problem, portfolio, interview, and performance assessments, should be used in addition to essay and multiple-choice tests. Practical, hands-on assessments should be included, and these assessments should also have an STSE focus.

Authentic assessments involving evaluating the outcome of activities should be used whenever possible. For example, if students plant gardens, they should be evaluated on how well their gardens grow, not just on written papers describing the planting.

Ongoing assessment should always be linked to leaming strategies and based on outcomes. It should never be an end in itself. It should also determine whether students are achieving the goal of scientific literacy.

To be most effective, assessment must be used both to measure students' achievement and, as an accountability mechanism to assess whether the program provides students with appropriate opportunities to learn.

b) Final evaluation for course credit

Final evaluation for a course credit could be a practical, rather than a written, examination. The final assessment should be based on many different kinds of assessment over the whole course. A variety of final assessment modes should be used, not just written examinations, and the weighting of the final assessment should not be disproportional to that of other assessments.

All science courses in secondary school, including Grade 9 science, should count as credits.

c) What aspects of science education could be part of a Grade ll assessment?

The assessment must be based on the knowledge, sidlis, and attitudes that comprise science literacy as outlined in subsection 2.2. A Grade 11 assessment should not only consider achievement in science but also the student's opportunity to learn.