Being a candidate school for the Middle Years programme we are committed to preparing students for the challenges of today’s world and align with the IB assessment philosophy. International Baccalaureate programmes assess understanding and skills that go beyond memorizing facts and figures. In an era of rapid change and an ever-increasing flow of information, students need to demonstrate their ability to organize knowledge and use it critically and creatively.
Grades represent different things in different countries and schools. Grades can mean different things to teachers in the same school. MYP grades mean the same thing all around the world. All MYP teachers use the same criteria to assess student work.
MYP assessment focuses on tasks created and marked by classroom teachers who are well-equipped to make judgments about student achievement.
All MYP subject groups prescribe detailed assessment criteria that teachers use to evaluate student achievement. This internal assessment of coursework remains a cornerstone of the MYP.
Assessment is often divided into formative and summative assessment
Formative assessment
The aim is to provide detailed feedback to teachers and their students on the nature of students’ strengths and weaknesses, and to help develop their capabilities. Direct interaction, for example a discussion, between teacher and student are particularly helpful here.
The intention of the teacher must be to set formative assessments that are at just the right level of challenge for the student, and to keep adjusting that level as the student progresses.
Summative assessment
It focuses on measuring what the candidate can do, usually at the end of the unit and/or readiness to progress to the next stage of education.
The purpose of summative assessment is to make a judgment about the candidate.
Assessment in the IB MYP is criterion-related (Table 3). Each subject has four criteria A, B, C and D. Each criterion has eight bands of achievement. Students are placed in the band that best describes the understanding or skill level their assessment tasks demonstrate. At the end of each trimester students are awarded a level of achievement for each criterion and then, based on these, a General Level of achievement for each subject. There are seven General Levels of Achievement for each subject (Table 4).
Please note that MYP marks are not associated with lateness, negative behavior, less perceived effort. For criterion-assessed tasks teachers provide detailed tasks requirements, clear instructions and examples. In most tasks, students should be able to self-assess their work and determine the level of achievement.
MYP marks represent descriptors, not a grade point scale. Assessment in MYP requires teachers to look at how a student has improved over time rather than penalizing them for where they are. To determine the final achievement level of a student, the teachers will use their professional judgement and a variety of summative tasks.
For assessment purposes teachers use a marking scale of 0 to7. Equivalences between the various marks on the scale and the pupil’s performance are set out below.
| Grade | Boundary Guidelines | Descriptor |
| Grade 1 | 1-5 | Produces work of very limited quality. Conveys many significant misunderstandings or lacks understanding of most concepts and contexts. Very rarely demonstrates critical or creative thinking. Very inflexible, rarely using knowledge or skills. |
| Grade 2 | 6-9 | Produces work of limited quality. Expresses misunderstandings or significant gaps in understanding for many concepts and contexts. Infrequently demonstrates critical or creative thinking. Generally inflexible in the use of knowledge or skills, infrequently applying knowledge or skills. |
| Grade 3 | 10-14 | Produces work of acceptable quality. Communicates basic understandings of many concepts and contexts with occasionally significant misunderstandings or gaps. Begins to demonstrate some basic critical and creative thinking. Is often inflexible in the use of knowledge or skills, requiring support even in familiar classroom situations. |
| Grade 4 | 15-18 | Produces good quality work. Communicates basic understandings of many concepts and contexts with few misunderstandings and minor gaps. Often demonstrates basic critical and creative thinking. Uses knowledge or skills with some flexibility in familiar classroom situations but requires support in unfamiliar situations. |
| Grade 5 | 19-23 | Produces generally high-quality work. Communicates secure understanding of concepts and contexts. Demonstrates critical and creative thinking, sometimes with sophistication. Uses knowledge and skills in familiar classroom and real-world situations and, with support, some unfamiliar real-world situations. |
| Grade 6 | 24-27 | Produces high-quality, occasionally innovative work. Communicates extensive understanding of concepts and contexts. Demonstrates critical and creative thinking, frequently with sophistication. Uses knowledge and skills in familiar and unfamiliar classroom and real-world situations, often with independence. |
| Grade 7 | 28-32 | Produces high-quality, frequently innovative work. Communicates comprehensive, nuanced understanding of concepts and contexts. Consistently demonstrates sophisticated critical and creative thinking. Frequently transfers knowledge and skills with independence and expertise in a variety of complex classroom and real-world situations. |
Promotion of students
Decisions on promotion to the year above shall be taken at the end of the school year by the relevant Class Council. Both the Director of the school cycle and the teachers of all subjects shall attend the Council and have voting rights. Support teachers may attend but without voting rights.
The Class Council shall not reach a decision on the basis solely of the results achieved by the student in each subject but on the basis of the overall picture of the student as it emerges from all the information available to it.
The final mark shall not be an arithmetical average of the term or semester marks. It must be a reflection of all the observations and results available to the teacher of the subject concerned, enabling him/her to judge in particular whether the student will be capable of keeping up successfully with the work in this subject in the year above. The school has established an assessment policy based on the International Baccalaureate assessment guidelines which is communicated to the parents.
In addition, an information meeting on Assessment in the Middle Years is held for parents at the beginning of the school year.
Learning Support
Our School assists students who need special attention or an individual program. Among these students there are those who learn at a slower or faster pace than others and those who learn in a different way. Our support teachers are dedicated to creating a positive learning environment and encourage students to reach their full potential. They collaborate with students, teachers, families and specialists to foster healthy development and independent learning.
The types of Support we offer are:
- The most essential support is given in the classroom through differentiated education. The teacher assesses his or her students’ requirements and adapts his or her teaching methodology to the needs of each one of them.
- General Support: It is offered to small groups of students for a limited period and is intended to cover students’ specific shortcomings. At the end of this period, a joint evaluation made by
both teacher and Support teacher will confirm if the General Support is to be continued or not.
- Individual Support: It is usually offered to an individual student and is intended to cover the specific needs of the child.