How to Meaningfully Implement the New K-12 Student Reporting Policy at the Secondary Level

When the BC Ministry of Education released their proposed Draft K-12 Student Reporting Policy, I felt empowered. I felt reassurance that my assessment practices were on the right path. But I also felt apprehensive: to be most successful, significant assessment changes demand significant buy in from all teachers. I believe a tiered and staff-wide approach to this transition could maximize success at the individual teacher level. After all, such a vital transition demands all hands on deck.

I created this tiered step-by-step plan* as a framework for implementing the K-12 Draft Student Reporting Policy at the school, department, and classroom levels. It's certainly not perfect. But I hope it can assist other educators as they jump into proficiency language practices.

*By no means do I claim ownership over any of these ideas. This is merely a synthesis of practices I discovered in books, blog posts, articles, or even Tweets. I'm just a teacher who wants this transition to work.

What can schools be doing?

I believe to meaningfully implement the new reporting language, assessment conversations must commence at the school level. This tier isn't about telling other teachers what to do in their classroom; it's about developing the common ground necessary to better prepare all teachers for the next tier: the departmental conversations. 

1. Collaborate to create cross-curricular descriptors for each proficiency level: what does emerging look like? What about developing? Proficient? Extending? Maybe there's come common characteristics that exist regardless of subject area. What commonalities exist between proficiency in the Science classroom and proficiency in the Drama room? Though consensus may be difficult to achieve, this initial step is essential work.

Here is an example from teacher extraordinaire Tim Cavey's Twitter account:

2. Decide upon a percentage conversion chart for the proficiency scale. Percentages, though perhaps not philosophically consistent with proficiency language, are still mandatory at the secondary level. Agreeing on this conversion chart may be more difficult than most believe. You'll grow just as much from the process as you will from the final product.

Here is the conversion chart my own school (Summerland Secondary School) agreed upon:

3. Arrive at a school-wide assessment philosophy that is consistent with proficiency scale practices. I would recommend NO zeros and NO late penalties as a starting point. Both are equitable practices and reflect the spirit of proficiency scale assessment. These school-wide philosophies can be general statements. No need to get too specific at the school level. Save that for the eventual departmental conversations.

What can departments be doing?

Much of the obligatory heavy lifting of this reporting transition must be conducted at the department level. There are always concerns about interdepartmental consistency in assessment. I believe some departmental collaboration could go a long way to alleviating those concerns.

1. Identify the Essential/Power Standards (Curricular Competencies) in the department's curricula. What must students know and be able to do before leaving your class? Larry Ainsworth, a teacher author, describes these essential standards as having endurance (maintain their relevance throughout a student's lifetime), leverage (used in multiple disciplines), and essentiality (focus on knowledge and skills required in later grades). Importantly, these standards are present in all or most of the department's curricula. Identifying these standards doesn't negate the importance of other standards; rather, the process provides a jumping off point for departmental conversations.

2. Create Proficiency Scales or Learning Sequences for those Essential Standards first. Collaboratively come up with "I can" statements for each level of proficiency for each of those Essential Standards. This will be the most laborious work in this whole transition. But I guarantee it will also be the most enriching. See Shannon Schinkel's work on Twitter (@DramaQueenBRC) or Facebook (Beyond Report Cards) for further inspiration. 

Here is an example a colleague and I created for one of secondary ELA's Essential Standards:

3. Identify essential content for each of the department's classes. This isn't a means to tread on teacher autonomy but rather a strategy for avoiding overlap and having a logical grade-to-grade progression. What must students know to succeed at the next grade level?

What can teachers be doing?

1. Develop units and projects that assess isolated curricular competencies rather than content understanding. What skill(s) do you want your students to demonstrate via an assessment?

Here's a project from my Social Justice 12 class that focuses on perspective, an Essential Standard from the course's curriculum:

2. Develop lessons and activities that reinforce those isolated curricular competencies: "Today class, we are learning about ethical judgment via commemoration controversies." This will help students buy into your class's learning activities.

3. Adopt a mark book that reflects proficiency scale philosophy. Don't organize your assessments by categories like Tests, Quizzes, and Homework. Rather organize them by competencies.

Here is the Standards-Based mark book I'm using in my Social Justice 12 class:

Final Thoughts

I don't claim any of the above will be easy. It'll most likely be uncomfortable and contentious throughout. But I believe in the work, as I believe in the assessment direction laid out in the Draft K-12 Student Reporting Policy. The key is collaboration. Collaboration will open the door to a whole new era of learning and assessment in BC.

Good luck!