Student assessments must focus on learning, not marks

Re It’s time to change the way we assess students,

Opinion, Oct. 19 Haleema Ahmed made some critical points about how students are assessed in secondary schools and how distance learning has caused some necessary changes. She is astute in her observations of how secondary teachers often limit the types of assessment practices to using tests and quizzes.

The Ministry of Education, under Kathleen Wynne, developed a policy on assessment called “Growing Success” (2010) for Grades 1 to 12, to ensure that “in all subjects and courses, students should be given numerous and varied opportunities to demonstrate the full extent of their achievement of curriculum expectations.”

This policy document was rolled out to all educators in the province that year and has been part of most professional learning in schools over the past decade. .

I am as hopeful as Ahmed that distance learning will contribute to altering the way that secondary teachers assess their students.

We must assess for learning, not just for report card marks. Pamela Tylee, Toronto