Assessment for Learning at Pine City Schools

What is Assessment for Learning?

At Pine City Schools, we embrace the concept of Assessment for Learning.  
Assessment for Learning is best described as a process by which assessment information is used by teachers to adjust their teaching strategies, and by students to adjust their learning strategies. We believe: 

• assessment, teaching and learning are linked, as each informs the others
  
• assessment is a powerful process that will increase student learning;
• Assessment for Learning provides students with information and guidance so they can plan and manage the next steps in their learning.
  
• Assessment for Learning uses information to lead from what has been learned to what needs to be learned next;
  

At Pine City Schools, Assessment for Learning helps teachers:

• plan and modify teaching and learning programs for individual students, groups of students and the class as a whole
• identify students’ strengths so that both teachers and students can build on them
• identify students’ learning needs in a clear and constructive way so they can be addressed

Assessment for Learning uses a range of approaches, including:

• day-to-day activities (such as learning conversations)
• a simple mental note taken by the teacher during observation
• student self and peer assessments
• a detailed analysis of a student’s work
• assessment tools (which may be written items, structured interview questions, or items teachers make up themselves).

What matters most is not so much the form of the assessment, but how the information gathered is used to improve teaching and learning.

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