IB Policies
IB Assessment Policy
- 1. Philosophy and Principles
- 2. Assessment Practices
- 3. Links With Other Documents
- 4. Roles and responsibilities for implementing, evaluating and reviewing the assessment policy
- 5. Training New Teachers
1. Philosophy and Principles
Regular assessment supports student development. Assessment provides direct feedback to students on their mastery of the various competencies and content and therefore allows students to refine their learning strategies from an informed perspective. Assessment supports learning goals within each course and appropriate student learning. Formal assessment of student learning also measures effective instruction.
Transparency is a key element of effective and fruitful assessment. Assessment instruments must correlate with the presented material, standards, and skills as laid out by faculty at the outset of the student experience. The faculty communicates to students the expectations and practices they have around assessment. Student experiences and coursework through the term directly supports student success on assessments.
The goals of assessment are: (1) student ownership of their learning process, (2) promoting and preserving an internal locus of control, and (3) calibration of self-evaluation in comparison to faculty-created standards. Formative and summative assessment provide students with the information they need to strategize to improve their mastery and skills. To that end, assessment is varied, including written examination, oral presentation, peer-review,and self-evaluation, all related to content and skill standards.
2. Assessment Practices
Faculty members design assessments that help students improve their understanding of what constitutes exemplary work and where their own work stands in relation to this.
Commensurate with the authorization as an IB World School, the school will follow all IB guides and practices with respect to assessment procedures for both internal and external assessment.
To facilitate student assessment, the school provides the necessary equipment, such as recording devices and presentation equipment. Furthermore, the school provides appropriate physical environments in which assessment takes place. The areas are quiet and free from distraction.
The faculty establishes clear timelines for assessment to ensure minimal conflicts across subject areas and to maximize student availability and success. The timelines help to more evenly distribute the load and maintain realistic requirements.
3. Links With Other Documents
Assessment practices will align with the school's language policy. All assessments are given in the language of instruction, or, in the case of second language courses, the learned language.
Assessment practices will align with the school's academic honesty policy. Students and faculty will follow the academic honesty policy as it relates to the execution of assessments.
4. Roles and responsibilities for implementing, evaluating and reviewing the assessment policy
Division directors oversee the implementation of the assessment policy. They report to the head of school regarding any irregularities that warrant administrative intervention. Division directors work closely with the faculty to ensure a consistent, fair, and predictable implementation of the assessment policy with students.
The head of school and division directors together annually review the assessment policy. Changes are made and final approval is made by the head of school.
5. Training New Teachers
High School Language Policy
Purpose and general principles
The Post Oak School is committed to serving students from a variety of cultural, linguistic, and social backgrounds. The language policy supports the school's mission in delivering its educational services.
The working language of The Post Oak School is English. It is the language in which the school communicates with its constituents and stakeholders.
English is also the language of instruction. The school offers language learning in English and second language acquisition in Spanish and Chinese. Some support is available for ELL students. The school periodically reviews its ability to support learning in non-English languages and assesses whether more or less support is appropriate in the future.
Section A
Definitions
Working languages: The languages in which the school communicates with its stakeholders and in which it is committed to providing all the services needed for the implementation of the program.
Access languages: Languages that the school has identified of strategic importance to meet its access agenda. The school will provide selected services and documentation in those languages, mainly to support teachers, as specified in this policy.
Internal working language: English is the school's internal working language and in which all operational and development activities take place. It is also the language of its governance, administration, and pedagogical committees.
Level of support
Working languages
Languages in which all services and materials needed for the delivery and implementation of the education program are offered.
In addition, the following is provided in those languages:
- Public web site.
- All promotional material.
Official communication and documentation from the school and selected documentation from Board committees.
Access Languages
Level 2
Languages in which selected services and materials are offered in one or more of the programs and in some areas only.
Community members whose working language falls into this category will receive some support in terms of services and materials in that language.
Material produced by communications
All communications materials will be produced in the working language, and some specific documents may be produced in other languages, following input and budget agreement, and within a quality assurance process set by the Communications Office.
Section B
Decision making process
New languages will be identified by constituents and proposed to the Communications Office for document inclusion. The Communications Office will consider each case on its own merits and will make a recommendation to the senior administrative team for approval. The changing of status of any languages will follow the same process. The criteria to introduce new languages or to change the level of support in a particular language will include:
- number of community members using the language,
- strategic considerations about specific languages in areas targeted for growth and access,
- risks to the organization,
- costs and available funding.
All employees will be notified of any changes to the policy.
Review of language status
New languages will be monitored by the Communications Office, and office personnel will provide a report to the administrative team on progress. A full review will take place every three years or earlier if there are significant changes in the original assumptions or circumstances.
Language policy within the Communications Office
The Communications Office team will annually review language policy issues, consider introducing new languages, and review possible changes to the level of support in a language.
Funding
Costs for the services provided in the school's languages will be covered by the existing revenue and external funding will be actively sought to cover at least setting up costs for new languages.
Quality assurance
All materials needed for the provision of services in the languages of the organization (except English, for which different arrangements apply) will be produced following a quality assurance process set by the Communications Office.
Availability of the language policy
The language policy is available on the school web site.
This language policy was approved by the Head of School in April, 2013.