Assessing Mathematics

Curious how mathematics are assessed at the elementary and secondary levels? This page provides information for parents to help understand how assessment happens. And of course, if you have any questions, you can always contact your child's school.

Three Parts of Assessment

Assessment for Learning - Informs Instruction

Ongoing assessment for learning opportunities allow the educator to collect evidence about student learning. It helps the educator determine how ready a student is for the material coming up. It is used to plan and adapt instruction to meet student needs, and is not usually part of an evaluation of learning.

Assessment as Learning - Students Reflect and Self-Assess

Ongoing assessment as learning opportunities encourage students to reflect on their learning, to self-assess, and to monitor themselves in order to become better at learning.


Assessment of Learning - Informs Reporting

Assessment of learning opportunities are used by teachers to understand what students know and can do. It often occurs at the end of a unit, but may also happen at other times. It informs evaluations of student learning, and report card grades and marks. Assessment of learning is not only tests. Evidence of learning can also come from conversations educators have with students, observations of them working on problems, and from other types of tasks (products in the diagram below).



triangulation of data