Policies @ Courses for Teachers: Saskatchewan – Continuing Teacher Education, Queen's University

Assessment and Evaluation

Assessment in education is the process of gathering information as evidence of student mastery over concepts and/or skills. Continuous assessment provides ongoing feedback that creates a transparency between teacher expectations and student learning outcomes.

Assessments in the Continuing Teacher Education – Saskatchewan courses, have been developed based on competency-based assessment in accordance with the Professional Standards for Saskatchewan educators.

Progress and Summative Assessments

While instructors will provide you with feedback on an ongoing basis throughout the course, you will also receive an assessment of your overall progress at two check-in points during the course. You will have the opportunity to self-assess and compare your assessment to the instructor’s evaluation of your progress. You are expected to take the feedback from your instructor and incorporate it into your ongoing assignments to demonstrate improved learning and understanding.

Your instructor will also complete a Summative Assessment at the end of your course that will include your final mark. The Summative Assessment is based on the course evaluation rubric.

Course Evaluation Rubric

Each assignment rubric contains one or more criteria from the course evaluation rubric below. Your overall course achievement on each criterion is based on the cumulative achievement from each of your assignments across the course.

Knowledge and Understanding
	Mastery	High Quality	Meets Expectation	Developing
	On the discussion board and in course assignments the candidate has:
KU1	Provided examples demonstrating a high level of knowledge of key concepts, facts, terms and definitions, that were informed by best available research and practice;	Used theory, research and practice to demonstrate knowledge of key concepts, facts, terms and definitions;	Used theory, research or practice to demonstrate knowledge of some of the key concepts, facts, terms and definitions;	Demonstrated limited knowledge of the key concepts, facts, terms and definitions;
KU2	Articulated a strong understanding of ideas, issues, relationships and questions;	Expressed a clear understanding of ideas, issues, relationships and questions;	Expressed an adequate understanding of ideas, issues, relationships, and questions;	Expressed a limited understanding of ideas, issues, relationships and questions;
KU3	Crafted information that is evidence-based and data-driven; multiple sources have been consulted to gather information and form a solid understanding of content;	Documented evidence and consulted scholarly sources to demonstrate a clear understanding of content;	Indicated an awareness of evidence and scholarly sources related to the course, but information was not always effectively integrated;	Based understanding mainly on personal experiences and/or anecdotal information and rarely referenced scholarly sources;
Thinking
	Mastery	High Quality	Meets Expectation	Developing
	On the discussion board and in course assignments the candidate has:
T1	Embraced new ideas and connected theory to practice by effectively supporting thinking with anecdotal and scholarly evidence, when appropriate.	Accepted new ideas and expressed opinions that were clearly linked to theory and practice.	Acknowledged new ideas and stated opinions that were linked to theory and practice.	Showed limited ability to generate new ideas and rarely linked opinions to theory and practice.
T2	Thoroughly analyzed own and others' assumptions and carefully evaluated the relevance of contexts when presenting ideas.	Identified own and others' assumptions and several relevant contexts when presenting ideas.	Questioned others’ assumptions more than their own and identified some relevant contexts when presenting their ideas.	Demonstrated a limited awareness of present assumptions and identified few contexts when presenting their ideas.
T3	Engaged in insightful examination of course content and provided new ideas and information to consider.	Accurately interpreted course content and provided some new ideas and information to consider.	Interpreted course content and provided few new ideas and information to consider.	Inaccurately or incompletely interpreted course content and provided limited new ideas to consider.
Communication
	Mastery	High Quality	Meets Expectation	Developing
	On the discussion board and in course assignments the candidate has:
C1	Communicated frequently and in an engaged manner to further professional learning and foster a collaborative and inclusive community of learners; read and authored multiple posts and demonstrated thoughtfulness in responses.	Maintained regular communication to help foster a collaborative and inclusive community of learners; read and authored a number of posts and demonstrated care in responses.	Communicated as required and usually helped foster a collaborative and inclusive community of learners; read and authored posts and demonstrated some care in responses.	Communicated infrequently and was rarely engaged with the other candidates; read and authored few posts with limited care in responses.
C2	Successfully communicated for a given audience and accurately conveyed a sense of purpose, making few grammatical or stylistic errors.	Effectively communicated for a given audience and demonstrated a sense of purpose, making only minor grammatical or stylistic errors.	Appropriately communicated for a given audience and mostly demonstrated a sense of purpose, making some grammatical or stylistic errors that sometimes interfered with communication.	Demonstrated limited communication skills where purpose and audience may have been unclear; made grammatical or stylistic errors that made understanding challenging.
Application
	Mastery	High Quality	Meets Expectation	Developing
	On the discussion board and in course assignments the candidate has:
A1	Demonstrated practical and theoretical evidence of changing ideas, questions, growth and new understanding related to course content.	Effectively used course information to integrate new ideas and questions into theory or practice.	Appropriately used information from the course to clarify understanding of theory or practice.	Correctly identified information from the course content and rarely connected them to theory or personal practice.
A2	Made insightful connections beyond the course by drawing on personal experiences and professional readings.	Made meaningful connections to the course by drawing on personal experiences and professional readings.	Documented connections made between the course content, and personal or professional experiences.	Began applying course concepts introduced to personal or professional experiences.
Synthesis
	Mastery	High Quality	Meets Expectation	Developing
	On the discussion board and in course assignments the candidate has:
S1	Successfully originated and integrated practical, theoretical and anecdotal evidence to effectively demonstrate understanding and further application of course content.	Accurately originated and integrated practical, theoretical and anecdotal evidence to clearly demonstrate understanding and further application of course content.	Originated and integrated some practical, theoretical and anecdotal evidence to demonstrate some understanding and further application of course content.	Began to originate and integrate practical, theoretical and anecdotal evidence and began to demonstrate understanding of further application of course content.
S2	Designed effective course assignments that could be used to improve teacher practice in real-world application.	Designed meaningful course assignments that could be used in real-world application.	Designed appropriate course assignments that have some real-world application.	Designed superficial course assignments with little real-world application.
Annotations
	Mastery	High Quality	Meets Expectation	Developing
	On the discussion board and in course assignments the candidate has:
A1	19 – 24 pts	13 – 18 pts	7 – 12 pts	0 – 6 pts
A1	Reading annotation assignment scores are based on a combination of quality, quantity, timeliness and distribution.

Assigning a Grade

The following criteria are used to convert the Summative Assessment results into an overall final grade for the course:

A+	All criteria at the excellent level.
A	10 or more criteria achieved at the excellent level with 3 or less at the competent level. No criteria at the beginning or developing level.
B+	9 or more criteria achieved at the competent level or above with 4 or less at the developing level. No criteria can be at the beginning level
Incomplete	Full or partial resubmission of assignment is required as the assignment does not meet the expectations for A+, A or B+. This is a temporary designation and failure to resubmit as required will result in a mark of fail.
Fail	Any criteria achieved that do not meet the requirements for A+, A, or B+.

Late Assignments

Additional Qualification Courses are designed so that candidates work through the same modules at the same time. All assignments and discussion tasks must be completed within the time frame of the specific module. This will allow candidates enough time to read and respond to each other's posts.

Candidates who are unable to meet the due dates for any assignment due to extenuating circumstances must request additional time from the instructor. Extensions are given at the discretion of the instructor. Candidates who do not request extensions and who make more than one late posting to a discussion or submit more than one late assignment cannot be considered for an A+ grade in the course.

Please note that a candidate who has completed 75% of the required work by the end of the course will not qualify for an extension and will receive an automatic Fail.

Resubmissions of Assignments

Candidates who receive an unsatisfactory assessment of their progress at the two check-ins during the course, must contact the instructor for further guidance on improving their academic performance in the course. This process will usually involve resubmission of the assignment(s).

Candidates who receive a Fail grade at the end the course may appeal by following CTE’s Appeal Process.

For additional information, please see The Appeal Process for a Failing Grade.

Course Accommodations

Applicants who require special accommodations are asked to follow these steps:

Contact the Staffing Coordinator, Morgan Roy at morgan.roy@queensu.ca at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the course to allow enough time for appropriate accommodations to be made.
Provide necessary documentation upon request.
Develop an accommodation plan with the manager of CTE that will be implemented and communicated with your course instructor.

Failed Grade Appeal

Course participants have the right to appeal a failed grade assigned in a course subject to the marking scheme set out by the course instructor(s).
As a first step, the course participant should email their instructor and request an informal review of the grade. Instructors are strongly encouraged to consent to this review. This request should be made within 10 working days of the grade being received. Normally the instructor will provide a reconsidered grade and notify the candidate by email within a further 10 working days of receipt of the request and any further information being submitted by the course participant.
If the request for an informal review by the instructor is denied or if the course participant is not satisfied with the decision, a formal appeal may be submitted to the Staffing Coordinator, Morgan Roy at morgan.roy@queensu.ca. The appeal must be submitted in writing with copies of all relevant documents not later than 10 working days after the reconsidered grade being received. The appeal will be reviewed by a third party within 10 business days of receiving the appeal.