Assessment Policy

Sandtown Middle School is a Candidate School* for the MYP. This school is pursuing authorization as an IB World School. These are schools that share a common philosophy—a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that Sandtown Middle School believes is important for our students.
*Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme, or the Career-related Programme (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted. For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit www.ibo.org

Assessments at Sandtown Middle School serve multiple purposes, including evaluating the effectiveness of teaching and learning, aiding in instructional planning, enhancing teaching practices, monitoring student achievement, and determining proficiency levels.

At the beginning of each course, teachers use diagnostic tools to identify student needs. These assessments come in various forms, such as common pre-assessments, student interest inventories, writing samples, and summer assignments. Unit tests further guide instructional planning throughout the year, helping teachers meet both individual and group goals. Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) review these assessment results during their planning meetings.

As teachers implement their units of study, they employ a variety of formative assessments. These include observations, worksheets, interviews, portfolios, self and peer evaluations, demonstrations, checklists, essays, rubrics, reflections, and more. These assessments help students and teachers track progress. PLCs collaboratively plan these formative assessments, considering the need for reteaching, reinforcement, and reassessment. Classes are designed to accommodate differentiated instruction, with special education teachers providing assistance when necessary. Assessment methods can be adjusted as needed, with remediation provided through small group instruction and weekly tutorials. International Baccalaureate (IB) assessment rubrics are used for both formative and summative assessments, aligned with state standards to streamline the process.

Formative and summative assessment results are entered into Infinite Campus, allowing parents and students to monitor progress toward mastery. Fulton County Schools calculates overall grades using a formula that weighs various project grades and assessments. After data analysis in PLCs, teachers plan for reteaching and reassessing. Summative task scores are recorded and shared with students and parents via Infinite Campus. At the end of the course, whether it is a semester or year-long, a summative assessment is conducted. If student achievement has improved over the course, the final grade reflects the student's best performance toward the course objectives. Student performance throughout the course is assessed using the Middle Years Programme (MYP) rubrics, and an aligned percentage grade is determined, with any benefit of the doubt given to the students.

Final assessments and achievement levels for completed courses are reported in two ways: MYP assessments based on MYP rubrics and other progress indicators, and percentage grades required by Fulton County Schools. Both MYP and percentage grades are reflected on semester and final report cards, which are made available to parents and maintained in a permanent record.

MYP Assessment Criteria

Rubrics and assessment tasks are collaboratively developed, implemented, and evaluated by MYP teachers, using both relevant MYP guides and subject group overviews as references.

Summary of MYP Assessment Criteria for All Subjects

Each criterion (A, B, C, D) for each subject group is broken into different achievement levels, ranging from 0 to 8. Each achievement level is accompanied by specific descriptors that outline the requirements a student must meet to achieve that level. All summative assessments are evaluated using the IB MYP published criteria rubrics tailored for each subject group and year level.

Since the MYP published assessment criteria are holistic, teachers are required to develop task-specific clarifications for the various achievement levels and their descriptors on the assessed rubrics. These task-specific clarifications add a layer of specificity to the assessment criteria, aiding students in understanding the exact areas being evaluated. This approach ensures that students are aware of the precise expectations and can focus their efforts accordingly to meet the assessment standards.

Final Achievement Marks

Throughout the academic year, IB teachers will collect evidence of student achievement by grading the summative assessments based on the IB MYP published criteria. By the end of the school year, each IB teacher must assess each criterion/objective for their subject group at least twice, with each strand in each criterion being assessed twice as well. Final IB course grades are not averaged; instead, they are determined by the professional judgment of teachers, based on the entire body of evidence and the ongoing learning process. During the candidate phase in the 2024-2025 school year, we will focus on assessing only summative assessment tasks at the end of each unit. Our goal is to grade and include formative assessments with MYP Criteria.

The final achievement mark will be awarded at the end of each school year. Students’ final achievement levels will be determined based on all four criteria of each subject group. Teachers will then use the IB grade boundary guidelines to determine final grades for each year of the MYP. These tables convert the total criterion levels into a grade on a scale of 1-7. The achievement level is not an average of IB grades in subject groups, allowing teachers to assess a grade level that reflects the ongoing growth of students. This approach ensures that students are not penalized for earlier work that may not represent their current level of understanding.

For instance, if a student receives a final numerical value grade of 23, you can refer to the document below to find that this numerical value corresponds to a final mark grade of 5, as indicated in the chart provided.

Final Mark	Boundary Guidelines	Descriptor
1	1-5	Produces work of very limited quality. Conveys many significant misunderstandings or lacks understanding of most concepts and contests. Very rarely demonstrates critical or creative thinking. Very inflexible, rarely using knowledge or skills.
2	6-9	Produces work of limited quality. Expresses misunderstandings or significant gaps in understanding for many concepts and contexts. Infrequently demonstrates critical or creative thinking. Generally inflexible in the use of knowledge and skills, infrequently applying knowledge and skills.
3	10-14	Produces work of an acceptable quality. Communicates basic understanding of many concepts and contexts, with occasionally significant misunderstandings or gaps. Begins to demonstrate some basic critical and creative thinking. Is often inflexible in the use of knowledge and skills, requiring support even in familiar classroom situations.
4	15-18	Produces good-quality work. Communicates basic understanding of most concepts and contexts with few misunderstandings and minor gaps. Often demonstrates basic critical and creative thinking. Uses knowledge and skills with some flexibility in familiar classroom situations but requires support in unfamiliar situations.
5	19-23	Produces generally high-quality work. Communicates secure understanding of concepts and contexts. Demonstrates critical and creative thinking, sometimes with sophistication. Uses knowledge and skills in familiar classroom and real-world situations, and, with support, some unfamiliar real-world situations.
6	24-27	Produces high-quality, occasionally innovative work. Communicates extensive understanding of concepts and contexts. Demonstrates critical and creative thinking, frequently with sophistication. Uses knowledge and skills in familiar and unfamiliar classroom and real-world situations, often with independence.
7	28-32	Produces high-quality, frequently innovative work. Communicates comprehensive, nuanced understanding of concepts and contexts. Consistently demonstrates sophisticated critical and creative thinking. Frequently transfers knowledge and skills with independence and expertise in a variety of complex classroom and real-world situations.

 

In preparation for the MYP Final Report Card, teachers assess the levels marked for each criterion and assign a final level (0-8) for each of the four criteria. The overall level of achievement (1-7) for each subject is determined by adding the levels from each criterion, resulting in a total level out of 32.

Please refer to the conversion chart below for the overall level of achievement (IB Final Grade).

MYP Conversion Table
IB Total	IB Final Mark (Grade)	Traditional Letter Grade	Traditional Grade
32	7	A	100
31	7	A	99
30	7	A	98
29	7	A	97
28	7	A	96
27	6	A	95
26	6	A	92
25	6	A	90
24	6	B	87
23	5	B	86
22	5	B	84
21	5	B	82
20	5	B	80
19	5	C	78
18	4	C	77
17	4	C	75
16	4	C	72
15	4	C	70
14	3	I/F	69
13	3	I/F	66
12	3	I/F	63
11	3	I/F	60
10	3	I/F	56
9	2	I/F	55
8	2	I/F	52
7	2	I/F	48
6	2	I/F	45
5	1	I/F	44
4	1	I/F	35
3	1	I/F	26
2	1	I/F	18
1	1	I/F	9
0	1	I/F	9

 

Students with Accommodations

Students who require accommodations receive support during assessments. A Multitiered Support System (MTSS) team convenes to assess individual student needs and develops an assessment plan applicable to some or all of the student's courses. For students receiving special education services, the Special Education Case Manager or Department Chair ensures that subject area teachers are informed of and implement these assessment plans at the beginning of each school year. In cases where students need inclusive assessment arrangements for IB-required assessments, the coordinator applies for these accommodations through the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). The implementation of inclusive assessment arrangements is carefully planned, evaluated, and monitored throughout each student’s tenure at our schools.

As a public school, some courses offered require state-mandated End of Grade or End of Course exams. These exams carry weight in each student's total average score. Students needing access arrangements receive appropriate support during these tests. Exam scores are recorded in the student information system, enabling teachers to reflect on improvements for future students and better understand individual student needs.

References

International Baccalaureate Organization. Assessment Policy. Cardiff: International

Baccalaureate Organization, 2011.

International Baccalaureate Organization. MYP: From Principles into Practice. Cardiff:

International Baccalaureate Organization. Programme Standards and Practices.

Cardiff: International Baccalaureate Organization, January 2014.

North Atlanta High School. Assessment Policy. 2022.

Ralph Bunche Middle School. Assessment Policy. 2015.

Sutton Middle School. Assessment Policy. 2022.

Westlake High School. Assessment Policy. 2024