What We Teach
Assessment at ECJ | PlayPen
Assessments are central to the teaching-learning process.
Their main function is to provide information about the competencies and skills developed and consolidated in a given learning cycle. Based on the assessment results, teachers can identify the effectiveness of the teaching-learning process or the need to redirect their strategies. Likewise, students can identify their strengths and define areas of dedication for the next learning cycle.
Feedback
Based on the results identified in the assessment process, teachers provide feedback to students to help them reflect on their strengths and areas for development. Feedback is essential for students to have clarity about their development process.
Types of Assessment
Any activity in the school environment can be considered evaluative by teachers. After all, learning is a living process that takes place in all school environments and encompasses not only what is objectively measured in academic terms, but also students’ social and emotional interactions.
When it comes to academic achievement, assessments can be formal, when they generate grades, or informal, so that teachers can monitor progress in relation to learning objectives.
Escola Cidade Jardim | PlayPen is aligned with international best practices and makes use of both internal assessments, developed by teachers, and external assessments, developed by national and international institutions recognized for academic rigor and excellence.
External assessments
External evaluations measure progress against recognized benchmarks and are usually linked to college acceptance. They are designed to identify those who are best aligned to previously defined standards. Although there is a trend in education to privilege critical thinking, external assessments still refer to traditional tests with large volumes of content to master and standardized ways of demonstrating knowledge.
However, external assessments are important for several reasons. They indicate how prepared our students are in relation to external expectations, that is, to what extent the teaching-learning experiences promoted by Escola Cidade Jardim | PlayPen are also aligned with external performance standards. They inform, to some extent, how effective our teaching-learning strategies are. They provide access to a comparative database that allows us to analyze the position of our students in relation to other groups of students worldwide. The results obtained are compared to those achieved in internal assessments and guide curriculum updates and student guidance strategies.
Cambridge:
Aligned to the UK curriculum, the CEM platform tests, map students’ development in English vocabulary and reading, mathematics and non-verbal skills. Cambridge testing begins from 3rd grade onwards.
Kangaroo:
The Kangaroo Mathematics Competition (O Canguru in Portuguese) is an annual international competition for students in 3rd grade in elementary school through 3rd grade in high school.
The competition originated in France and is administered globally by the Association Kangourou sans Frontières (AKSF).
The Kangaroo Mathematics Competition is the largest mathematics competition in the world, with more than 6 million participants each year in over 80 countries.
Evolutional
Similar to the Cambridge tests, Evolucional promotes assessments aligned to the Brazilian national curriculum (BNCC) and the SAEB-System for Basic Education Assessment. From 4th to 9th grade, students are tested twice a year to map their skills and identify challenge areas to work on during the school year. In high school, Evolucional’s evaluations are aligned with ENEM and work as preparatory mock exams to measure the skills and competencies already developed, as well as to promote an experience close to those of the big ranking assessments (ENEM and Vestibulares).
