Standardization Policy

The Purpose of Standardization

Standardization is the process by which teachers at ISNS share their expectations and understanding of common criteria and standards with each other in order to improve the consistency of their decisions about student learning.

Standardization helps teachers to increase the reliability and consistency of the assessment information that they gather so that it can be used to guide and improve teaching practices and enhance student learning.

Standardization serves to ensure that teachers are accountable for accurate and consistent assessment of student work.

The Benefits of Standardization for Teachers

Making reliable and valid decisions across different points in the learning process is important, particularly when teachers teach common courses, publish learning updates and evaluations on student progress, or compare cohort data with historical information.

Standardization ensures that teachers make consistent grading decisions over time.

Consistent and secure standardization protocols used over time can prevent unreliability in grading in a number of ways:

Applying the same standardized protocols ensures consistency across the Secondary Division
Allowing the creation of sets of exemplars that can become external references used each year for benchmarking different levels of student achievement
Using the exemplars for teaching purposes with the students
Sharing the exemplars with new teachers so they can quickly acclimatize themselves to the teaching standards within the school.

Teachers change over time, but the standard and consistency of assessment must remain consistent if transcripts and school reports are to remain valid.

Internal Standardization

Internal Standardization is the process by which the assessments of a teacher are quality assured by another colleague(s) from the same subject or course. It is the process where teachers share their understanding of grading criteria in order to improve the consistency of their assessments across classes and grade level. Internal standardization takes place to ensure that the grading process is uniform and shares a consistent interpretation of the criteria of the International Baccalaureate MYP and DP.

There are two types of Internal Standardization:

Teacher to Teacher Standardization

Teachers will arrange a face-to-face meeting to share a range of assessments that have been completed by their students.
Copies of the work, devoid of comments and grades, will be brought to the standardization meeting by the teachers involved.
The sample of assessments must be reflective of the grade ranges produced by the students during this assessment task.
The standardizing teachers will use the appropriate rubric to grade the assessment tasks previously graded by their colleagues, and compare grades. It is important that none of the moderators are aware of prior grades awarded during the standardization process or awarded by others participating in the standardization process.
A discussion will then take place on the results of the standardization
The entire process should transpire prior to the grades being published to students and formally documented.

Please note that if a course is delivered by a single teacher it is the expectation that the grading of assessments is still standardized according to the above protocols.

Student to Student Standardization

Teachers empower students to grade their peers’ work using the same process detailed above. Please note that Student to Student Standardization does not need to adhere to the final bullet point of Teacher to Teacher Standardization.

For student to student standardization to be successful, it is important that students are:

taught how to use criteria referencing
guided carefully through the criteria
provided with the guidelines for a best fit approach to criteria
coached on the use and definitions of wording used in the criteria descriptors

Student to Student Standardization is an important student-centered tool for learning. Teachers guide the standardization between students and help them to develop their understanding of the assessment criteria and expectations.

Student to Student Standardization has a direct, positive impact on teaching and learning as both teacher and student develop shared expectations and understanding of what quality work looks like and what criteria define it. Both students’ and teachers’ assessment capability can be powerfully enriched.

Standardization of Assessments in MYP

At ISNS each course within a subject should aim to set two assessments for each unit of inquiry. Teachers will use the Teacher to Teacher Standardization method to internally standardize a minimum of three assessments per year, within each subject area. A minimum of three student High/Medium/Low (H/M/L) samples (for courses with more than three students) must be standardized per course, each year. Taking into consideration type of assessment, criteria, grade level and unit of inquiry.

Standardization of Personal Projects

All performances will be recorded by the supervisor assigned to that student
All project material, built or created, will be submitted to the supervisor assigned to that student
All project reports will be submitted to the supervisor assigned to that student
If inconsistencies are found, the MYP Coordinator will assess the project in question and report the findings to the Personal Projects Coordinator
All final scores will be reported by the Personal Projects Coordinator only when all standardization exercises are completed and no inconsistencies are present

Assessment Teacher groups will be preselected by the Personal Projects Coordinator. Once final grades are reached, the Personal Projects Coordinator will share these with the MYP Coordinator, who will provide grades for the IB through IBIS according to the student selection. Evidence of standadization is to be shared with the Personal Projects Coordinator.

Standardization of Assessments in DP- Extended Essays

At ISNS, DP teachers will use Teacher to Teacher standardization for all Extended Essays (EE) with teachers from the same subject group. Alternatively, standardization may be conducted with course teachers from another IB DP school, if another subject group teacher is not available at ISNS. Standardization of extended essays will occur during a scheduled Wednesday collaborative meeting.

Final Extended Essay grades need to be confirmed with the EE Coordinator and DP Coordinator, along with evidence of the standardization process, before grades are submitted to the IB.

DP Internal Assessments and Other External Assessments

All ISNS DP course teachers need to organize standardization of a minimum of one internal/external assessment per course. Teacher to Teacher standardization of internal/external assessments can be conducted with fellow subject group teachers or teachers from other IB DP schools. A minimum of three student High/Medium/Low (H/M/L) samples (for courses with more than three students) must be standardized per course, each year.

All internal/external assessment grades need to be confirmed with the DP Coordinator, along with evidence of the standardization process, before grades are submitted to the IB.