Deutsche Schule Kobe International
Assessment, Reporting and ePortfolio Policy
(Reviewed April 2025)
The assessment policy will be comprehensively reviewed by DSKI staff every 2 years or in between these periods if the need arises.
Section 1
Assessment
Section 2
Reporting
Section 3
ePortfolios
Section 4
Exhibition
Section 1
Assessment
Purpose for Assessment
Assessment is an essential part of the instructional cycle. It provides information about student learning and development. Assessment is an ongoing and inclusive process that involves the teacher and student to track progress and improve practice. Teachers at DSKI use a variety of strategies and techniques to assess student performance and development across the curriculum. Assessment allows students to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding, mastery of skills and their decision to take action at different stages in the learning process. All assessment of student work in the PYP is carried out at a school or classroom level and to incorporate the attributes of the IB learner profile and international mindedness.
Principles of assessment
Assessment at DSKI should be guided through the following principles:
Assessment should be fair and account for a variety of learning styles and abilities.
Assessment should be differentiated accounting for diverse backgrounds and needs of students.
Students should have a wide variety of different assessment opportunities.
Assessment should identify what students know, understand, can do and feel at the different stages in the learning process.
Assessment should be both formative and summative.
Assessment should provide feedback for students and teachers on the learning process.
Assessments should be based on authentic tasks whenever possible.
Assessment should provide students with the opportunity to assess their own work and progress.
Assessments should have clearly developed criteria derived from the school’s curriculum.
Assessment Practices
Types of assessment
Pre-assessment: occurs before embarking on new learning to identify prior knowledge and experiences.
Formative assessment: is connected to instruction and learning. It provides teachers and students with instant and frequent information about how the learning is developing. It helps the teacher to plan the next stage of learning.
Summative assessment: occurs at the end of a teaching and learning process. It gives the students opportunities to demonstrate what has been learned by applying their knowledge in new and authentic contexts.
Assessment Strategies
Observations: All students are observed often and regularly with a focus on the individual, the group and/or the whole class.
Performance-based assessments: Assessments of a goal-directed task with established criteria, which provide authentic and significant challenges and problems. There are numerous approaches to the problem that require the use of many skills. There is rarely only one correct response. Audio, video and narrative records are often useful for this kind of assessment.
Process-focused assessments: The focus is on the process and skill application rather than on the product. These skills are regularly observed in real contexts. Creating a system of note taking and record keeping minimises the writing and recording time. Checklists, inventories and narrative descriptions are common methods of collecting data.
Selected responses: These are a single occasion, one-dimensional exercise. Tests and quizzes are examples of this form of assessment.
Open-ended tasks: Students are presented with a challenge and asked to provide an original response. The responses may be a written answer, a drawing, a diagram or a solution.
Use of Data: The school uses standardised assessment to collect data to inform teaching and learning, as well as academic intervention. Data is collected and analysed by the teachers, SENCO and leadership team.
Assessment week: The SENCO makes use of the data to track students progress towards learning. Three times a year students are assessed with standardised tests in Language and Mathematics in relation to the end of year benchmarks.
Teacher Feedback: Teachers checking and monitoring student work and providing positive and constructive feedback
Self-assessment: Students take ownership of their learning and support their continuous growth.by setting goals, reflecting on their progress, and making necessary adjustments to become assessment-capable learners.
Peer-assessment and feedback: Students assess their classmates' work using clear criteria, this fosters critical thinking, ownership of learning, and independence. Feedback is constructive and purposeful allowing students to collaborate and improve on their quality of work, and learning.
Assessment Tools
Rubrics: These are established sets of criteria used for rating students in all areas. The descriptors tell the student and teacher what characteristics or signs to look for in student work and then how to rate that work on a predetermined scale. Rubrics can be developed by students as well as by teachers.
Exemplars: These are samples of students’ work that serve as concrete standards against which other samples are judged. Exemplars, can be used in conjunction with rubrics or continuums.
Checklists: These are lists of information, data, attributes or elements that should be present.
Anecdotal records: Brief written notes based on observations of students. These records need to be systematically compiled and organised.
Continuums: These are visual representations of developmental stages of learning. They show progression of achievement or identify where a student is in a process. The continuums in place at this school are horizontally and vertically articulated across the grades for the full academic year. They have been developed in the school and reviewed against national and international education standards, based on age-level.
Standardised Assessments: DSKI uses standardised assessments in Mathematics and Language to check students progress towards the end of year academic benchmarks. The data collected is used to inform staff about teaching and learning, and can be adjusted accordingly. The SENCO also refers to this data to implement intervention as needed.
Role of the Leadership Teams
To ensure that there is a fully articulated assessment policy in place which describes the school assessment philosophy, practises and resourcing and ensuring it is fully aligned with the IB philosophy and local requirements. The administration will also ensure that all support materials and resources are in place and that all data from assessments is stored securely.
Role of the Teachers
To ensure that assessment takes place in accordance with the schools policy and that all students are given fair access and chance to succeed by using a variety of assessment methods both formative and summative. To use assessment to drive learning and effective differentiation and communicate effectively with both parents and students about progress.
Role of the Parents
To support the schools assessment methods and to communicate effectively with staff and their children about progress. To attend parent meetings and conferences with staff and the student-led conference at the end of the school year.
Role of the Student
To actively participate in assessment to further their own learning. To communicate with staff and their parents about how they feel they are doing in school. To set their own personal learning goals and make attainable steps to reach them. To participate in self-assessment, peer assessment and feedback sessions.
Assessment Weeks
Three times a year (summer, winter, spring) we assess students' level in maths, reading, writing and spelling using standardized internal data supplemented by external data from Cambridge using systems described below.
Tracker Days
Three times a year Tracker Days will take place. These meetings are joined by the homeroom teachers, Head of Primary and the SENCO. The purpose is for the classroom teachers to provide feedback and information regarding students' progress towards meeting the end of year requirements for Mathematics and Language.
Teachers enter data from the Assessment Week Mathematics and Language tests into the Tracker Day Spreadsheet. This data is not used as the primary tool for assessing student ability, but rather supports teacher observations in class by helping to verify assessed levels or identify any areas that may have been overlooked.
Based on the outcome of the Tracker Day, intervention and extension is put in place for Language and Mathematics where needed. These support structures are evaluated at the following Tracker Day.
Standardized Assessment Methods
Mathematics Assessment
CEM baseline mathematics, arithmetic and developed ability is used at the start of the year for Tracker Day 1.
An in-house standardised number computation test is used for Tracker Day 2, the same test is used for all students. Students work through each section until they cannot complete any more. The test is not intended to be a diagnostic for the whole subject of Mathematics but a snapshot test and used to verify the teacher assessment for Mathematics covering the whole curriculum.
At the end of the school year for Tracker Day 3 the Cambridge Checkpoint test is used for Grade 5, and Progress tests are used for Grades 2 to 4.
End of Unit Mathematics Task
At the end of each unit of inquiry a mathematics task is compiled by the teacher and given to the students to complete. These end of unit tasks act as a summative assessment, giving the students the opportunity to demonstrate what has been learned throughout the unit by applying their knowledge in new and authentic contexts. It is essential that the following sections are covered in each task: Revision (ongoing- whole year); stand alone and unit related concepts.
Reading Assessment
Reading age is initially assessed using the CEM Baseline at the start of the year. For Tracker Day 2, PM Levels are used in Preschool and Grade 1, and PROBE is used for Grades 2 - 6. At the end of the year for Tracker Day 3, Cambridge Checkpoint test is used for Grade 5, and Progress tests are used for Grades 2 to 4. These tests include reading comprehensions that help gauge a student's understanding of fiction and non-fiction text at grade level.
Spelling Assessment
Spelling age is assessed by the CEM baseline tests at the start of the year. Throughout the year, teachers use the spelling lists provided by Cambridge Primary English Curriculum to support students’ development, incorporating weekly spelling tests to monitor progress. For Tracker Day 2, the Words Their Way Spelling Inventory is used to assess each student’s developmental spelling stage.
Writing Assessment
In-house writing tests are used to assess written competencies and measured against the language scope and sequence documents for Tracker Day 1 and 2. At the end of the year for Tracker Day 3, Cambridge Checkpoint test is administered to Grade 5, and Progress tests are used for Grades 2 to 4. These assessments include both fiction and non-fiction writing tasks appropriate to each grade level.
German Language Assessment
German native speaker levels are assessed against the Turinger state curriculum levels using the state assessment materials. GFL levels are assessed using Internationale Vergleichsarbeiten(IVA) testing to assess against standard A1 and A2.
Japanese Language Assessment
Kokugo students are assessed against Japanese national levels published in the government Kokugo curriculum documents through in-house tests.
Cambridge Standardized Assessment Use
Baseline
Cambridge CEM Baseline Assessment is a digital assessment that takes place over two weeks at the beginning of the academic year between August and September. It covers four modules, Reading, Spelling, Mathematics, Arithmetic and Developed ability with each module requiring 20 minutes for completion.
Teachers will use DSKI’s Assessment Data Sheet to upload results and observations made from the CEM baseline assessments. These results and observations will be used for Tracker Day 1, which takes place the following week.
Each student will need to have access to a laptop when completing the baseline assessment for all four modules. Each teacher will receive a list of student codes/passwords for their class. Teachers must distribute the student codes/passwords privately to each student.
Progress Tests
Progress Tests from Grade 2 to Grade 4
Each teacher must print off the progress tests for the number of students in their specific grade. Teachers must mark the progress tests and upload the results and observations to DSKI’s Assessment Data Sheet. These results and observations will be used for Tracker Day 3, which takes place the following week.
Checkpoint tests for Grade 5
External assessment test that provides a cumulative measure of the students’ performance at the end of their primary learning phase. Tests are marked in Cambridge.
Please study Page x of this document for detailed information regarding Checkpoint test procedures.
Deutsche Schule Kobe International will use the feedback from Cambridge Primary Checkpoint tests as well as their own observations to write the final student reports.
How Cambridge Data is used in Conjunction with Internal Assessment Data
All data collected is to verify the teacher assessments and to provide measurable assessment data. Cambridge data is used in addition to the school in-house testing to provide additional insight into student performance to inform intervention strategies and decision making. It also provides a comparison to other Cambridge students in schools around the world to ensure our programme allows students to be able to transfer to other international schools if the need arises due to families movement. Cambridge checkpoint tests also provide summative data at the end of the Cambridge primary years before they begin the Cambridge lower secondary programme.
All data captured from the Cambridge Assessments and Deutsche Schule Kobe International’s Assessments is confidential. Only the homeroom teachers, principal and respective PYP coordinators may have access to the data. Data will not be published but may be shared under exceptional circumstances to inform parents or legal guardians of the respective student’s current performance and the plan to support student progress moving forward. Data may be summarised and shared with the board for school strategic development only.
Section 2
Reporting
Reporting is a means of giving feedback from assessment. It should involve leadership, parents, students and teachers.
Teacher-Parent Conferences: This is held in October and is designed to give parents information about how their child has settled in the new class he or she is in. It is an opportunity to address any questions or concerns the teachers and or parents may have.
3 - Way Conferences: 3 - Way conferences are held after reports in January/February and involve the student, parents and teacher. The student discusses their learning and progress. The student, parents and teacher collaborate to identify the student’s strengths and areas for improvement. This leads to the setting of new goals and the three parties determine their responsibilities in supporting the student to achieve these goals. All participants must understand the format and their roles prior to the conference.
Student-Led Conferences: Student-Led Conferences are held in June and involve the student and their parents. The student is responsible for leading the conference. The student guides the parents through their classroom and the set of activities previously organised by the students and teachers. The conference will involve the student discussing work selected for their ePortfolio. Parents listen and interact with their child as they read, demonstrate experiments, use the computer, play Mathematics games together, complete learning experiences together, and discuss their ePortfolio. These conferences must be carefully planned, and time must be set aside for the students to practise their presentations.
Written Reports
Parents receive a written report of their child's progress at the end of semester 1 and again at the end of semester 2.
The DSKI written reports should:
Be completed using the formal DSKI report template.
Be sent in at the end of the first and second semesters.
Report anecdotally about the attributes of the IB learner profile.
Include a summary of the students’ progress for each unit of inquiry studied in that semester, Language, German as a foreign Language, English as a second Language, arts, mathematics, physical education and Japanese.
A German template is used specifically for students in the German section.
Released digitally to the parents. Signed copies of each report should be submitted to the school office for filing.
File Name
Please could you use the convention for saving the files Name Grade Year-year, for example -
Alex Inman Grade 1 Semester 1 2021-2022
Format
Please use font Times New Roman size 12 for all objectives/comments where possible
Please do not change the formatting or size of the text boxes unless really needed. All comments need to fit inside. Changes will affect the overall layout of the document.
Boxes need to be 1 per page, not broken over two pages
Spelling can be UK or USA, but consistent for the whole report
Subjects are lower case, except named languages, eg mathematics, Japanese, unit,
IB profile is referred to as the attributes of the IB learner profile
Profile and Approaches to Learning Boxes
Please do not resize the boxes
Minimum 60 - 75% of the space needs to be used, not just a couple of sentences
Include appropriate attributes of the IB learner profile and ATLs in a positive and developmental way. Performance in individual subjects can be included in either of these boxes, depending on how you approach it.
Subject Boxes
Please mark with a non-bold, lower case, size 12 x centered
Year long units to be reported on in semester 1 and also 2
Six learning objectives for all units and subjects, no less please
No need for teachers names on each subject box
Cambridge International Education learning objectives must be used for Mathematics and English
Specialists
Please liaise with homeroom teachers regarding any specific points you want included about progress in the profile/ATL box.
Proofreading
Each teacher is responsible to proofread their reports. As support, a nominated buddy will do a check.
Buddy Teams - To pair teachers in order to have a proof-reading buddy who can catch spelling or grammatical errors. They can also give feedback about the clarity of the reporting language and how understandable it will be to the parents.
EY amongst themselves
Preschool - G5/6
G1 - G2
G3 - G4
JFL-German-PE shared
German Native Speaker Reports
All students will receive one report template in English compiled by the English homeroom teacher with input as necessary from the German teacher.
English should be reported on in the English version report card
German native speakers will receive an additional report using the German national school format, which will be prepared by the German teacher. It is very important we use this template, as students will need it for formal applications to German national secondary schools.
Sending Out
All reports are sent to parents digitally by classroom teachers (PDF format). If requested by parents a signed hard copy will be available in case of future school application procedures. There is a cover page template with spaces for signatures and school stamp which can be attached to hard copies, found in the report card main folder.
Section 3
Student ePortfolios
Seesaw accounts for work and the ePortfolio
Access
Administrator access
SLT/IT coordinators only
Teaching staff teacher accounts only
Seesaw Folder Naming
Each class account has to be named using the format Grade, Year eg Grade 1 2024/25 (created by homeroom teacher) No nicknames please.
Each student has a folder for every subject inside the class account named Subject eg Music, GFL (Created by the subject teachers)
For the ePortfolio and each unit there has to be a folder created and named - Unit number and Transdisciplinary Theme eg Unit 1 Sharing the Planet (Homeroom teacher is responsible)
New students added to the student registry named First name, surname EG Sam Smith (IT Coordinator is responsible)
Student selected from the registry for the class accounts need to be full names only First name, family name eg Peter Smith (Homeroom teacher is responsible)
Approval of student posts in the folders
All posts need to be approved by the relevant teacher within 5 working days after the upload was made
Student ePortfolios
A student ePortfolio is a compilation of a student's work showcasing his/her learning journey through a period of time. It is a tool used to demonstrate student learning progress through pieces of evidence that manifest achievement of learning goals or success criteria set.
Aa ePortfolio folder is set up on Seesaw for all ePortfolio work to be added to it.
Learning evidence is compiled every unit. Learning evidence may come in the form of formal assessment tasks, snapshots from learning engagements, and others. Selecting and filing these in the student ePortfolio folder must be done latest two weeks after the unit ends.
As parents are granted access to their child’s seesaw account, it also means that they can view their child’s work on Seesaw at any time. Hence, ePortfolio will be shown during the Student-led conference and be used by the learner as a tool to showcase their learning growth over the year.
Students
Are the owners of their ePortfolios and have full agency in selection of the contents. To make it visible as to why they are choosing work and their reflection on the learning.
Teachers
Guide and coach students how to use the ePortfolios and work with them to assist with the choices of work uploaded and to ensure student agency in the process.
Parents
To support student choices and engage in the ePortfolio via the comments. To provide positive feedback to students and encourage them in their learning and self reflection.
ePortfolio Guidelines for Teachers
When do we prepare the ePortfolio?
Learning evidence is compiled every unit by the student under guidance by the homeroom teacher. Learning evidence may come in the form of formal assessment tasks, snapshots from learning engagements, and others. Selecting and filing these in the ePortfolio folder must be done latest two weeks after the unit ends.
How do we set up the ePortfolio?
DSKI uses Seesaw as its platform to record and document students’ work. It is also the same platform to be used for the students’ ePortfolio.
1. Seesaw ePortfolio
Seesaw is an online platform, offering access to a well documented ePortfolio anytime. This access has to be granted to parents, students and teachers alike. The teacher, being it homeroom or specialist, is responsible for their students’ ePortfolios.
1.1. Seesaw Unit Folders
Naming
For each unit there has to be a folder created with and named - Unit number and Transdisciplinary Theme eg
Unit 1 Sharing the Planet
Posts in those unit folders have to be administered by the respective teacher. If a specialist teacher joins a homeroom teacher’s seesaw class, then it is the specialists teacher to take care of his own folder and name it correctly:
All uploads from specialist classes will have to be linked to this folder and to the current unit folder.
Only the posts that were uploaded to those unit folders are to be put into the final ePortfolio. All other student and teachers posts on Seesaw will not be part of the ePortfolio.
1.2 Privacy Settings:
Teachers have to make sure that the family access is activated under class settings. Also family likes and comments are to be activated to allow parents interaction with their child’s posts.
Each student’s family will get access to the seesaw ePortfolio of their own child by email invitation. It is the teachers responsibility to make sure that all families are “connected” with their submitted mail addresses.
The teacher is also responsible for the privacy settings of his or her classroom. The setting “students can see each other’s work” needs to be deactivated to avoid parents from accessing classmates’ posts by logging into their child’s student account.
1.3 Seesaw Classroom blog
To let students share their posts with each other it is recommended that a classroom blog is created in seesaw. This blog needs to be protected with a password and is not to be made public. Parents can access those blogs, too.
What should be included in the student ePortfolio?
(Pre-K to Preschool)
Each unit, a child must include the following 4 in his/her ePortfolio:
2 pieces of evidence from UNIT. This is teacher-selected and is supported by a tool explaining what it is and how the child has worked on it.
2 pieces of evidence from others that are outside the unit. (music, arts and crafts, gross and fine motor skills, etc.)
(Grades 1 to 6)
Each unit, a child must include the following 5 in his/her ePortfolio:
3 pieces of evidence from the unit. This can be child-selected or in collaboration with the teacher.
2 pieces of evidence per unit from specialist subjects such as Language (all Language subjects - English, Japanese and German), Mathematics, Arts and PSPE.
ePortfolio pieces (learning evidence) must include any one of the three:
Student’s reflection on the task. Reflection is encouraged to focus on why the work was chosen for thePortfolio, strengths and areas for improvement, and action or goal-setting.
Student’s explanation for choosing the task to be included in thePortfolio
Additional Areas of the ePortfolio include:
Self introduction of the child at the beginning of the year. This may come in the form of a self-portrait, write-up, and others.
Student’s Reflection and/or Teacher’s feedback on the key elements of the PYP every end of the unit (concepts, attributes of the learner profile and approaches to learning)
Teacher and Student comments
Teachers need to moderate the student comments, to ensure they are providing an authentic reflection
Teachers need to make sure the students use all the tools given by Seesaw for student reflection eg video, voice, drawing etc.
Teachers should comment on at least one entry for each unit providing constructive and positive feedback. Goals could be included.
Teachers should see if other methods of commenting other than written comments may be more appropriate or effective.
Quality of Work Uploaded
Posts and reflections need to be added at the end of each unit
Teachers need to quality control to make sure that uploads are good quality and low quality posts reformatted
All uploads need to be tracked and logged in a checklist based on template
Section 4
Exhibition
The PYP Exhibition
Students participate in the PYP Exhibition in either Year 5 or Year 6. Students prepare an Exhibition which is a showcase of the concepts, knowledge, skills, attitudes, and action they have learned during their years in the PYP. During the Exhibition, the students are engaged in a collaborative, transdisciplinary inquiry process that involves them in identifying, investigating and offering solutions to real-life issues or problems. The Exhibition will vary from year to year, but will include examples of written work, oral presentations, the use of ICT and performances or compositions developed through the Arts subjects. Rigorous assessment takes place throughout the whole process of the exhibition. The entire school community joins in the celebration of the Exhibition.
Links to samples/Exemplars - OnlinePortfolio/Prezi’s etc.
Digital or Paper ePortfolios: Evaluation and Review (2015)
Digital Support of Learning in the School (Including digital or digital/hybrid ePortfolios - 2015)
Sources
International Baccalaureate Programme Standards and Practises 2019
International Baccalaureate Learning and Teaching 2018
International Baccalaureate The Learner 2018
International Baccalaureate The Learning Community 2018
This policy will be comprehensively reviewed every two years to ensure that it is up to date, effective and relevant as well as being implemented in a fair and consistent way.