Journey Based Assessment in Simcoe County District School Board

Simcoe County District School Board (SCDSB) in Ontario, Canada is embarking on a transformative journey to redefine assessment practices in its high schools. “The whole purpose of assessment is to ensure that students are learning, and to improve student learning,” says Jason Pino, Principal of Student Achievement, 7-12. “We really feel strongly that students need to leave a course knowing where they need to improve — and having the opportunity to do so. We also look at it through the lens of equity: assessment really needs to be transparent, it needs to be fair, and it needs to be equitable. But when students don't get to see or use the feedback on a culminating task or a final exam, we don’t feel that that is transparent, fair, or equitable. And so we wanted to make sure we change that approach.”

With this need for a more equitable and authentic assessment approach in mind, SCDSB is adopting Future Design School's Journey Based Assessment framework. At its core, Journey Based Assessment is about providing students with meaningful, actionable, and ongoing feedback, allowing them the opportunity to improve continuously. It also emphasizes triangulated assessment, where teachers assess student learning through conversations, observations,, and products, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of student progress. “Triangulation allows teachers to see students in their natural habitat of learning,” says Future Design School Education Lead Diane Rutherford. “They’re able to listen to the natural conversations that students are having, and actually see the connections they’re making. Sometimes, when we ask students to put pen to paper, we lose out because we're asking them to consolidate everything into a nice, neat box. Using conversations and observations in addition to the products allows teachers to see the entirety of a student’s capabilities, and allows students to play to their strengths.”

For SCDSB, the most visible manifestation of this shift is a change in how end-of-semester culminating tasks are managed. “We know that feedback is the biggest driver when it comes to assessment,” Pino says. “So it didn't make a lot of sense to us for students to sit down, write an exam or any kind of culminating test that the teacher chose, and then never see it again, never be provided with that feedback, and more importantly never have an opportunity to improve.” With this in mind, the board asked teachers to conduct culminating tasks earlier in the semester, and replaced the traditional final exam block with feedback days. The goal is to allow students to demonstrate their cumulative knowledge, followed by an opportunity to action feedback and resubmit their work. This change not only benefits high-achieving students who relish the opportunity to improve their grade, but also supports those who need more time and support to meet the learning outcomes.

Made In Ontario: Journey Based Assessment & Growing Success

More and more Ontario school boards are implementing Journey Based Assessment to serve as a current “playbook” for implementing the principles of Growing Success. Journey Based Assessment emphasizes the importance of providing students with ongoing feedback and opportunities for improvement, which echoes the goals of assessment outlined in Growing Success. Furthermore, Journey Based Assessment promotes triangulation; by valuing conversations, observations, and products as real assessments, and valuing the most consistent evidence of student learning (with an emphasis on most recent examples), teachers gain a holistic understanding of student progress, ensuring that assessment practices are comprehensive and student centered. What’s more, it focuses deeply on personalization, critical questioning, risk taking, and meaningful reflection. In this way, Journey Based Assessment serves as an authentic, engaging method for applying Growing Success in this moment, providing teachers with the tools they need to effectively support deep and meaningful student learning.

Email [email protected] to learn more about our deep work in Ontario school boards

But Journey Based Assessment is about far more than a shift in culminating assignment formats; it’s an approach that responds to the evolving needs of students and the changing landscape of education, including the shift from content-focused to skill-based education. The SCDSB team is focused on helping students develop future ready skills like critical thinking and problem solving, and this new assessment approach was designed to facilitate that development. “What I would like to see in the next three to five years is that all teachers in our school board truly have a strong understanding of the purpose of assessment,” Pino says. “I hope we can move away from rote learning and traditional ways of teaching and assessing, and that we are skill focused. We know that we live in a world where content is readily available, so we need to produce students who are critical thinkers and have the necessary soft skills to be successful in a world that requires that.”

It’s a significant shift, and one that can be particularly difficult without a solid partnership like the one established between SCDSB and Future Design School. “Education changes so slowly,” says Dean Maltby, Superintendent of Student Achievement and Mental Health & Wellbeing, 7-12. “It's like turning a big ship — it’s a 15-point turn, and it's challenging. But Future Design School is helping us make those changes more swiftly, which will allow us to stay agile moving forward.”

This approach also allows teachers to see students' natural learning processes, making their thinking visible. By incorporating conversations and observations alongside traditional products, and focusing on the process students took as they learned, teachers can better understand each student's learning journey. This holistic view of student learning reduces the pressure associated with traditional high-stakes exams, and enables teachers to focus on student growth rather than grades, and allow for true choice and voice to come through in student learning.

As Future Design School Managing Director, Sandra Nagy, points out, this concept requires a new way of thinking for many teachers. “I always think about this teacher I met many years ago who said, ‘If I give kids choice and voice, when I ask them to make me a cup, they might hand in a plate — and in that case, how am I going to know that they've actually done the work properly?’” she recalls. “I told her that she’s focusing on the wrong thing. The end goal is not the product, but the learning that happens in the process of getting to the product. We need to create generative opportunities for students to think about their own thinking, and then make changes based on them setting their next best goals for themselves.”

Pino agrees. “We all know it takes a lot of courage to try and create change with something that has been tradition for the longest time,” he says. “But when you want to create change, you have to bring in the support, and make sure teachers are getting the PD and the resources they need. That's where Future Design School comes in: they help us support this change, which we know is a difficult change, but we know is necessary for our students.”

Another key challenge in implementing transformative approaches like Journey Based Assessment is giving teachers permission to trust their professional judgment. “We’ve been telling the teachers: you know your students best — you have the ability to assess conversations with them,” says Leslie McBeth, Director of Special Projects at Future Design School. “Sometimes, teachers are reluctant to assign a grade to a conversation or observation, because it feels less concrete. But really, it’s all about having the right framework and tools in place, and then giving people giving people permission — saying to teachers, ‘Yes, you you can assess a conversation; yes, you can assess an observation — and here's how.’”?

In this respect, SCDSB has seen significant progress and success in their assessment transformation journey, thanks to the hard work of a team of assessment facilitators (that are engaged in training? by Future Design School on an ongoing basis) who have played a crucial role in disseminating the new assessment practices and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. “We’re very lucky to have assessment facilitators at a school level,” says Amanda Potter, Vice Principal of Student Achievement, K-12 at SCDSB. “They have the trust of teachers, and curriculum leaders are reporting that teachers are sharing assessment ideas and implementing them. The fact that they were feeling supported to try new things and try new strategies was a big success.”?

They also recognize the need to remain agile and responsive to future changes in the educational landscape. Fortunately, the power of Journey Based Assessment is that it opens opportunities for meaningfully assessing any curriculum standards and outcomes, regardless of jurisdictional policy shifts. “It's a process that allows you to uncover the curriculum, as opposed to covering it,” Nagy explains. “In fact, it values that notion of uncovering curriculum — of giving meaning to what we’re teaching. So when you think about jurisdictional requirements, I'd be hard pressed to find a curriculum that doesn’t align to Journey Based Assessment.”

The transformation of assessment practices in the board represents a significant step forward in preparing students for the challenges of the future. By adopting Journey Based Assessment, SCDSB has embraced a more future ready and authentic approach to assessment — and their quest continues. “We have to be very agile,” Maltby says. “Given the promise of AI, I see the nature of school in five years not looking the same as it does now. We need to continually go back to stakeholders and ask who it’s working for, because we had a hundred years of exams and no one challenged or thought differently about their effectiveness.” While challenges remain, the successes achieved thus far are a testament to the commitment and vision of SCDSB in ensuring that all students have the opportunity to succeed in an ever-changing world.

Future Design School supports assessment transformation in schools and districts across Canada and around the world. Email [email protected] to book a meeting with one of our senior strategists.