Assessment is a term that has different meanings for different people. At Mission Hill it means the ways in which we get to know children well. We think about both the core values of our school, as grounded in our Habits of Mind, and the skills and competencies needed to be well informed and persuasive —to read well, to write and speak effectively and to handle number and calculations with competence and confidence.

Children can be skilled in both. The learning experiences we provide for children are meaningful applications of essential skills. At Mission Hill we believe assessment is:

1. Day to day ongoing notes such as when a teacher makes written observations on how a child comes to learn the concept of median as related to data and statistics.

2. Observing and documenting carefully when a child is stuck, puzzled or curious and how this information will inform our next move in order to push a child forward.

3. Two teachers or a portfolio committee examining a child’s essay on global warming against rubrics (a tool for standards of excellence) for expository writing as well as the mechanics for standard written English.

4. A child presenting a second draft of an ant colony drawing to her classmates for further critical critique.

5. Children’s voices about their ideas and questions and themselves as learners—in journals, in letters to readers, in conversations —in interviews.

6. Tests and quizzes.

Assessment is these things and many more—some school-wide and some individual. All our forms of assessment at Mission Hill are grounded in the belief that skills can and should be taught and when we are assessing anything in a child we must always remember the whole child. A child is far more than a collection of skills.