Student-Involved Assessment
Students at BFA have regular opportunities to present their work to parents and others through portfolios, student-led conferences, and presentations of learning.
Teachers learn how to actively involve students in the assessment process through practices that support Assessment OF Learning (evaluate student mastery) and Assessment FOR Learning (provide students with ongoing feedback about their progress). Because our courses are designed around compelling topics, learning targets, and projects, we assess student learning in a variety of ways.
Portfolios
A portfolio is a collection of work showing what a student has been thinking about, working on, and learning to do. It may contain written work, artwork, audio or videotapes of performances, photographs of three-dimensional constructions, and more.
The purpose of the portfolio is to give an ongoing record of:
- How a student's thinking about significant issues and questions has grown;
- How a student's range of knowledge and skills has developed; a
- The effort--including reflecting on and revising work--that the student has made to achieve worthwhile goals.
Students will be required to create two passage portfolios during their 6-12 school years. Each students portfolio to presents work samples from across the curriculum that demonstrate the student has met or exceeded grade level learning targets in each academic area (math, reading, writing, science, social studies).
Student-led Conference
Each year students at BFA will prepare and present student-led conferences at the end of each semester. As the name suggests this is an opportunity for each student to present a trimester's worth of growth to his/her parent or guardian.
Presentation of Learning (POL)
In addition to creating an annual portfolio, students in grade 12 also have the option to plan and deliver a Presentation of Learning (POL). The purpose of the POL is to share the student's work with a panel made up of parents, teachers, administrators, invited guests, relatives and friends. Successful completion of a 12th Grade Presentation of Learning is one of the mandatory components to receive a BFA Diploma of Distinction.
