The M-PESA Foundation Academy recognizes the important role played by assessment in the process of teaching and learning. We view assessment as a crucial opportunity for all stakeholders in the process of teaching and learning to determine whether learning is taking place or not, thus providing the platform for an informed futuristic planning.
Assessment for Learning is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there.
Assessment OF learning involves looking at assessment information at the end of the teaching and learning process to rank students’ achievement levels against a standard.
The use of formative assessment (Assessment for Learning) as well as summative assessment (Assessment of Learning) is evident across the Academy. In particular, all summative assessments are designed such that they can be used formatively.
In summative assessment, each term is broken down into two assessment periods (mid-term and end of term). The dates for the assessment periods are given on the assessment calendar and integrated into the school calendar. In Forms One and Two, learners are assessed using one hour long CATs at mid-term and before end of term. However, the end of year assessment is two hours long and it assesses work learnt throughout the year. The end of year assessment may also include academic work covered in a previous academic year. The Form Three and Four assessment mirrors the KCSE assessment standards in terms of length and timing of papers.
AFL tasks are built into every scheme of work. These are in the form of tests, home learning tasks, research projects and practical activities, all issued through an online learning management system (LMS). These tasks require the learner to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do and are therefore marked with detailed corrective feedback. This feedback follows the format of ‘What Went Well’ (WWW) and ‘Even Better If’ (EBI) whilst providing the learner with opportunities to make their own comment in the format of ‘Next Time I’ll’ (NTI).