Evaluation of education standards and competencies

EduPage offers various methods for evaluating students.
The choice of method depends on the teacher, the subject, the students' age, or the teacher’s preferences.

Evaluation using grades/points/percentages

In traditional evaluation, a student receives, for example, a grade of 3 or 63% for a test. This tells the student that they did not meet the teacher’s expectations. If the class average is 90%, they can see that their classmates performed better and that the test was appropriately difficult. During the semester, an average is calculated from this evaluation. If the student is allowed to retake a failed test, the final evaluation is a relatively realistic reflection of whether they met the teacher's expectations. This system provides an overall picture, but it does not reveal specific weaknesses and, more importantly, it does not explain how to improve.

When is grading appropriate?

Before we start evaluating competencies, it’s important to emphasize one thing: what was stated above does not mean that grading is bad in itself. On the contrary, we mentioned several advantages. And there are situations where using other methods is impractical:

• Especially with older students, where comprehensive evaluation is unrealistic.
• In subjects like a history seminar for graduating students, it is neither practical nor possible to record the level of mastery of every detail of the material for each student.

Competency-based evaluation

Competency-based Evaluation is more detailed and useful in the following situations:

• Younger students – For example, when learning to add numbers up to 10, it’s important to know whether they have mastered it. This helps the teacher, parents, and the student themselves to not miss essential foundations.
• Older students – It’s also possible to assess more than just knowledge. For example, whether they complete assignments, show interest, or can focus on their work.
• Self-evaluation – Comparing the teacher’s and student’s evaluations can reveal differences in perception and help improve communication.

EduPage and competency-based evaluation

In certain situations, competency evaluation can provide richer feedback than grading. However, it is more time-consuming for the teacher. EduPage does everything possible to make this work easier.

Practical examples
Evaluation of educational standards

• The teacher can add standards to their plan. After a lesson, they can quickly mark how one or more students meet these standards. Evaluation of performance standards after teaching a lesson
• The teacher creates an online test or assigns an online task. If the questions are linked to standards, the teacher can quickly record results in the evaluation of individual standards.
• The teacher can choose standards at any time and assess them. =Can I assess students' competencies without having standards in the plan?

Evaluation of general competencies – interest in the subject, preparation for lessons, relationships with classmates, etc.

• The school may decide to evaluate student work once per quarter, for example, with each teacher evaluating students for their subject. =How to evaluate general competencies, such as interest in the subject, preparedness for classes, and so on?
• The teacher may decide to evaluate a skill or competency in their subject on an ad hoc basis.

Student self-evaluation

• Students can enter a self-evaluation of their skills and competencies – either a single evaluation for all subjects or separately for each subject. =How can I enable student self-evaluation?

Further considerations

• Don’t do things just for the sake of it. For example, it would not be appropriate for a history teacher to evaluate every student after each lesson on how well they understand the French Revolution – they would spend more time assessing than actually teaching.
• Standard-based evaluation does not replace written feedback, but it clarifies the situation. Writing a short narrative about each student’s performance in the second semester is useful, but not feasible after every lesson. If the teacher simply marks the level of standard achievement, both they and the parents have a clear overview. It's hard to extract patterns from narrative comments for 20 students, but a standard-based overview quickly reveals, for example, that many students are struggling with division and need to revisit it.
• EduPage offers several pre-made evaluation scales. If you have an idea for others, let us know. =Teacher - how can I evaluate competencies via EduPage app?
• If possible, avoid creating ad hoc competencies. Instead, record new competencies into standards – either in subjects where performance standards should be clearly defined, or in behavior. By recording into standards, you can compare data between classes, years, etc.

More help: =Evaluation of education standards and competencies