Assessment and monitoring of learning outcomes
This domain covers assessment and monitoring of learning outcomes in Kazakhstan's criteria-based system: formative assessment for learning, summative assessment of learning, descriptors, and the use of evidence to adjust teaching.
Core rules
- Assessment must be aligned to learning objectives and success criteria.
- Formative assessment gives feedback and is not used to rank learners; summative assessment records achievement.
- In the updated content, summative assessment includes СОР (summative assessment for a section) and СОЧ (summative assessment for a quarter); plan them from the objectives, not from textbook pages.
- Descriptors describe observable performance levels; avoid vague words such as “good” or “tries hard”.
- Moderate scores with colleagues to keep judgements consistent; keep evidence for appeals.
- Use results to reteach, regroup, and adjust pacing.
Worked example
Objective: “Analyse the causes of a historical event.” Weak descriptor: “Answer is good.” Stronger three-level rubric: (1) names one cause; (2) explains how two causes are linked; (3) prioritises causes and justifies the priority with evidence. A student who lists five causes but explains none meets level 1, not level 3. Reasoning: the rubric rewards the command word “analyse”, not the number of facts.
Traps
- Mixing formative feedback with summative grades.
- Writing descriptors that cannot be observed in the task.
- Averaging everything mechanically without checking objective coverage.
- Ignoring moderation and appeal procedures.
- Treating a high score on recall as evidence of analysis.